New Fall Course

**NOTE: This course is not appropriate for regional credit. Regional courses must be 300/400-level.**

JOUR J-261 New Media and The Arab Spring:

Fall 2012 
Instructor: Anas Alahmed 
aalahmed@indiana.edu
MW: 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m. 
Ernie Pyle Room 102:

Course Description:

The “Arab Spring” ushered in many changes in the Middle East. Some call it a "Twitter revolution”--but was it? This course examines the role of New Media in the recent Arab revolutions and seeks to understand the concept of new media in the Arab world. In practical terms, the course explains how citizens follow the news and how they update events minute-by-minute through the social media networks platform. It shows how journalists and Internet activists, involved in the revolution, use cyberspace and provide news and information, and how these activists became sources for news organizations. Citizens are posting pictures of the events, using Flicker, uploading videos through Youtube, and are following the revolution’s progress through Twitter. Additionally, Facebook has become a broad discussion forum for solidarity and supporters of the revolution, and it was the paradigm for the revolution strategy. Wikipedia, on the other hand, became an official record of the uprisings for movements and protests. It was a means of planning when the revolution would begin and how and where. Social media have collectivity helped the Revolution in many ways.