Social media in political transition: A literature review

Robert Zepic, Thomas Klotz, Marcus Dapp, Helmut Krcmar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Social networks caused tremendous changes in the way people interact in private and public matters. An apparent and often-cited example is the so-called "Arab Spring", where social media is assumed to be the ignition spark for civic uprising. Since the impact of social media on political transition, as the path, in which a political system turns from autocracy to democracy, is a "hot issue", it is being researched in a wide range of scientific disciplines. To identify research streams, we offer a comprehensive and systematic literature review in the disciplines of Information Systems, Social Science and Humanities. Altogether, we identified 177 papers as relevant to the topic based on keywords. A considerable amount deals with the revolutions in Middle East and North Africa region. However, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong and Russia are also mentioned. The results of our study reveal a huge diversity of social media users and purposes of social media usage in various countries' stages of political transition. They provide a contribution to the interdisciplinary research on social media in political transition.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 16th European Conference on e-Government, ECEG 2016
EditorsMitja Decman, Tina Jukic
PublisherAcademic Conferences and Publishing International Limited
Pages240-246
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781910810989
StatePublished - 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the European Conference on e-Government, ECEG
Volume2016-January
ISSN (Print)2049-1034

Keywords

  • Arab spring
  • Democratization
  • E-participation
  • Political activism
  • Political transition
  • Social media

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