Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social Media and the Arab Spring in Bahrain: From Mobilization to Confrontation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Arab Spring, Civil Society, and Innovative Activism

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to examine the use of the social media by the Bahraini anti-government movement since the outbreak of the Arab Spring in Bahrain in 2011 till the present day. Social media have served as an outlet for social movement to propagate ideas, mobilize members for collective action and coordinate activism. They enabled reaching out for international support in circumstances where information would not be diffused by the official channels. What is, however, remarkable is that the anti-government movement continues its activism after the crackdown in March 2011, while confined to opposition districts, with minimal international attention and largely unable to achieve any of its goals during the negotiations with the pro-regime camp. In this situation that could easily lead to despair, social media play an important role in sustaining high levels of mobilization in the fourth year of unrest. Continued mobilization is necessary to pursue this goal, yet it requires significant amounts of energy from the community. This chapter will assess what innovative techniques are used to foster high levels of commitment to the cause. It will examine, among others, how the Internet helps to cement the community around a common sentiment and serves as a source of information and a chronicle of events; they discipline their members to continue the commitment to the movement but also serve for the purpose of confrontation the pro- and anti-regime groups involved in the Arab Spring events.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Ackland, R. & O’Neil, M. (2011). Online Collective Identity: The Case of the Environmental Movement. Social Networks 33, 177–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avruch, K & Vejarano, B. (2002). Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: A review Essay and Annotated Bibliography. The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution 4(2), 37–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayers, M. D. (2003). Comparing collective identity in online and offline feminist activists. In M. McCaughey & M. D. Ayers (Eds.), Cyberactivism: Online activism in theory and practice (pp. 145–164). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry [BICI]. (2011). Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, R. (1961). The photographic message. In S. Sontag (Ed.), A Barthes reader (pp. 194–210). New York: Hill and Wang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, W. L. & Toft, A. (2009). Identity, technology, and narratives: transnational activism and social networks. In A. Chadwick & P. N. Howard (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics (pp. 305–320). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, W. L. (2005). Social Movements Beyond Borders: Organization, Communication, and Political Capacity in Two Eras of Transnational Activism. In D. della Porta & S. Tarrow (Eds.), Transnational Protest and Global Activism (pp. 203–226). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, W. L. (2004). Communicating Global Activism: Strengths and Vulnerabilities of Networked Politics. In W. Van de Donk, B. D. Loader, P. G. Nixon & D. Rucht (Eds.), Cyberprotest: New media citizens and social movements (pp. 109–128). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, D. & Heer, J. (2006). Profiles as conversations: Networked identity performance on Friendster. Proceedings of the Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-39). Kauai: IEEE Computer Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunt, G. R. (2000). Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated communication and cyber Islamic Environments. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of ‘sex’. New York: Routeledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2012). Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carver, T. (2002). Discourse analysis and the ‘linguistic turn’. European Political Science, 2, 50–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cherribi, S. (2006). From Baghdad to Paris, Al Jazeera and the Veil. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 11(2), 121–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, C. (2000). A home on the web: Presentations of self on personal home pages. In D. Gauntlett (Ed.) Web studies: rewriting media studies for the digital age (pp. 43–51). London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J., & Themudo, N. (2003). The Age of Protest: Internet-based “Dot Causes” and the “Anti-Globalization” Movement. In J. Clark (Ed.), Globalizing Civic Engagement; Civil Society and Transnational Action (pp. 109–126). London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, F. L. (1988). Content analysis: process and application. Clinical Nurse Specialist 2(1), 53–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawisha, A. (1990) Arab Regimes: Legitimacy and Foreign Policy. In G. Luciani (Ed.) The Arab State (pp. 284–299). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Della Porta, D. & Mosca, L. (2005). Global-net for Global Movements? A Network of Networks for a Movement of Movements. Journal of Public Policy 25(1), 165–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Della Porta, D. & Diani, M. (2006). Social Movements: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Enbeau, S. (2011). Transnational Feminist Advocacy Online: Identity (Re)Creation Through Diversity, Transparency, and Co-Construction. Women’s Studies in Communication 34(1), 64–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diani, M. (2000). Social movement networks virtual and real. Information, Communication & Society 3(3), 386–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubai School of Government (2011). Twitter Usage in the MENA region. Retrieved on May 12, 2013 from http://interactiveme.com/index.php/2011/06/twitter-usage-in-the-mena-middle-east/

  • Ebo, B. (1998). Cyberghetto or Cybertopia: Race, Class and Gender on the Internet. Westport: Greenwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehulool (2011). Facebook usage statistics. Retrieved on June 1, 2013 from http://www.ehulool.com/massive-increase-of-facebook-usage-in-bahrain/

  • Endres, K. & Lauser, A. (2011). Contests of Commemoration: Virgin War Martyrs, State Memorials, and the Invocation of the Spirit World in Contemporary Vietnam. In K. Endres & A. Lauser (Eds.), Engaging the Spirit World, Popular Beliefs and Practices in Southeast Asia (pp. 121–143). New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, J. H. (1997). Multiorganizational fields and social movement organization frame content: The religious prochoice movement. Sociological Inquiry 67(4), 451–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fearon, J. D. (1999). What Is Identity (as We Now Use the Word?). Stanford: Stanford University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, S. (2010). The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam. London: Lynne Rienner Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, J. (2002). Globalisation and the Making of a Global Imaginary. In G. Stald & T. Tufte (Ed.). Global Encounters: Media and Cultural Transformation (pp. 13–33). Luton: University of Luton Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamson, W. A. (1992). Talking politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, J. L. (2002). Social Networks, Civil Society, and the Prospects for Consolidating Russia’s Democratic Transition. In M. E. Ethridge (Ed.), The Political Research Experience: readings and Analysis. New York: M. E. Sharp Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilboa, E. (2009). Media and Conflict Resolution: A Framework for Analysis. Marquette Law Review 93(1), 87–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy, C., Harley, B. & Phillips, N. (2004). Discourse analysis and content analysis: Two solitudes? Qulitative Methods 2, 19–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hebdige, J. (2002). Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, S. A., Benford, R. D. & Snow, D. A. (1994). New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. In E. Larana, H. Johnston, and J. R. Gusfield (Ed.). New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity (pp. 185–208). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hydén, G., Leslie, M. & Ogundimu, F. F. (Eds.), (2002). Media and Democracy in Africa. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jasper, J. M. (1998). The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions In and Around Social Movements. Sociological Forum 13(3), 398–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin, X., Wang, C., Luo, J., Yu, X., & Han, J. (2011). LikeMiner: A System for Mining the Power of ‘Like’ in Social Media Networks. Proceedings of the 17th SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juris, J. S. (2012). Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere: Social media, public space, and emerging logics of aggregation. American Ethnologist 39(2), 259–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, R., & Kellner, D. (2004). New Media and Internet Activism: From the “Battle of Seattle” to Blogging. New Media & Society 6(1), 87–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karolak, M. (2014). The Social Media Wars: Sunni and Shia identity conflicts in the Age of Web 2.0 and the Arab Spring. Palo Alto: Academica Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karolak, M. (2013). The Post-14/02/11 Bahrain: A State in the Re-making? In K. Christie & M. Masad (Eds.), State Formation and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa (pp. 113–138). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Karolak, M. & Karolak, N. (2013). Globalization and the Religious Resurgence: a Comparative Study of Bahrain and Poland. In D. M. Nault et al. (Eds.), Experiencing Globalization: Religion in Contemporary Contexts (Anthem Studies in Development and Globalization) (pp. 129–152). London: Anthem Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Khuri, F. I. (1980). Tribe and State in Bahrain. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. (2012). The Arab uprising: The unfinished revolutions of the new Middle East. New York: Public Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. (2006). Voices of the new Arab public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East politics today. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCluskey, M. (2012). Website content persistence and change: Longitudinal analysis of pro-white group identity. Journal of Information Science 39, 188–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moghadam, A. (2007). Mayhem, Myths, and Martyrdom: The Shia Conception of Jihad. Terrorism and Political Violence 19(1), 125–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monroe, K. R., Hankin, J. & Bukovchik Van Vechten, R. (2000). The Psychological Foundations of Identity Politics. Annual Review of Political Science 3, 419–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morozov, E. (2011). The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. New York: Public Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, D. J. (1994). Communication Technology And Social Movements: Contributions Of Computer Networks To Activism. Social Science Computer Review 12, 250–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura, L. (2008). Digitizing race: Visual cultures of the Internet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nye, E. (2006). Expanding Consciousness, or Encapsulation? Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxford Business Group (2010). The Report: Bahrain 2010. London: Oxford Business Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Page, R. E. (2012). Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papadakis, Y. (2003). Nation, Narrative and Commemoration: Political Ritual in Divided Cyprus. History and Anthropology 14(3), 253–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PEW Research Centre (2009). Mapping the Global Muslim Population. The PEW Forum on Religion & Public Life. Retrieved on May 30, 2012 from http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedfiles/Orphan_Migrated_Content/Muslimpopulation.pdf

  • Plaza, D. (2009). A Content Analysis of the Websites Constructed by Second Generation Caribbean-Origin Students in Post–Secondary Institutions. Human Architecture: Journal of the or Self-Knowledge VII(4), 37–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Post, J. M. (2005). Psychology. In Addressing the Causes of Terrorism, Report of the working group at the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security, 7–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Postmes, T. (2007). The psychological dimension of collective action, online. In A. N. Joinson, K. Y. A. McKenna, T. Postmes & U.-D. Reips (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Internet (pp. 165–186). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, P. (2001). Reshaping Communications: Technology, Information and Social Change. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rinnawi, K. (2006). Instant Nationalism: McArabism, al-Jazeera, and Transnational Media in the Arab. Lanham: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, A. (2005). Editorial: Exploring Digital Resistance. New Media & Society 7(4), 513–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheepers, D. & Ellemers, N. (2005). When the pressure is up: The assessment of social identity threat in a low and high status groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 41(2), 192–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, J. (2007). Blogging practices: an analytical framework. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12(4). Retrieved on 20 March, 2010 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/schmidt.html

  • Schock, K. (2005). Unarmed insurrections: People power movements in nondemocracies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroer, T. (2008). Technical Advances in Communication: The example of White Racialist “Love Groups” and “White Civil Rights Organizations”. In J. Reger et al. (Eds.), Identity Work in Social Movements (pp. 77–100). Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (2006). Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seul, J. R. (1999). Ours Is the Way of God’: Religion, Identity, and Intergroup Conflict. Journal of Peace Research 36(5), 553–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, M. (August 12, 2012). New clamp on fake Facebook accounts. Gulf Daily News, 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. (2001). Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social-movement Activism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smits, J. (2010). Ethnic Intermarriage and Social Cohesion. What Can We Learn from Yugoslavia? Social Indicators Research 96(3), 417–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, D. A., Rochford, E. B., Worden, S. K., & Benford, R. D. (1986). Frame alignment processes, micromobilization and movement participation. American Sociological Review 51, 464–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, L. (2009). Social Movement Web Use in Theory and Practice: A Content Analysis of US Movement Websites. New Media & Society, 11(5), pp. 749-71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, S. (1998). Power in Movement. Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tubella, I. (2005). Television and Internet in the Construction of identity. In M. Castells and G. Cardoso, The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (pp. 257–268). Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins Center for Transatlantic Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turkle (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volkan, V. (1998). The Tree Model: Psychopolitical Dialogues and the Promotion of Coexistence. In E. Weiner (Ed.), The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence (pp. 343–359). New York: Continuum Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler, D. L. (2009). Working around the state: internet use and political identity in the Arab world. In A. Chadwick & P. N. Howard (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics (pp. 305–320). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Betsy Super, senior director of Research and Development of the American Political Science Association, for her comments on the chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE

    Magdalena Karolak

Authors
  1. Magdalena Karolak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Relations, Eskisehir Osmangazi University Department of International Relations, Eskisehir, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Cenap Çakmak

Appendix

Appendix

Table 5.2 Anti-government websites
Full size table
Table 5.3 Facebook opposition district websites (above 10,000 likes)
Full size table
Table 5.4 Pro-government websites
Full size table

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Karolak, M. (2017). Social Media and the Arab Spring in Bahrain: From Mobilization to Confrontation. In: Çakmak, C. (eds) The Arab Spring, Civil Society, and Innovative Activism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57177-9_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation