Networked communication and the Arab Spring: linking broadcast and social media

Hänska, Max ORCID: 0000-0001-9188-534X (2016) Networked communication and the Arab Spring: linking broadcast and social media. New Media & Society, 18 (1). pp. 99-116. ISSN 1461-4448

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Abstract

A plethora of media platforms were involved in communicating recent protests across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), though it remains unclear exactly how these interacted. This qualitative article, based primarily on interviews with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) newsworkers, explores the networked linkages between social and broadcast media, asking how social media content moved into broadcast news, which standards shaped the interface between the two and how these standards were defined. It finds that a set of normative and practical standards caused significant friction at the interface, which is reduced as content assimilates these standards. Standards are shaped mainly in response to broadcast imperatives, but also through the mainstreaming of social media and more efficacious and practicable networked communicative practices, indicating how power may shift in the networked age. Responding to the optimistic view that networked multimedia environments enable unencumbered communication, it argues that the scope and limits of communicative affordances depend on these standards.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://nms.sagepub.com/
Additional Information:	© 2014 Sage Publications
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4050 Electronic information resources
Date Deposited:	16 Jun 2014 15:08
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2024 17:42
Funders:	Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of South California
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/57106

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