Social Media in Fragile Nations: Elites Only?

Iranians vying for more democracy in Iran last year used Social Media tools such as Flickr and YouTube very effectively to gain global attention and newsmedia coverage. Ukrainians used it in 2005, and we saw use of Twitter in a Belorus in late 2009 during an election – the usage failed miserably there.

But who has access to Social Media in fragile nations and post-conflict nations like Somalia, Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire, Uruguay? Worldwide over 1.5 Billion people are connected and millions are connecting each month. The largest growth online will come from China and India over the next few years. And when they get online, they jump on Social Media services quickly.

In these fragile nations {a.k.a Global South} (Somalia, Sudan, DRC) or emerging markets (India, Iran, Brazil, China) they are not only connecting with one another in social groups, but many are finding Social Media as an effective way to communicate a message to the developed world (the Global North.) But who’s getting a voice?

Today it’s mostly Elites; students of wealthy families, wealthy families themselves, political elites. They can afford Internet access or have it at academic institutions. Those in lower classes cannot afford a computer let alone Web access and often suffer from lack of technical skills and illiteracy.

Where that may change is through mobile devices such as SmartPhones and Netbooks. They are more affordable and accessible and in fragile nations communications infrastructure builds are predominantly wireless today.

Today, political unrest in these fragile nations is mostly being driven by students. They may not have access to the Web in the home, but they do in universities and Internet cafes. Take the most recent case of such activism in Sudan where the movement Girifna is being driven by a young medical student. They use mobile devices and services such as Facebook and YouTube. They are often in the Elite class still, but are the dissafected of the Elite.

Bringing access to poorer segments will be pivotal to broader societal and democratic change in fragile nations. The inherent risk however, will remain with the government in power who might turn off the Web and mobile networks quickly and easily. As the Belorus government did in 2006 with the mobile network having seen what happened in the Ukraine in 2005 and the Orange Revolution.

For now, it is mostly the elites who have access and using Social Media for societal and political change will most likely remain in the hands of the students. They will use it to drive western (Global North) media attention and to organize and rally those who don’t have access. Which opens up a whole other set of issues, such as widening the gap in wealthy vs. poor and uneducated and what type of influence is being driven?

(Author: G. Crouch, MD)