Social Media From An International Standpoint
Reporter: Brandon Wilson
On Wednesday, November 13th 2013, some Hamline University student and faculty gathered at the Anderson Student Center to listen to Mr. Ahmed Tharwat, Ms. Maya Dusenbery, and moderator Dr. Leila DeVries talk about social media and its movements.
The conference began with Ahmed Tharwat, leader of the Arab-American TV “Between Toppling Mubarak and Toppling Revolution – Social Media in Egypt Now and Then”, giving his take on social media from an international standpoint.
“Social media can mobilize people”, Mr. Tharwat said as he was talking about the effects that social media has on our lives today and how traditional media is more centralized and corrupt. He explained this by using slides that displayed the different “phases of revolution”, that were the incubation, moderate, crisis, and recovery stage.
Not only did Ahmed Tharwat explain with his words, he also used a powerpoint slide that displayed pictures about what he was talking about, such as a picture that was titled “epic pic” which was a picture of a man standing with fire in the background, showing the drama of the situation.
Thawat went on to talk about Khaled, a leader who sparked a revolution when posting about a corruption in media.
Even though Thawat explained that, “you need to reach the online crowd,” to make an impact, he brought up that traditional media can have more of an emotional effect and brings a deeper connection.
As time passed by Dr. Leila Devries wanted to move on to let the other speakers get a chance to share their part.
Ms. Maya Dusenbery, the executive director of feministing, was next.
She delivered a different side saying that, “social media has changed the landscape for social movement”, touching on what Thawat may have been getting at, but stopped short due to time constraints.
Along with that Dusenbery does not believe social media is all everyone hypes it up to be and that it is just a tool.
Dusenbery proceeded to talk about how social media is to a feminist.m Saying that it isolates as well as makes one feel less alone in the community due to the out reach that one can expand to while on social media.
Running her own feminist blog, Dusenbery told the audience that, “blogs help to build a community online,” explaining that she can find others like her that will discuss different things on feminism.
Ms. Dusenbery ended by talking about how social activism needs to stay online and sometimes offline depending on the topic.
Dr. Leila DeVries, the moderator of the event, returned back to the podium and discussed her thoughts on if there is a dark side to social media.
“Yes there is”, DeVries said right to the point.
DeVries explained how there is a digital divide and that social media is the main catalyst to this problem.
She then brought the international side to the panel by giving a stat that was, “25% of the youth in unemployed in Egypt”, showing that the small percent do not have jobs.
As the conference ended, the crowd in the room seemed to have lessened as the panels went on.
Devries then thanked everyone for coming on, bringing the conference to an end.