The Twitter Revolution in the Gulf Countries

Introduction

In 2011, a new term started to be heard around the world—the Arab Spring. International news began capturing images of mass protests taking place in Tunisia and Egypt. Because of the size and persistence of the demonstrations as the world watched, the citizens were able to bring down governments they believed were corrupt. The news began reporting that the success of the Arab Spring was due to the use of social media. The leaders of the protest corrected this and said that while social media was a powerful tool that they used to organize protests and send instant reports on events to followers, it was the social and economic conditions that caused such unrest that people were willing to take to the streets in protest. Only a few countries staged what might be called Arab Spring uprisings, but there was a different kind of revolution taking place. For example, although there were no staged protests in the very conservative country of Saudi Arabia, the impact of social media on the Saudi society was revolutionary, nonetheless. As stated by Laura Bashraheel (2012, p. 1) writing for The Saudi Gazette, ‘The popular social media website has created a parallel world by engaging an entire population that was once isolated from debate and expressing opinion.’ That social media has changed the nature of public discourse in formerly closed societies is best exemplified by its impact on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The research aims to investigate the following questions: What impact has social media had on public discourse in Arab nations? Did Twitter and social media element affect the current regime in the Arabian Gulf? If yes, then how?

The main purpose of this article is to discover the new media phenomenon in the Arab world and how it has changed the nature of public discourse. Other purposes are to explore the role of Twitter in presenting Arab discourse and to explore the new censorship roles. The researcher surveyed research publications related to the subject from two different library databases—LexisNexis Academic and Academic Search Complete—that included hundreds of peer-reviewed academic journals. Also, the researcher conducted online keyword searches for information about research publications on the subject. The article will examine the impact of social media in the Arab world, especially in the Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, and the shift of social media from traditional to new media in Saudi Arabia.

Literature Review: Impact of Social Media

Social media facilitates the pace and quality of interactions via an interwoven web of people, cultures and organizations and/or institutions (Infante, Rancer, & Womack, 1997; Manovich, 2001; Scott, 2007). Weiner has defined it as the media that enables the transformation of enormous amounts of electronic information. It allows any number of users to access, merge and sequence information according to their preferences and requirements. It, therefore, can transcend boundaries dictated by a given topic (Weiner, 2006). The prehistory of social media is often traced back to the ideas of Norbert Weiner and his concept of ‘socialnetics’ (Pfaffenberger, 1990, p. 1). Subsequent incarnations include McLuhan’s conceptualization of ‘hot media’ and ‘cool media’ (McLuhan, Fiore, & Agel, 1967, p. 26). These definitions have variously emphasized aspects such as human–machine interaction, the power of information transfer and the idea of information as having deep personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical and social consequences. For the purposes of this article, social media will be defined as a ‘media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques, such as the use of web-based, mobile technologies, to turn communication into interactive dialogue’ (Berger, 2014, p. 6).

Most people today use electronic social networks. These are Internet sites where you can create a profile page and send messages, photos and other things to people on your ‘friends’ list. There are over 500 million people who use Facebook, one of these social networks. Another very popular electronic social network is Twitter. Twitter is a microblog that is like other social network sites on the Internet; but, this one has limited amount of space for the discussion. Photographs and videos can also be shared with followers. When a message is sent on Twitter, it is called a tweet. In 2012, there were 500 million users of Twitter (Lunden 1). Only 141 million of those users were from the United States of America, so tweeting is an international trend. The Japanese use Twitter more than Americans, for example. You will often hear ‘what is trending’. This means what are the most popular topics being shared on Twitter. There are 2.5 billion tweets every two-and-a-half days (Lunden). According to an article for TechCrunch, ‘World leaders, major athletes, star performers, news organizations and entertainment outlets are among the millions of active Twitter accounts through which users can truly get the pulse of the planet’ (1). If you hear people talking about what is trending on Twitter, they are referring to the millions of people who follow and interact with others who have Twitter accounts. The Twitter website describes itself as an information network. They call tweets ‘small bursts of information’. Tweets cannot go over 140 characters. The people on Twitter can log onto their accounts and see the latest posts and thoughts of the people they are following. They can find and follow anyone who is on Twitter and people can follow them too. In fact, in today’s mainstream media, whatever is ‘trending’ on Twitter is turned into news stories (Shane, 2012).

Another significant impact caused by social media is the immediacy of news events. For example, James Alan Freeman asks how long it took for people to hear about the 9/11 attacks on the United States World Trade Center. For people who were near a television, they probably learned about the attacks in minutes. However, if it took place today, the event would reach a global audience within a few minutes because of social media like Twitter. Almost every person could have found out about the attacks via text, Facebook or Twitter ‘within 15 minutes of it happening’ (Freeman, 2009, p. 1). As soon as someone takes a picture or makes a post on their smartphone, the information can be shared immediately. With connections like Twitter, events can be described almost in real time. The timing of news cycle has been changed by Twitter and social media to the point of being ‘almost instantaneous’ (Harner, 2011, p. 1). Smartphones can even capture video and post instantly. The use of Twitter and other social media has had a major impact on societies where access to open information was often limited.

Traditional and New Media in Saudi Arabia

The events of the Arab Spring brought intense consideration of the role social media has in influencing social change. However, as argued by Soengas (2013), although the political and social changes being witnessed in the Arab world were unprecedented, they were not sudden, but rather, had been developing over the last several years. According to Soengas (2013), the only necessity was a catalyst, an event that would cause people to take to the streets, since all the necessary conditions for creating these protests were fomenting in the general population such as social stratification, corruption and abuse of power, lack of freedom, ‘ongoing violations of basic civil rights and government privileges’ and so on (Soengas, 2013, p. 148). Advancing communication technologies meant that regimes could no longer control information flows, and social media became the catalyst, the ‘trigger’, so to speak, that allowed large numbers of people to organize and have their voices be heard around the world. Even the most repressive state could no longer oppress the new found freedoms available from Web 2.0.

Changes in Saudi Arabia due to technology advances in computer and information technologies began before the introduction of Twitter in 2006. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the mass media in the Arab world began to undergo significant and radical changes. Because of new technologies like satellite television and the Internet, a more global discourse was developing with many citizens of the Arab nation states. This allowed Arab consumers to ‘bypass the limits of authoritarian information control’ (Hafez, 2001, p. 1). Trying to close media spaces to global forces is much less likely today than in the recent past. ‘The question remains, however, whether new access to external media and the widening of media horizons is sufficient to generate political and social changes in the Arab world and the Middle East’ (Hafez, 2001, p. 1).

In the early 1990s, the media system of the Middle East was considered the most closed and controlled one in the world by most of the scholars. Three different types of press were described in the Middle East: (a) the mobilized press, which is almost totally subordinate to the governments involved; (b) the loyalist press, which is owned privately and not always censored, but usually supports regimes because the regimes control the resources (and persecute journalists who criticize them) and (c) the diverse press, where the press is more free. Kuwait and Morocco have had more free press in recent decades than the other Arab nation states (although Kuwait closed its free press during the Iran/Iraq war).

Before Al Jazeera and others like it were introduced, if there was any freedom of the press, it was likely to come from newsprint stories. Radio and television were under the control of the absolute monarchies, most of them operated by government agencies. The reasons given for this model are:

The Arab governments’ desire to preserve national unity and the centralized system of government…;

According to Amin (2001), in the early 1990s, Arab regimes resisted new technologies because they saw them as a threat to the ability to control media. However, in the last five to ten years, this has changed. Satellite and internet technologies have infiltrated most of the areas, so governments did not have much choice but to allow the technologies to be implemented while trying to develop methods of censorship without a lot of success.

Another challenge to traditional media compared to new media is that it is very slow because of all of the bureaucracy involved, where social media can report news events practically in real time. This ability of websites like Twitter where users can post messages on their smartphones while witnessing events is changing the social and political fabric of societies like Saudi Arabia. Jeffrey Ghannam who wrote the report Social Media in the Arab World, a report published by the Center of International Media Assistance, argues that the Arab world has awakened with new freedoms in expression, and as witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt has broken the ‘stranglehold of state-sponsored media and information monopolies in those countries’. Indeed, from Morocco to Bahrain, the Arab world has witnessed the rise of an independent vibrant social media and steadily increasing citizen engagement on the Internet that is expected ‘to attract 100 million Arab users by 2015’ (Ghannam, 2011, p. 4). The new media has the ability not only to inform, but to mobilize, entertain, create communities, increase transparency and hold governments more accountable (Ghannam, 2011).

Traditional media’s monopoly over information being shared in the kingdom has been broken, in part because young people are choosing new media. In the report Arab Media Outlook, the prediction was that new media forms such as digital media will grow rapidly in the Arab market because of the large numbers of young people who are comfortable with the new technologies and who will customize them to their ‘own needs and requirements’ (Ghannam, 2011, p. 6). ‘Unlike traditional media in the Arab world, digital media is acting as a watchdog to government activity’, says Ghannam. And according to democratic ideals, news is the segment of society meant to hold government accountable. An example was when President Hosni Mubarak had a photo published in the government-controlled newspaper Al-Ahram that showed him meeting with high officials in Washington, DC, an ‘Egyptian blogger exposed that [t]he picture was a fake’ (Ghannam, 2011, p. 6).

Interestingly, although Saudi Arabia is arguably the most conservative and closed society in the Arabian Gulf and among Islamic nation states, today, the fastest growing Twitter community in the world is found in Saudi Arabia (Kinnimont, 2013). Twitter has changed the way public discourse take place in Saudi Arabia. Journalist Saud Kabli reports that ‘Twitter has created a sphere for different groups in society to interact; something he says enriches the culture of dialogue’ (Bashraheel, 2012, p. 1). People who are from very different backgrounds and ways of thinking, both liberal and conservative, are sharing ideas. ‘This has not been the tradition of public discourse,’ says Laura Bashraheel. In the past, most discussions of this type took place only between the intellectual elite. Kabli argues that the ability to share so many opinions is a sort of ‘social shock’ (Bashraheel, 2012, p. 1). But he also believes it will just take a bit of time for the country to adjust and find a balance.

The impact of the Arab Spring had a major impact on surrounding countries in the Middle East, and some of the current leaders have responded with calls for major reforms. One of the most outspoken ones has been Saudi Arabia’s HRH Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He argues,

[A]nd I would repeat that even those countries that escaped the experience of the so-called Arab Spring, should learn from the clear message that the people require increased transparency and openness, more political freedom—freedom of the press and freedom of speech. These are not western traits but human traits without regard to religion, geography or gender. (The Middle East Magazine, 2012, p. 4)

Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud explained his large investment in Twitter is because it has become a facilitator of the dissemination of news. The prince is known for his work towards reform, and he describes that he has seen important improvements and achievements in offering more openness and freedom to his people. He also says that while social media in no way caused revolutions, it certainly enhanced and speeded up events on the ground.

Social media’s role in news making is becoming more recognized. Simon Cottle (2011), in the report Media and the Arab Uprisings of 2011, reports that there has been a major shift in the way that media and events are connected. He says that media and communications have become a part or causal factor in the events. Some media critics even went so far as to call Arab Spring events as the ‘Twitter Revolutions’ or ‘Facebook Revolutions’ because of the role that social media played in ‘the co-ordination of mass protests, communication of real-time images and up-to-date information, or processes of contagion across the Arab region. This however is to do less than justice to both the political and media complexities involved or their mutual interaction moving through time’ (Cottle, 2011, p. 649). Obviously, the Arab Spring uprisings were and are politically complex; however, Cottle seeks to explain how social media has caused important social changes in countries like Saudi Arabia. For one, he reminds the audience that communication in Saudi Arabia has been traditionally controlled by the government. With advancing technologies such as satellite transmissions of data and the Internet, it is no longer possible for governments to exert as much control as in the past. Additionally, in a county like Saudi Arabia, where 65 per cent of the population is under the age of 30, and being sophisticated users of information technology,

Young people, plugged into western media and immersed in wider cultural flows that normalize democratic practices and civil rights as well as conspicuous consumption, have become an established communications backdrop in much of the Arab world notwithstanding the tensions and contradictions this poses to ‘embattled’ religious authorities and patriarchal structures of domination. (Cottle, 2011, p. 650)

Robert Worth of the New York Times also sees the use of Twitter as having a profound effect on this very conservative society. He argues that openly criticizing the Saudi government has virtually been a taboo. But after the Arab uprisings in early 2011, Saudis began logging onto Twitter in rapidly growing numbers to express their frustrations, ‘offering a new window into an opaque and profoundly conservative country’ (Worth, 2012, p. 1).

Social media has allowed certain issues to be highlighted that would have never been discussed in traditional mainstream media. Saud Kateb, a media professor at King Abdulaziz University, says that there is a major difference between the traditional media and the new media, and that young people have turned to social media so that their voices can be heard. He argues, ‘Traditional media has to self-assess and be more open to different opinions’ (Al-Jassim, 2015, p. 2). Voices of citizens, especially of young people, were unheard in traditional media. But that is no longer true with social media. With such a large number of young people, Saudi Arabia’s young people use Twitter and YouTube more than any other country in the region (Eakin, 2003). Some of that use has been to expose corruption in the royal family, as seen in the Twitter user Mujtahidd, whose posts have ‘attracted 800,000 followers’ (Eakin, 2003, p. 4). According to an article in the New York Times, open criticism like that of the royal family has become much more common. Therefore, the social media role was changed in Saudi Arabia. ‘Prominent judges and lawyers issue fierce public broadsides about large-scale government corruption and social neglect. Women deride the clerics who limit their freedoms. Even the king has come under attack. All the dissent is taking place on the same forum—Twitter’ (Saudi Arabia—World’s Fastest Growing Twitter Zone, 2013, p. 1).

Ayesha Almazroui credits social media for opening Saudi society and changing the social order there. For example, when the government tried to crack down on the use of Twitter for public discourse by creating a new law and punishments for cyber-related crimes, and the law said there would be a fine of three million riyals or even a five-year prison sentenced for people who use social media to harm public order or religious values, there was an immediate outcry through social media expressing shock and anger over the new law. Under the hashtags #3million fine for spreading harm and #5 years in prison for tweeting, Almazroui describes that thousands of people either protested or made fun of the law. There are also many other types of issues being discussed, such as more rights for women, racism in the society and how the society does not differentiate between religion and culture (Almazroui, 2012). So, besides women’s issues, what are some of the other social issues being addressed by Saudis? CNN reports that a recent issue that became the 16th most addressed discussion in the world on Twitter was criticism against the Saudi government about people living in poverty in this wealthy country. This campaign about poverty in Saudi Arabia was shocking to many people.

People should not make the mistake that the new communication freedoms are without costs. People who blog or post on Twitter are still taking risks if they go too far in their social criticism. There are still harsh laws in places like Saudi Arabia for things like libel, if someone is thought to have insulted a person of authority there. Even arrest is a consequence. The government fires back, but there are ‘always back doors that the technology provides’ (Ghannam, 2011, p. 7). Also, young people are not the only ones that are becoming sophisticated with new media. Jeffrey Ghannam reports that governments who want to repress communication can use sophisticated digital censorship and monitoring capabilities, and they can ‘engage in cyber-attacks and the targeting of media activists and dissidents—and have done so for some time’. And needless to say, ‘state controlled media, whether press, television or radio, will be put to full propaganda purposes when repressive regimes are challenged’ (Ghannam, 2011, p. 8). However, the risks do not seem to be limiting use by much. Even ‘activists are using the technology very well’. And when a government like Saudi Arabia has tried to limit new technologies, there has been enough pressure and demand by citizens to get the government to back off, a new power for Saudi young people. In fact, a lawyer in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Gasim is happy to report that there is an increasing culture of rights in Saudi Arabia. He writes, ‘And it matters. Yesterday, I wrote a tweet about the court system, accusing the judges of arrogance. The judiciary minister himself called me to talk about it’ (Saudi Arabia—World’s Fastest Growing Twitter Zone, 2013, p. 1). And in spite of the new harsh law in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, the capital of Saudi, is the most active city on Twitter in the Middle East, according to Almazroui. This huge use of Twitter is having an impact. Almazroui reports, ‘Many Saudis, especially young people, are now questioning authorities publicly and asserting their rights’ (Almazroui, 2012, p. 1).

One of the demands being made by young Saudis is that their government be more transparent. Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes argue that the new technologies in information and communication are being used so that governments have to be more transparent and accountable. They say that the transparency brought by such new mediums as social media can reduce corruption. They state,

ICTs can reduce corruption by promoting good governance, strengthening reform-oriented initiatives, reducing potential for corrupt behaviors, enhancing relationships between government employees and citizens, allowing for citizen tracking of activities, and by monitoring and controlling behaviors of government employees. (Bertot, Jaeger, & Grimes, 2010, p. 265)

Bertot et al (2010) al also suggest that the success in bringing this new technology like social media tools increased depends on the willingness of citizens to use new information technologies. Saudi Arabia’s fastest growing Twitter community in the world suggests a willingness on the part of citizens.

Because of the ability to engage in open and honest discussions through social media, Saudi women have been very active on Twitter through the hashtag #SaudiWomenRevolution where they are demanding social equality in the kingdom. The women have also created a page for their discussions on Facebook. Some of the demands are to end the requirement that women must have permission of a male guardian in order to receive education, travel, have medical surgery or open a bank account. The women also want an end to the violence against women with much stronger punishments for men who abuse them. Also, they want a ban on marriage of women under the age of 18 and to allow women to drive, and also to give women more political rights (Jadalyya, 2012, p. 1). ‘Unlike other media, Twitter has allowed Saudis to cross social boundaries and address delicate subjects collectively and in real time, via shared subject headings like “Saudi Corruption” and “Political Prisoners”, known in Twitter as hashtags’ (Worth, 2012, p. 1). Many young people in the kingdom feel like they finally have a voice, one that has some meaning. A young lawyer, Faisal Abdullah said, ‘Twitter for us is like a parliament, but not the kind of parliament that exists in this region.’ ‘It’s a true parliament, where people from all political sides meet and speak freely’ (Worth, 2012, p. 1).

Method

Qualitative method is used to analyze the selected journalists’ Twitter accounts—content analysis of the journalists’ tweets in the Gulf area. Journalists are chosen because they are dealing with and using new social media in their work and own life. Another reason for choosing journalists’ tweets is that the selected journalists have over 500 followers. The researcher follows and analyzes tweets of four selected journalists’ accounts who work in the gulf region including UAE, KSA and Qatar for over a four months span, from 24 September 2013 to 24 January 2014. The analysis was done in charts. For each journalist, there were four columns divided by four months, which included the subjects of tweets like political, personal, TV shows and quotes. The names of the journalists are given in Table 1.

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Table 1.

Name	Location	Twitter Website	Journalist Workplace
Rima Maktabi	Dubai—UAE	https://twitter.com/rimamaktabi	A Lebanese anchor at Al Arabiya News, located in Dubai.
Turki Al Dakhil	KSA	https://twitter.com/TurkiAldakhil	A Saudi journalist. Notable for his role as host of the Al Arabiya interview programme Edaat.
Wadah Khanfar	Qatar	https://twitter.com/khanfarw	A CEO in Al Jazeera Network
Abdul Hamid Ahmad	Dubai—UAE	https://twitter.com/AbdulHamidAhmad	A journalist in Gulf News in Dubai

Source: Author’s own.

The researcher chose Twitter only because Twitter and social media, in general, have become a great part of our lives. We are now looking at a whole new generation that cannot survive without the existence of social media. We rarely see teenagers or young generations reading newspaper or watching news on TV because now we all depend on the Internet. Nowadays, Twitter has become a great source of news; by following different journals accounts, people stay updated 24/7 with all that is going on around the world. All journals have been forced to have a Twitter account to get into the competition and not be left out. Also, journalists are now very active on Twitter, writing their opinions, tweeting about current incidents and retweeting what supports their ideas. Also, the best advantage in Twitter is that it has a limit of 140 characters per tweet which forces people to limit their ideas and writing and get straight to the point, and also makes it easier to go through quickly.

In conclusion, journalists have different opinions and different views to share with their followers. Some express their opinion strongly towards political and humane issues, others might just mention the news without any further comments. The researcher observed well the intensity at which journalists tend to tweet; they might tweet some 10–20 tweets a day, others could tweet once every now and then when something worthy happens or simply regular simple tweets daily. No doubt they have many followers who retweet what they show and interact with them to understand their point of view. It is important to mention that journalists care very much to attend conferences and media press events because it is their role as mass media persons to be there and share their ideas and thoughts. Their followers retweet their comments and participate in and share their opinion with them.

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Table 2.

Journalist	Critique
Rima Maktabi	She is a Lebanese anchor at Al Arabiya News, located in Dubai. She cares for the political issues in Lebanon, of course, since that is her hometown, but she also seems to be very touched and sad for what is happening in Syria such as ‘Too much blood, too much hatred; no room for diplomacy!’ She tweets in general about what is going in the Arab world in relation to the US like ‘Wondering what is Rafik Hariri impression seeing his killers stand trial? He is knows his murderers. She sad? Happy? Worried about’. As any other human being, she also retweets some favourite quotes and has conversation and arguments with people concerning the political issues. She also encouraged her followers to watch her political programmes such as her political show about Iran and its nuclear file which was showed and posted on her Twitter account in October 2013. Her political posts are more than human and personal posts. She posted more than seven political posts every month and three to four posts were about Syria. The personal tweets are about Lebanon, such as ‘I wonder if idea of #Lebanon in my mind is only a mirage!’ which was posted in October 2013 and ‘16 January 2007… It’s when I left #Lebanon and moved to #Dubai, it’s been 7 years!’ posted in January 2014.
Turki Al Dakhil	He has amazing and talented followers and comments. His tweets mainly consist of his writings and articles as well as retweets from other people and friends’ writings. He is very concerned with what happens in Saudi Arabia because that is his home country. He is interested in photography as many of his tweets are pictures of Dubai at different times. His political posts vary and are about Syria, South Africa, India and the Gulf area. He also wrote about journalist copyright. He posts in October 2013, ‘The child photo that has spread as a Reuters photographer photo .. it’s the Abdullah al-Mohsen photo .. where is his copyright?’ His personal posts are idioms and quotes from others such as ‘Often found that the problem can be difficult at night resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has dealt with it. said by John Steinbeck’, November 2013. In addition, he posts about his TV show and other international newspapers such as ‘National awareness show of diabetes invite you to get to know him’, posted in November 2013.‘This interview with national British photographer Sabestaan Farmbrog owner of the image’, and he added the link.Therefore, he posts his new column about sports like ‘essay is devoted to the sport: Come leaders spoke to me ..’, posted in January 2014.
Wadah Khanfar	He is a CEO in Al Jazeera Network. He does not tweet as much as other journalists do, but he is straight to the point and very political. He seems to retweet a lot of ‘Basheer Nafi’ tweets and also political news. He also likes to participate in many conferences and shares the knowledge that he has gained through his tweets.He publishes a variety of different ideas and news about politics in various countries such as the United States, Syria, Pretoria and others which optimally include the following:‘Is not an expression of religious sectarianism, but a political ideology, based on exclusion and control. But they assume absolute right, it’s easy to turn into a tool extermination’, posted in October 2013.Another post in January 2014 is ‘For the partial withdrawal of the U.S. from the Middle East and Western economic crisis opens an opportunity to reconsider the relations of Arab with Africa.’‘Child in Homs, and a child in Idlib, casting died because of the cold. Even the cold kills you Syrians. But the tyrant and his allies are criminals, and perhaps others as well.’ He negatively critiques Syrian leader.He posted other old news in January 2014 about Pretoria, ‘Image in Pretoria 25/11/1998 handkerchief to my son Yahya Asim who had infiltrated the crowd and reached the podium to give a handkerchief in his hand was Sendwiche.’Because Khanfar does not have a programme like Al Dakhil and Maktabi, he posts his articles, attends conferences, talks his personal opinion and publishes essays published in well-known websites in KSA such as ‘Good Riddance, to Superpowers in the Middle East http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4603135?utm_hp_ref=world’.‘The most important thing in my forum in Istanbul International under the title: “From the Revolution to the coup, the Arab Spring and turn 360 degrees” # iwf2013’, posted in October 2013.The most important topic about humanities is about women’s uniform and not to exaggerate it in formal places, such as ‘Which one of these women is dressed most appropriately for public places? http://atfp.co/K8hHZUpic.twitter.com/oQZvgs4lVd’, posted in January 2014.He also marks his news about his participation in seminars and conferences, such as ‘I participate in a seminar on media and politics in Amsterdam tonight at 7 GMT, will be broadcast on the link http://tinyurl.com/nwoyazo participate in a seminar on Arab-African relations within the conference center of the island of studies on Africa’, posted in November 2013.
Abdul Hamid Ahmad	He is a journalist in Gulf News in Dubai. His tweets are very local news most of the times, sometimes international but away from political issues except for some very few times. He focuses his tweets on local happening and incidents, such as National Day, New year’s fireworks, Expo 2020 and other things happening inside the country. He does not write any personal tweets at all, things that he does outside his workplace. He, of course, does not miss tweeting about international incidents that everyone should know and care for.The most important political topics are related to UAE economy such as: ‘Abu Dhabi index crosses 4,000 mark for the first time in 5 years, http://bit.ly/ILXVmu’,‘Expo 2020: 200,000 jobs expected to be created in UAE’,‘Expo 2020 vote begins on Wednesday in Paris at 5.30pm UAE time http://bit.ly/1c8jitw’ and‘Dubai Duty Free celebrates 30 years of achievements http://bit.ly/1hGYef4’, posted in November and December 2013.Also, he focuses on UAE president news, politicians and leaders, such as ‘President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed underwent an operation yesterday following a mild stroke. His condition now is stable’, Gulf News. He quoted the news from Gulf News, a local newspaper, in January 2014. In addition, his news support humanitarian donation to the poor.

Source: Author’s own.

Discussion

From the journalists’ tweets, the researcher finds that the outside world might not have noticed them much, but people in Saudi Arabia certainly have, and that is the new kind of discourse taking place within a public sphere—social media, specifically Twitter. The use of Twitter is changing the way people voice their opinion in the kingdom, and now because of social media like Twitter, those voices are being heard instead of censored. Social media is having a major impact on the conservative Saudi, Qatar and UAE societies. It will be interesting to see in the next few years if this new medium for Saudi voices will have a political impact as well.

Obviously, it is not social media that is causing the desire to change these things. It is the circumstances and the difficulties caused to women that cause them to protest. However, as stated by Ayesha Almazroui,

Although social media do not drive change unilaterally, the influence is reflected in the underlying social and political dynamics. In Arab countries, where public criticism of authorities, has been almost entirely absent for decades, social media are now an important channel for free expression and public debates. (Almazroui, 2012, p. 2)

After the Arab Spring, the Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia increased the awareness about their countries and discourses. This is reflected by a focus on limited freedom which the people faced in the old media. The new media like Twitter played a role in the Gulf countries, and it increased the public needs and demands in greater prospects. For example, ‘one Twitter campaign, using the hashtag #We_want_jobs_for_the_unemployed, is asking the government to provide jobs for every citizen. Another campaign is urging residents to boycott Saudi chicken after price rises’ (Almazroui, 2012, p. 2). In conclusion, the social media, specially Twitter, became a main media role that delivers the public needs and discourses in the Arab countries. It breaks the limited public freedom in the Arab world. Because of the new technologies and availability of the Internet such as new phones, people discuss, post and deliver their messages to their governments. They are a part of their countries and the new media supports their desires. Further, research topics must focus on the content analysis of the new media in the Gulf countries and the impact of social media during and after the Arab wars.