Looking at Twitter, Facebook and the Arab Spring through the eyes of Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky. How can journalists make sense of what social media are telling us about confusing situations far from home?

1. Social media and revolution
Or, what is the difference
between Iran and Egypt?

2. Malcolm Gladwell
• Author of “Tipping
Point” and other
bestselling books
• Argued in New Yorker
that social media do not
foment revolutions
• Wrote that Twitter and
Facebook can’t
substitute for real life

3. Hierarchies versus networks
• Real social activism, like
Woolworth’s sit-in,
requires “strong ties”
• Low-commitment
causes, like Darfur,
depend on “weak ties”
• When there is danger,
leadership and personal
commitment are key

4. Twitter non-revolutions
• Moldova had a “Twitter
revolution” without
Twitter accounts
• Most Iranian “activists”
tweeted in English
rather than Farsi
• “Slacktivism”: Social
media work when they
don’t demand too much

5. Clay Shirky
• Author of “Here Comes
Everybody” and other
bestselling books
• Argued in Foreign
Affairs that social media
can foster social change
• Wrote that Twitter and
Facebook supplement
real-life activism

6. A potent organizing tool
• Texting led a million
people to demonstrate
against Joseph Estrada
• “Twitter revolution” in
Moldova fueled ouster
of Communist Party
• Boston Globe’s exposé
of sex-abuse scandal
rocked Catholic Church

7. It’s complicated
• Some attempts at social
change will succeed
and some will fail
• A repressive regime can
use social media as
effectively as activists
• Evgeny Morozov
criticizes cyperutopians
in “Net Delusion”

8. Egypt’s Facebook revolution
• Google executive Wael
Ghonim helped spark
a revolution
• “Hey @Gladwell,
#Jan25 proved you
wrong. Revolution can
be a #Facebook event
that is liked, shared &
tweeted.”

9. Regime turns off Internet

10. Unexpected consequences
• Social media can be
used to provoke and to
spark retaliation
• Would “Innocence of
the Muslims” be made
without social media?
• Rioters were neither
reformists nor
government oppressors

11. The Gandhi rule
• Peaceful revolution only
works when opponent
has a conscience
• Authoritarianism is
more benign than
totalitarianism
• Mubarak was not
Ahmadinejad — or
Bashir al-Assad of Syria

12. Questions for journalists
• How can we use social
media to tell story of
what is happening?
• How can we, like
@acarvin (left), tell
truth from fiction?
• How can we see social
media as a tool, not
as a miracle or a fraud?