ABSTRACT
Social media do deserve credit for acting as a facilitating factor in contributing to the success of the overall movement: at a critical time, social media helped amplifying citizens’ voices. The 2011 Egyptian revolution serves as a prime example of how social media can facilitate the coordination and organisation of successful protest movements. In Egypt, a technology-savvy youth have used social media to voice their frustration in a shared virtual space, thereby contributing to the successful mobilisation of citizens across the country who collectively stood against the leadership of President Mubarak. The role of social media in helping to coordinate the successful protest movement, and the role of mainstream media in amplifying user-generated content posted on social media platforms, eventually led to the removal of an autocratic regime which had been in power for over 30 years. Crucially, journalists continued to serve as gatekeepers, a role which even to this date is “far from collapse”.
