Social media in modern political expression :the case of the Lebanese anti-sectarian movement -

Abstract

The “Arab Spring” revolutions, most notably the events in Tunisia and Egypt, elevated social media networking sites to prominence in the socio-political arena. Their relatively cheap cost and their easy accessibility to anyone with a mobile phone and an internet connection, gave social movements the perfect tools to mobilize and communicate with supporters. As this phenomenon gained ground in Lebanon, the Lebanese Anti-sectarian movement, also turned to social media to organize its protests. This study explores whether Facebook was an effective medium of communication and organization for the movement. For that purpose, a protest survey was conducted on 158 participants in the last protest organized by the Anti-Sectarian movement on the 6th of May 2012. Facebook groups affiliated with the anti-sectarian movement were found to have played an essential role in spreading awareness around the cause online, organizing the protest digitally, and sustaining an online community that felt generally comfortable communicating in the digital world and participating in the real world.