Democracy's Fourth Wave Digital Media and the Arab Spring [Paperback]

Did digital media really cause the Arab Spring, or is it an important factor of the story behind what might become democracy's fourth wave? An unlikely network of citizens used digital media to start a cascade of social protest that ultimately toppled four of the world's most entrenched dictators. Howard and Hussain find that the complex causal recipe includes several economic, political and cultural factors, but that digital media is consistently one of the most important sufficient and necessary conditions for explaining both the fragility of regimes and the success of social movements. This book looks at not only the unexpected evolution of events during the Arab Spring, but the deeper history of creative digital activism throughout the region.

List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter 1: Digital Media and the Arab Spring
Chapter 2: The Recent History of Digital Media and Dissent
Chapter 3: Information Infrastructure and the Organization of Protest
Chapter 4: Authoritarian Responses and Consequences
Chapter 5: Al Jazeera, Social Media, and Digital Journalism
Conclusion: Digital Media and the Rhythms of Social Change
References
Endnotes
Index

Democracy's Fourth Wave?guides readers through the avalanche of factors that meshed with digital media to produce the Arab Spring. The authors subtly adapt traditional methodologies to decode mysteries of complex causal effects. In doing so, their book brings clarity and insight to the conundrums of new technologies as factors in regime fragility and protest success. --Monroe E. Price, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

This unprecedented multidisciplinary approach to the examination of the Arab Spring situates itself in digital revolutions and political transformations. I highly recommend it for students, activists, and policy makers seeking to understand how modern communication tlC"