The Parochial Logics of Online Action: Social Media and the Tunisian Revolution

• In Event: Organizations & their Alternatives: the Recent Protest Waves in the Middle East

Abstract

How does information shared online impact on the diffusion of protest? An influential literature argues that new ICTs function to transcend geographical constraints, giving birth to “networked public spheres” and new logics of “connective action.” Using original event data from the Tunisian Revolution, I show that, contrary to the expectations of this scholarship, activity online has an underappreciated parochial logic. Information on protests shared online did contribute to protest diffusion but only to nearby districts. I find support for these findings with evidence from field interviews; rather than organising online, participants were moved to act through their ritual gathering at internet cafés and only in response to nearby protest. I buttress these findings with a qualitative coding of over 10,000 tweets from during the revolution. The article sheds new light on the sociological mechanisms underpinning protest diffusion resulting from social media activity. Despite the availability of new ICTs, geographical proximity and physical copresence remain crucial.

Author

• Christopher Barrie