Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Department
Political Science
Abstract
The capabilities, tools and websites we associate with new information communication technologies and social media are now ubiquitous. Moreover tools that were designed to facilitate innocuous conversation and social interaction have had unforeseen political impacts. Nowhere was this more visible than during the 2011 uprisings across the Arab World. From Tunis to Cairo, and Tripoli to Damascus protest movements against authoritarian rule openly utilized social networking and file sharing tools to publicize and organize demonstrations and to catalogue human rights abuses. The Arab Spring, or Jasmine Revolution, was an event that was both witnessed and played out in real time online. This article explores the impacts and effects of these technologies on regimes in East Asia, in particular exploring the extent to which they proffer new capabilities upon activists and reformers in the region’s semi-democratic and authoritarian regimes. Drawing on data on Internet and smartphone use, as well as case studies that explore the role of these technologies on the 2008 and 2011 general elections in Malaysia and Singapore respectively, this article suggests that the Internet and social networking platforms do present unique opportunities for activists, citizens and social movements.
Original Publication Information
This article was originally published in Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs volume 30, issue 4 (2011), an open access publication by German Institute of Global and Area Studies / Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien (GIGA).
ThinkIR Citation
Abbott, Jason P., "Cacophony or empowerment? : analyzing the impact of new information communication technologies and new social media in Southeast Asia." (2011). Faculty and Staff Scholarship. 51.
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/faculty/51
Included in
International Relations Commons, Social Media Commons, South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons
