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Article
Chattering Classes/Twittering Revolutionaries: Journalism, Social Media, and the Arab Spring
English
  • John C. Hawley, Santa Clara Univeristy
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2014
Publisher
Association of Alumni in Modern Languages and Literatures (ALL) University of Udine
Abstract

In Culture and Imperialism Edward Said discusses internationality and cosmopolitanism against the backdrop of the Gulf War, and Ree's view that the "nation-form is a kind of false consciousness", as if it were "an expression of popular subjective will" (Said, 1993: 10). But the monopolization of power by central national authorities results in a kind of façade, whereby "processes which are actually the effect of internationality are experienced as an expression of the natures of different nations and their individual members" (Said, 1993: 10, emphasis added). Yet nationalism sits uncomfortably in countries that, some might say, were in some cases artificial by-products of colonialism and social media are, arguably, providing broad access to a reclamation of citizen agency and self-determination.

Comments

This work is licensed under version 3.0 of the Creative Commons CC-BY license.

Citation Information
Hawley, J. C. (2014). Chattering Classes/Twittering Revolutionaries: Journalism, Social Media, and the Arab Spring. Le Simplegadi, XII (12), 166–184.