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A review by bluestarfish
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci
4.0
"Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral" -Melvin Kranzberg (1986)
The second part of that quote is fascinating, and what this book explores as it examines how social media technology in particular has fed into the "how" of the organisation of protests. It isn't "just" technology but rather the interaction of people and the tools around and available to them. Of course it's not just people as individuals using these tools but groups, organisations, and nation states for all sorts of reasons. The first part of the book looks at the making of a movement, the second part more closely at the tools available, and the third about after the protests.
Social media is really very young but it has had prominence in some of the recent globally noticed protests and this book takes us to some of them and has interesting things to say about the use of twitter among the tear gas. The book has a very apt subtitle and Zeynep Tufecki shows examples of both the power and the fragility of the networks we have come to rely on.
The second part of that quote is fascinating, and what this book explores as it examines how social media technology in particular has fed into the "how" of the organisation of protests. It isn't "just" technology but rather the interaction of people and the tools around and available to them. Of course it's not just people as individuals using these tools but groups, organisations, and nation states for all sorts of reasons. The first part of the book looks at the making of a movement, the second part more closely at the tools available, and the third about after the protests.
Social media is really very young but it has had prominence in some of the recent globally noticed protests and this book takes us to some of them and has interesting things to say about the use of twitter among the tear gas. The book has a very apt subtitle and Zeynep Tufecki shows examples of both the power and the fragility of the networks we have come to rely on.