POLS 157 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Arab Uprisings Explained: Satellite Television, Arab Spring, New Media
4 May 2020
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Document Summary
New media has had ambiguous effects on a long-term balance of power between the state and society. Internet"s greatest challenge to the state will be generational rather than immediate. It is likely to work by widening and changing the operation of the arab public spheres rather than by directly changing the arab state. Latest transformation of the information environment began a decade to go in the 1990s: this is when al-jazeera and satellite television began to open up a new space for political communication. This broke the state"s ability to control the flow of information and created a new public sphere: satellite television helped unify arab political spaces which focused political discourse on shared concerns. Aljazeera became a source of common knowledge of arab political life. It also fueled protests and movements against the political establishment: this set the agenda and galvanized anger over offenses to arab issues and ideals.
