Unit 6.I, Lesson 7
NAME ____________________________________________ DATE _______ DATE _____________________
DO NOW
K – What do you KNOW about Arab
Spring?
W – What do you WANT to know
about Arab Spring?
L – What did you LEARN about Arab
Spring?
Notes
o
Social Media is ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
o
The Arab Spring is a “______________________________________________”
Unit 6.I, Lesson 7
o This is the first time that ________________________________________ has played a
_______________________________ in a _____________________________________
o
The major way people in the ______________________________________ are voicing their opinions and trying
to _____________________________________ include:

__________________________ (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube)

Music

______________________

Art
o
Revolts and events were ___________________________________________________.
o
___________________ kept people in the areas ________________________________ on what was going on
_____________________________________________________.
o
______________________ kept the _____________________ up-to-date on the events
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube’s role in Arab Spring (Middle East uprisings)
Flickr photo of Tunisian protests by
marcovdz
Democracy has finally come to parts of
the mid-East and Northern Africa. What
has been the role of social media and
the Internet in these uprisings?
Background: The “Arab Spring” in
Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the
Mid-East heavily relied on the Internet,
social media and technologies like
Twitter, TwitPic, Facebook and
YouTube in the early stages to
accelerate social protest.
Tunisia: The first domino was Tunisia where the underlying source of the uprising lay in government corruption,
inequality, censorship and joblessness (even among the well-educated youth). By many accounts, the use of social
networking helped Tunisia’s revolution, driving the country’s ruler of 23 years, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, away from the
country and igniting a flame that has spread across the Arab world at breathtaking speed. Other social media aspects of
Unit 6.I, Lesson 7
the revolution included Twitter updates with stories of state oppression, police brutality and unrest, and tweet feeds of
imminent street protests…. Over 30,000 videos have now been placed on YouTube.
Egypt: Confident by Tunisia’s success, the protests spread to Egypt on January 25, 2011. It was a day that the protesters
would take to the street against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. While exact numbers of protesters could not
be estimated, a flood of internet photographs and videos showed a huge amount of people in Cairo, Alexandria, and
other Egyptian cities. These protests lasted 18 days and protesters used Twitpic, Facebook and YouTube to share videos
and photographs and called on Egyptians to protest. Protesters provided minute-by-minute tweets concerning where to
meet in an effort to outwit the police who were trying to catch them. More than 90,000 people signed up on a Facebook
page for the Tuesday [Jan. 25] protests, which were supposed to represent a stand against torture, poverty, corruption
and unemployment.
Wael Abbas (a prominent Egyptian blogger), when questioned on the role of social media in the Egyptian revolution,
said: “Social media is a tool. But revolution is the decision of many people. Once we decided to have a revolution, once
people decided to stay in the square, social media was a helpful tool to call for support, ask lawyers for help. I will not
give social media all the credit, nor will I take away all the credit from social media.”
Explain why social media was important in Tunisia.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Explain why social media was important in Egypt.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
What does Wael Abbas mean when he says that “social media is a tool”?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Unit 6.I, Lesson 7
Why do you think the protesters decided to use social media?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some people are calling the revolution in the Middle East the “Facebook Revolution.” Why do you think so?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
MUSIC IN EGYPT. Amir and Adel Eid from the Egyptian rock band Cairo-Kee gathered up other artists to record "Sout Al
Horeya" ("The Voice of Freedom"), which quickly became another anthem for the revolution. The video for the song was
shot entirely inside Tahrir Square during the revolution using a basic digital SLR camera.
Lyrics:
Voice of Freedom
I went out and said I am not coming back,
And I wrote with my blood on each street.
We made our voices heard to those who weren’t listening,
And all the barriers/obstacles were broken.
Our weapon was our dreams
And tomorrow was clear before us.
We’ve been waiting for a long time,
Seeking but not finding our place.
In every street of my country
the sound of freedom is calling!
We lifted our heads high (in the sky)
And hunger no longer bothered us.
What’s most important are our rights,
And to write our history with our blood.
If you were really one of us
don’t blather and tell us
to leave and abandon our dream.
And stop saying the word “I.”
In every street of my country
the sound of freedom is calling!
Unit 6.I, Lesson 7
1.
What is the main message of this song?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
2.
Did they use violence in Egypt while trying to create change? (What is your evidence?)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
3.
Do you think they were successful at creating change through music?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. What do you think these pictures are saying about social media and the Arab Spring?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Unit 6.I, Lesson 7
2. Do you think the Arab Spring ever would have happened if there was no social media? Why or why not?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What was the importance of social media to the Arab Spring? (Use two specific examples to prove your point.)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________