In "Wallflowers at the Revolution," New York Times columnist Frank Rich is leading the charge to deflate the hype about the role of social media as a cause of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. He argues that our "American" fascination with the impact of Facebook and Twitter is actually a sign of our general ignorance of the history and politics of the region:
"Perhaps the most revealing window into America’s media-fed isolation from this crisis — small an example as it may seem — is the default assumption that the Egyptian uprising, like every other paroxysm in the region since the Green Revolution in Iran 18 months ago, must be powered by the twin American-born phenomena of Twitter and Facebook. Television news — at once threatened by the power of the Internet and fearful of appearing unhip — can’t get enough of this cliché."
He blames this popular, media-driven fascination with the role of the social media on the American media's general failure to educate the public about world politics, economics and culture. Talking about something these "American-born" social media is a much easier story to present than a real in-depth analysis of the turmoil in the region. Conclusion: the role of the new media in these revolutions is being hyped out of proportion by the American media.
Rich cites a few American reporters who are criticizing this general over-emphasis on the importance of Twitter and Facebook in the the Egyptian revolution:
"“Let’s get a reality check here,” said Jim Clancy, a CNN International anchor, who broke through the bloviation on Jan. 29 by noting that the biggest demonstrations to date occurred on a day when the Internet was down. “There wasn’t any Twitter. There wasn’t any Facebook,” he said. No less exasperated was another knowledgeable on-the-scene journalist, Richard Engel, who set the record straight on MSNBC in a satellite hook-up with Rachel Maddow. “This didn’t have anything to do with Twitter and Facebook,” he said. “This had to do with people’s dignity, people’s pride. People are not able to feed their families.”"
Rich writes that this hyping of the social media had to deflate when the crowds of protestors continued to grow even after Moubarak shut down the major ISP's of Egypt. The Week in Review "Laugh Lines" features features Conan O'Brian's spin on this question:
"We’ve all been watching the goings-on in Egypt. Incredible protests that have riveted the world. And the Egyptian government has responded by shutting down most of the country’s Internet. Just a word of advice: If you want people to stay at home and do nothing, you should turn the Internet back on."