Skip to main content
Article
Documenting Revolution in the Middle East
Focus on Global Resources (CRL) (2011)
  • Roberta L. Dougherty, University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
What does it mean to document a revolution? The recent massive uprisings in Arab countries created a plethora of artifacts: printed documents of various kinds used by protesters to organize their efforts and codify their ideals, demands, and goals; photographs and video recordings of protesters in the street, news broadcasts, televised speeches by beleaguered leaders; posters and signs used to motivate the efforts of both revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries; creative responses in the form of art, music, multimedia performances; and websites and social media tools for organizing, motivation, and documentation.

Documentation of the so-called “Arab Spring” involves collecting a number of formats, some born-digital, some analog, and all almost entirely ephemeral, fleeting, and endangered.
Keywords
  • Arab Spring,
  • documentation,
  • archives,
  • at-risk materials,
  • Middle East,
  • 2011,
  • multimedia,
  • social media
Publication Date
Fall 2011
Citation Information
Roberta L. Dougherty. "Documenting Revolution in the Middle East" Focus on Global Resources (CRL) Vol. 31 Iss. 1 (2011) p. 5 - 7 ISSN: 1943-9741
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/bintalbalad/42/