Blogs and Bullets I: New Media in Contentious Politics by Sean Aday, Henry Farrell, Mark Lynch
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Overview: Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have played a major role in episodes of contentious political action. These new media tools are often described as instrumental for activists seeking to replace authoritarian regimes and to promote freedom and democracy, and they have been lauded for their democratizing potential. At the same time, there has been little analytical or critical understanding of the actual impact of new media tools on transformational politics, and their import is often misconstrued. This report challenges the conventional wisdom about the effects of new media on contentious politics but goes beyond skepticism to identify how understanding these complex relationships could improve policymaking and conflict zone reporting.
The authors propose using available content and linkage measures to look at the role of new media in contentious politics from five interlocking levels of analysis. New media can change how citizens think or act, mitigate or exacerbate group conflict, facilitate collective action, spur regime backlash, and attract international attention to a conflict zone. The authors note that regimes also use these tools to quash dissent. Evidence from new media surrounding the Iranian election protest in 2009 suggests that traditional media retains its central role.
Genre: Non-Fiction > General
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