The article, The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions, discusses the role Twitter played in the 2011 rebellions.  The authors, Gilad Lotan, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce and Danah Boyd researched and wrote the article.  In this article, the researchers gather public tweets for 2 weeks in January of 2011.    The data was then categorized and examined based on context such as whether the person posting was an activist, journalist, celebrity, etc.  

The Twitter breakdown by category of users.

Twitter’s Role

Twitter emerged as a key source for real-time logistical coordination, information, and discussion among people, both within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and across the globe. This was especially true in Tunisia, where, prior to the uprisings, few mainstream media organizations had a formal presence or staff.

 The researchers concluded that most people involved in the social media conversations about the topic fell into 3 categories.

1) People directly connected to the incident

2) MSM that wanted to update with live coverage

3) Interested readers

 It seems to me that Twitter was not the cause of the rebellions, but the catalyst that helped organize rebels.  By examining how Twitter was utilized, we are able to better understand social media conversation and the role it plays in modern journalism.  The researchers described the modern shift in journalism and the users that spread it:

If, historically, objectivity has represented an ideal that a story or piece of information stands on its own regardless of the reporter, our data suggest that, within these Twitter networks, individual journalists were sometimes more effective disseminators of information than organizations.

 

Egypt 2011