ABSTRACT
Moldova. Iran. Tunisia. Egypt. Saudi Arabia. Sudan. Libya. These nations and their citizens engaged in varying dialogues between 2009 and 2011, resulting in government accommodations of demands, regime change, hardline responses, or civil war. Frequently, these dialogues occurred in computer-mediated spaces, especially blogs and social media. While all of these engagements existed in online spaces, some burst into protests in public squares and most resulted in violence, both small and large. This chapter primarily traces social media efforts to raise awareness of revolutionary ideas, garner support for these efforts and transform this spirit from digital expression to flesh-and-blood resistance. To a lesser extent, this chapter tracks government efforts to suppress online activism, in order to capture activities of both activists and their opponents. Except for a few recent studies, most crisis communication research has focused on responses by companies and governments, rather than activists who oppose them (for a review of activistoriented studies, see Coombs and Holladay, 2010.)
