THE HUMAN NETWORK: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE LIMIT OF POLITICS

Abstract

Internet-based social media sites have been increasingly used to organize political activism across the globe. Given recent events in Egypt where Wael Ghonim‟s role as social networker, Google executive, and activist coalesced at the center of an information-based revolution, or the much publicized use of BlackBerry Messenger to organize protests, riots, and looting in England, it is difficult to ignore the effect social networks have had on major political events. Beginning with a review of some of the key historical and conceptual accounts of the political implications of the Internet and social media over the last ten years, this article provides an analysis of how the political use of social media in recent events in Egypt and England has been represented by the mainstream western media