Royal Roads University: Critical Response on Social Media's Impact

This critical response analyzes an article examining the role of social media, specifically microblogging platforms like Twitter, during the 2011 Egyptian uprising. The paper focuses on the usability of retweets and their mechanisms in information diffusion, aiming to reveal crowd influence on social networks. The author agrees with the study's findings, emphasizing the importance of real-world connections and the limitations of social media in initiating significant political change. The analysis explores three key reasons, including the effect of highly retweeted tweets, the role of Twitter in crisis informatics, and the use of retweets as a method to recommend Twitterers. The paper concludes by highlighting the inherent role of retweets in spreading information during sociopolitical emergencies, while acknowledging the limitations of social media in driving actual change, which requires strong personal ties, leadership, and dedication.

1Running head: A CRITICAL RESPONSE
A CRITICAL RESPONSE
Sandeep Kaur
Royal Roads University
Author’s Notes
This paper was written for PMAS095 taught by Elvira Perrella on October 14, 2018

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Introduction:
The purpose of this critical analysis on the stated article, is to examine micro blogging
information diffusion systems during 2011 Egyptian geo-political uprising. Specifically, my
analysis aims to examine the usability of the re-tweets and its mechanisms on Twitter, while
using empirical data through the propagation of information as it aims to reveal aspects of crowd
influence on social networks (Starbird & Palen, 2012). The thesis aims to disseminate the
influence of micro blogging websites; in addition, my findings corroborate the actions of the
people who were present during the revolution, thus revealing the reveal important interplay of
words and emotions. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative processes to demonstrate,
how the crowd maintained solidarity. It shows how information processing and filtering was
achieved. I agree with the study and the fundamental facts that it states. It shows how crowd
unity could be maintained in a politically sensitive context. It also demonstrates the features of
re-tweet recommendation behaviour that could have been used better in conjunction with many
other varied factors to determine different information sources that are new and emanating from
the ground zero. The study, to my agreeability, takes a stance and demonstrates three reason\s
based on the research data and examines their validity through data and empirical evidence.
Summary:
Social networks are a great way to find and greet people that like to do the same things
that others do. However, to form a strong bond, people need to make connections offline, as well
and to meet face-to-face. He continues to argue that social change or the revolution in the social
networking platforms help in the accomplishment of little tasks and not any successful long-term
benefits to the community. To illustrate the reason why real change cannot be achieved through
social media, he had given examples of different movements, which had taken place in our

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history. He states that there could be over a million people who like a page or cause on
Facebook, but if the people who liked the cause or page do not interact and form a strong bond
then nothing was going happen .He gives a counterview that social media supports some social
changes that help the less fortunate to join others, unify and highlight their needs on their
platform. The paper examines one key twitter feature, the re-tweet, and its significance. This
paper’s focus is on how information is spread in Twitter in times of political protests via the of
re-tweet mechanism. The paper proposes that the re-tweet conventions are partially used by the
Arabic language tweeters, and thus, this indicates, that re-tweeting continues to play an important
role in times of mass political and social disruptions. Hence the paper summarises the popularity
of such micro-blogging websites and evaluates the specific features such re-tweeting that have a
profound effect in spreading information among the general population during times of socio-
political upheavals.
Response:
The purpose of this case analysis is to critically examine that real change cannot be
achieved through the social network. For real change to take place proper hierarchy, and a
central leadership is required. The study shows that though may be many issues affected by
social activities, but real change needs to come from the ground among the local people. I agree
with the author of the research paper, in his view that such a situation could certainly change, but
the my point of agreement, with the author of the article is on the issue of social media activism
being not as strong, or as focused, or properly governed without any rigid unity on issues. Social
networks fail when used for initiating a relevant change, but the organizational network
revolutions have been seen to work effectively when faced with such challenges or upheavals.
The contrasting view is represented by arguing that the common sense of authority and mission

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is achieved through central organization and military styling. However, it was pointed out that
every group has its tasks and it serves for a specific goal or purpose.
This analysis aims to examine three reasons stated in the paper that adhere to the 2011
uprisings in Egypt and the influence of micro blogging platforms and their impact on the socio
political atmosphere. The first case under analysis that is used is the effect of highly re-tweeted
tweets, accepting the re-tweet feature as a measure of the popularity and the possibility as a
recommendation features during the mass disruptions, it is then attempted to verify and evaluate
the highly re-tweeted Twitterers. Searching for the two re-tweet conventions discussed, it was
calculated that how many times each Twitterer has re-tweeted within Egypt then identified the
top 1000 most-re-tweeted accounts. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, it
was examined how the re-tweet was used for disseminating information that erupted during the
2011 Egyptian mass protests. Starting at the tweet level and investigating the starting of a single
tweet that had spread very widely throughout the internet. Its major implication was that when
used as a measure of instances in which a tweet is re-tweeted to uncover distinct re-tweetability
within different types of messages it provides insight into the events on the ground and public
sentiments.
The second reason stated in the thesis deals with Twitter and micro-blogging. Twitter is a
popular micro blogging services with global outreach, having over 100 million subscribers and
consumers worldwide, A growing research area is into the sphere of crisis informatics, with the
inclusion of several studies on the usage of micro-blogging during the times of mass emergencies
or natural disasters, The implication of this finding is that it helps elaborate and explore the topic
of civil and political disruptions and turmoil in any country. Many obvious disparities exist
among these varieties of social aggregation events, including the special growing brand that

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concerns internet privacy and security which arises during coordinated internalised protests. A
counter-argument is provided by stating that social networking platforms facilitate the faster
spread of the concepts as well as ideas to many parts of the world. To support this, the thesis
adds that the information will likely reach a large number of people across the world, though
they will not be able to initiate for an actual change. The study also found that accounts having a
large number of ardent followers have more exposure in their tweets, and hence each tweet is
sent from it, has a proportionally high probability of influencing the recipient or to be adopted
into others.
The third reason is we look back at the re-tweet as a method to recommend Twitterers,
including their tweets and to examine the many features of the tweets that Twitter users who
were the most re-tweeted across the web have in common, so as proper information is available
to the movement on the ground. The feature also demonstrates the various reasons affecting the
highest rated tweets and how do they come up on the trending lists. The re-tweets are also paint a
picture of popular opinion and show the ground realities to a certain extent. Empirical data is
methodologically collected with various sampling techniques show the relationships with the
data. The platforms help in the spread of the information without initiating for a real difference.
The social network allows people to connect to another other, find their lost relatives, share their
ideas and thought but not bringing a real change. A change needs a commitment and sacrifices
without consideration of the personal benefits. It involves risk because some of the people may
not be willing to accept the change and can result in murder and kidnapping. In the context of
disagreement and hostility, the best strategy to survive is through maintenance of the strong
actual life relationships.

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To conclude on the topic, the study rightly implies the inherent role of re-tweets and
discusses the factors that lead to its mass popularity and acceptance. Set in the backdrop of the
2011 Egyptian revolution, that toppled the government, the paper focuses on how the twitter
revolution took place. What factors influenced the hash tag revolution and how top tweets came
to be on top of the trending list. To summarise the entire paper, the authors have found that
Twitter’s content during socio political emergencies consists of original relevant information
which comes into the online sphere for the very first time and it also derivatives information
that comes from outside. Re-tweets generally come from outside sources. From this, it can be
concluded that one would consider re-tweets as mere noise and the crowd only acting as
cheerleaders. From another viewpoint is that Twitter involves many ideas put forward in the
paper is that re-tweet s, serve as means of a mass recommendation platforms.

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References:
Starbird, K., & Palen, L. (2012, February). (How) will the revolution be retweeted?: information
diffusion and the 2011 Egyptian uprising. In Proceedings of the acm 2012 conference on
computer supported cooperative work (pp. 7-16). ACM.