The Role of Media during the Arab Spring with Particular Focus on Libya (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Earth Science / Geography - Geopolitics, grade: 1,0, Charles University in Prague (Faculty of Social Sciences), language: English, abstract: When the people in the Arab world started to go out on the streets in December 2010 for the very first time for years, no one of the demonstrators and protesters who were fighting for their rights to live in a better world, in peace, freedom and democracy expected that level of change as a result of their behaviour. Those inconceivable aftermaths did not exist neither in the minds of the people in Tunisia, the nucleus of the Arab Spring, nor in the minds of the people who were joining that wave of protest country by country afterwards. Before that uprising arrived Libya, which is in the focus of attention here, in February 2011, the revolt expanded over the Middle East and North Africa. Never before mass media, including radio, television and, especially the internet (with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), was taken such a significant role during uprisings since the end of the year 2010. No one of the participants, who were involved in this uprising, no one of the politicians, no one of the citizens in the Western world, no one of the former leader of those regimes and no one of the media companies could count on this great measure of transformation in the Arab world. States were dissolved, former inhuman leaders of a regime were captured or killed and new fundaments of a modern, democratic and liberalized nation were created by the people or the opposition of those long lasting dictatorial and authoritarian leaders.