Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011+ saw unprecedented involvement of Arab bloggers and online supporters participating in a process of political change. This paper will argue that a crucial factor in the success of the Egyptian protests was the recognition by protesters and their supporters, both natio...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Knox, Stu
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37785
_version_ 1848755143287242752
author Knox, Stu
author_facet Knox, Stu
author_sort Knox, Stu
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The Egyptian Revolution of 2011+ saw unprecedented involvement of Arab bloggers and online supporters participating in a process of political change. This paper will argue that a crucial factor in the success of the Egyptian protests was the recognition by protesters and their supporters, both national and transnational, of shared social identity constituted in resistance to injustice; the resulting community of resistance countered the exclusionary policies inherent and pervasive in the Egyptian government led by Hosni Mubarak from 1981 to 2011. Although the protests drew worldwide attention, and much scholarly research attempted to explain events and the role of social media in the Revolution and its outcomes, a neglected area of research remains in the analyses of Revolution social media narratives, which can be used to explore issues surrounding protester unification and the role of language in forging solidarity and developing communities of resistance. Analyses of the social media texts produced by Egyptian bloggers participating in the Revolution, and the subsequent online commentary those texts generated, provide opportunities to reflect upon and gain further understanding of the underlying issues framed within the online dialogic interactions generated by the texts, how those issues are addressed, and how online spaces are utilised.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:51:37Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-37785
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:51:37Z
publishDate 2015
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-377852017-01-30T14:07:52Z Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance Knox, Stu The Egyptian Revolution of 2011+ saw unprecedented involvement of Arab bloggers and online supporters participating in a process of political change. This paper will argue that a crucial factor in the success of the Egyptian protests was the recognition by protesters and their supporters, both national and transnational, of shared social identity constituted in resistance to injustice; the resulting community of resistance countered the exclusionary policies inherent and pervasive in the Egyptian government led by Hosni Mubarak from 1981 to 2011. Although the protests drew worldwide attention, and much scholarly research attempted to explain events and the role of social media in the Revolution and its outcomes, a neglected area of research remains in the analyses of Revolution social media narratives, which can be used to explore issues surrounding protester unification and the role of language in forging solidarity and developing communities of resistance. Analyses of the social media texts produced by Egyptian bloggers participating in the Revolution, and the subsequent online commentary those texts generated, provide opportunities to reflect upon and gain further understanding of the underlying issues framed within the online dialogic interactions generated by the texts, how those issues are addressed, and how online spaces are utilised. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37785 restricted
spellingShingle Knox, Stu
Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance
title Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance
title_full Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance
title_fullStr Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance
title_full_unstemmed Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance
title_short Social Media Narratives in Communities of Resistance
title_sort social media narratives in communities of resistance
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37785