Social Media, Government Change, and Modern Methodology
Fall, 2014 – Tuesdays, Thursdays – 12:30-1:45 PM
POL 40995 (CRN 22653)
Dr. James M. McQuiston
Department of Political Science, Office 26
Kent State University
Kent, Ohio 44242-0001
Office Phone: (330) 672-8918
Email: jmcquist@kent.edu
Website: http://www.kent.edu/polisci/people/~jmcquist/
Abstract:
The Political Science department at Kent State has a vibrant core curriculum in the International
Relations – Comparative Politics track. Undergraduates that are majoring in International
Relations and Comparative Politics are provided the opportunity to take courses with a number
of distinct geographic (European, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American Politics)
and theoretical (the global economy, international organizations, non-governmental
organizations, development, social justice, and foreign policy) fields. As social networking
services (e.g. Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, Weibo, and Badoo) continue to grow in popularity, their
potential to precipitate government change is likely to increase. Social Media, Government
Change, and Modern Methodology looks to educate students about this new type of political
activity while providing tutelage in what I call modern methodology – article location and
translation, primary source identification and transcription, and automatization of data collection.
This fifteen-week course examines the impacts that social networking has had on the
governments in countries including the United States, Russia, Tunisia, Syria, China, Egypt, Iran,
and the Ukraine. This class will explore and contextualize social media’s role in each state
alongside previous explanations for political change (e.g. mass media, student movements,
military action). This class will familiarize students with the social media movements in these
countries while facilitating the process of crafting a research paper that is presentable at a
professional conference.
This class is designed to supplement the education provided students in the political
methodology course with methods of locating secondary sources and the location and
transcription of primary sources. I intend on including current events into the class and have
allowed for a week dedicated to explaining social media’s role in current events (Week 14).
Class discussion will occur during the assigned meeting times and on the Blackboard service.
The class will blend lectures with small group work (describing the key points of an article,
leading the class in discussion). The course will have two small writing prompts (2-3 pages), a
final paper (8-10 pages), and a final exam.
Required Texts:
These texts are required for our course. Students will be required to purchase these books and to
purchase a collection of articles from WordSmiths.
Castells, Manuel. 2012. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age.
Polity Press: Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Diamond, Larry and Marc F. Plattner. 2012. Liberation Technology: Social Media and the
Struggle for Democracy. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore,
Maryland.
Registration and Enrollment:
The last day to withdraw from the course without a grade of W is November 2nd, 2014.
University policy requires all students to be officially registered in each class they are attending.
Students who are not officially registered for a course by published deadlines should not be
attending classes and will not receive credit or a grade for the course. Each student must confirm
enrollment by checking his/her class schedule (using Student Tools in FlashLine) prior to the
deadline indicated. Registration errors must be corrected prior to the deadline.
This course may be used to fulfill the university’s Experiential Learning Requirement (ELR)
which provides students with the opportunity to initiate lifelong learning through the
development and application of academic knowledge and skills in new or different settings.
Experiential Learning can occur through civic engagement, creative and artistic activities,
practical experiences, research, and study abroad/away.
Classroom Etiquette:
Electronic devices – mp3 players and cell phones – represent distractions that could prove
disastrous for a student looking to do well in this course. Cell phones and electronic devices are
to be left in bags for the entirety of the class period. I will ask that a student leave the class if
they are utilizing electronic devises.
Grading:
Participation 25 points
The participation grade will be measured by a student’s level of activity during our class
meetings and on our Blackboard discussions. A student will receive a high participation grade if
they contribute regularly in a substantive fashion; familiarity with the night’s reading is essential
to further in-class and online dialogues. The participation grade will also include a 10 minute
presentation of student’s final papers.
Short Papers (2) 25 points
Students are required to submit two 2-3 page short papers that compare and contrast the social
media experiences of two of the cases that we have discussed in class. Papers will succinctly
compare and contrast the role of social media in each of these cases.
Paper 25 points
We will be working throughout the semester on the creation of a paper that is written at a level
that would be accepted for presentations at a scholarly conference. The paper will be 8-10 pages,
focus on social media’s impact in a state not discussed in the course. The paper should utilize a
number of the methods taught in the class (article location, translation, transcription and location
of primary sources). The rough draft of the paper will be worth 10 points while the final draft
will be worth 15 points. The final paper is due by 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 30th.
Final Exam 25 points
The final exam will require that students utilize knowledge collected through all parts of the
course. Expect to take two to two and a half hours on this test; I will remain in our classroom
until all students have finished. Make sure to bring a bluebook to the final exam.
Grading Scale
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
D-
Readings and Assignments:
93 - 100
90 - 92
87 - 89
83 - 86
80 - 82
77 - 79
73 - 76
70 - 72
67 – 69
63 – 66
60 - 62
I reserve the right to change the syllabus throughout the semester. I will inform the class of any
changes well in advance.
Week 1-2: Comparative Catch-up
Arendt, Hannah. 1963. On Revolution. Penguin Books: London, England. P. 21-35
Huntington, Samuel P. 1991."Democracy's third wave." Journal of Democracy 2(2): 12-34.
In-class technology: Blackboard
Suggested Readings:
Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions. Cambridge, England. Chapters 1,3.
Week 3: The historical role of mass media in government change.
Ali, Amir Hatem. 2011. “Power of Social Media in Developing Nations: New Tools for Closing
the Global Digital Divide and Beyond.” Harvard Human Rights Journal. 185-219.
McCombs, Maxwell E. 1972. “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media.” Public Opinion
Quarterly. 36(2): 176-187.
In-class technology: Article location services (Google Scholar, JStor, EJC)
Suggested Readings:
Pollock, John Crothers and Christopher L. Guidette. “Mass Media, Crisis, and Political Change:
A Cross-National Approach.” Communication Yearbook IV. Taylor & Francis: New
York, NY. 309-326.
Rugh, William A. 2004. Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics.
Praeger: Westport, CT. 229-248.
Week 4-5: Definitions of social media
Effing, Robin, Jos van Hillegersberg and Theo Huibers. "Social media and political participation:
are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube democratizing our political systems?." Electronic
participation. 2011: 25-35.
Ellison, Nicole B. 2007. “Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship.” Journal of
Computer-Meditated Communication. 13(1): 210-230.
In-class technology: Online translation (Google translate, Bing Translator)
Suggested Readings:
Kaplan, Andreas M. and Michael Haenlein. 2010. “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of Social Media.” Business Horizons. 53(1): 59-68.
Zhang, Weiwu, Thomas J. Johnson, Trent Seltzer, and Shannon L. Bichard. 2009. “The
Revolution Will be Networked: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Political Attitudes
and Behavior.” Social Science Computer Review. 28(1): 75-92.
Week 6: Tunisia
Castells, Manuel. 2012. “Tunisia: ‘The Revolution of Liberty and Dignity.’” In Networks of
Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. 22-30.
Lotan, Gilad, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce, and danah Boyd. 2011.
“The Arab Spring| The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows during the 2011 Tunisian
and Egyptian Revolutions.” International Journal of Communication. 1375-1405.
In-class technology: News and aggregators (Podcast, Reddit, RSS, Twitter).
Suggested Readings:
Howard, Philip N. and Muzammil H. Hussain. “Egypt and Tunisia: The Role of Digital Media.”
Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy. Eds. Larry Diamond and
Marc F. Plattner. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, Maryland. 110-123.
Assignment: Rough Draft Due
Week 7: Egypt
Bhuiyan, Serajul I. 2011. “Social Media and Its Effectiveness in the Political Reform Movement
in Egypt.” Middle East Media Educator. 1(1): 14-20.
Lim, Merlyna. 2012. “Clicks, Cabs, and Coffee Houses: Social Media and Oppositional
Movements in Egypt, 2004–2011.” Journal of Communication. 62(2): 231-248.
In-class technology: Social networking services (Weibo, Orkut, VK)
Suggested Readings:
Castells, Manuel. 2012. “Tunisia: ‘The Revolution of Liberty and Dignity.’” In Networks of
Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. p. 22-30.
Eltantawy, Nahed and Julie B .Wiest. 2011. “Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution:
Reconsidering Resource Mobilization Theory.” International Journal of Communication. 5:
1207-1224.
Week 8: Syria
Ghannam, Jeffrey. Center for International Media Assistance. 2011. “Social Media in the Arab
World: Leading up to the Uprisings of 2011.” http://www.edots.ps/internews/userfiles/CIMAArab_Social_Media-Report_1.pdf .
Khamis, Sahar and Paul B. Gold. 2012. “Beyond Egypt’s ‘Facebook Revolution’ and Syria’s
‘YouTube Uprising:’ Comparing Political Contexts, Actors, and Communication
Strategies. Arab Media & Society. 15.
In-class technology: Social networking services (Odnoklassniki, hi5, Sonico)
Suggested Readings:
Joseph, Sarah. 2012. “Social Media, Political Change, and Human Rights.” Boston College
International & Comparative Law Review. 35(1): 145-188.
Week 9: Iran
Rahimi, Babak. 2011. “The Agonistic Social Media: Cyberspace in the Formation of Dissent and
Consolidation of State Power in Postelection Iran.” The Communication Review.
14(3): 158-178.
In-class technology: Crowd-sourcing: Amazon Mturk, Samasource
Suggested Readings:
Shirazi, Farid. 2013. “Social media and the social movements in the Middle East and North
Africa: A Critical Discourse Analysis.” Information Technology & People.
26(1): 28-49.
Yahyanejad, Mehdi and Elham Gheytanchi. 2012. “Social Media, Dissent, and Iran’s Green
Movement.” In Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for
Democracy. eds. Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner. The Johns Hopkins University
Press: Baltimore, Maryland. 139-156.
Week 10: China
Bamman, David, Brendan O’Connor, and Noah Smith. 2012. “Censorship and deletion practices
in Chinese social media.” First Monday. 17(3).
King, Gary, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts. 2013. “How Censorship in China Allows
Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression.” American Political Science
Review. 107(2): 326-343.
In-class technology: Online interview tools (Skype, Twitch, Dragon NaturallySpeaking).
Suggested Readings:
Lei, Y.-W. 2010 ‘The Political Consequences of the Rise of the Internet: Political Beliefs and
Practices of Chinese Netizens.’ Political Communication 28(3): 291–322.
Week 11: Russia
Oates, Sarah. 2013. Revolution Stalled: The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet
Sphere. Oxford: New York, NY. 165-185.
White, Stephen and Ian McAllister. 2014. “Did Russia (Nearly) have a Facebook Revolution in
2011? Social Media’s Challenge to Authoritarianism. Politics. 34(1): 72-84.
In-class technology: Fundraising (Kickstarter, GoFundMe, Crowdfunder).
Suggested Readings:
Toepfl, Florian. 2011. “Managing public outrage: Power, scandal, and new media in
contemporary Russia.” New Media & Society. 13(8): 1301-1319.
Week 12: Ukraine
Barberá, Pablo and Megan Metzger. 2014. “Tweeting the Revolution: Social Media Use and the
#Euromaidan Protests.” February 21. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pablo-barbera/tweetingthe-revolution-s_b_4831104.html.
Satell, Greg. 2014. “If You Doubt That Social Media Has Changed The World, Take A Look At
Ukraine.” January 18. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/01/18/if-you-doubt-thatsocial-media-has-changed-the-world-take-a-look-at-ukraine/ .
Week 13: United States
Cogburn, Derrick L., and Fatima K. Espinoza-Vasquez. 2011. "From networked nominee to
networked nation: Examining the impact of Web 2.0 and social media on political
participation and civic engagement in the 2008 Obama campaign." Journal of Political
Marketing 10 (1-2): 189-213.
Suggested Readings:
Effing, Robin, Jos van Hillegersberg, and Theo Huibers. 2011. "Social media and political
participation: are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube democratizing our political systems?."
Electronic participation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011.
Shirky, Clay. 2011. “The Political Power of Social Media: Technology, the Public Sphere, and
Political Change.” Foreign Affairs. 90 (2011): 28.
Assignment: Paper Due
Week 14: Current Events [To be determined no later than 10/2014]
Week 15: Paper Presentations
Final Exam is from 12:45 to 3:00 PM on Wednesday, December 10th .