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The Public Sphere and Network Democracy: The Arab Spring, WikiLeaks and the Edward Snowden Revelations

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business ((GMPB))

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Abstract

For many Internet advocates, social media provide an electronic agora to allow a variety of issues to be raised, framed and effectively debated. However, a debate has emerged as to whether the social media are truly a force capable of reconfiguring power relations in terms of economic, political and social organisation. With the fallout from the Arab Spring and online whistle-blowing, difficult questions have arisen—not least of which is whether information technologies have been more effective in mobilising voices of protest than in effecting sustainable democratic change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, City University, London, UK

    Petros Iosifidis

  2. Politics and International Relations, London Metropolitan University, London, UK

    Mark Wheeler

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  1. Petros Iosifidis
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  2. Mark Wheeler
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Iosifidis, P., Wheeler, M. (2016). The Public Sphere and Network Democracy: The Arab Spring, WikiLeaks and the Edward Snowden Revelations. In: Public Spheres and Mediated Social Networks in the Western Context and Beyond. Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41030-6_6

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