Protests Against #delhigangrape on Twitter: Analyzing India's Arab Spring

eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 5(1), 28-58, 2013

31 Pages Posted: 13 Mar 2014

See all articles by Saifuddin Ahmed

Saifuddin Ahmed

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) - Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Kokil Jaidka

National University of Singapore (NUS) - Department of Communications and New Media

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: November 21, 2013

Abstract

This paper offers a comprehensive approach towards analyzing and explaining the role of Twitter in shaping and facilitating social movements especially during protests. It presents automatic and manual analyses of the tweet themes, usage characteristics and major Twitter users during a public outcry against a gang rape incident in Delhi, the capital city of India. Our results identified Twitter as an important channel of diffusion of ideas with the ability to share news and ideas rapidly among a vast set of adopters defying geographical boundaries. Results of the content analyses highlight the prominent use of social media resources in disseminating information on Twitter, and the remarkable role of Twitter users as citizen journalists during the days of the protest. Results of the social network analysis suggest that major role players on Twitter were the offline protest leaders.

Keywords: Twitter, protest, social movement, information dissemination, citizen journalism, protest reporting

Suggested Citation

Ahmed, Saifuddin and Jaidka, Kokil, Protests Against #delhigangrape on Twitter: Analyzing India's Arab Spring (November 21, 2013). eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 5(1), 28-58, 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2407617

Saifuddin Ahmed (Contact Author)

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) - Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information ( email )

Singapore

Kokil Jaidka

National University of Singapore (NUS) - Department of Communications and New Media ( email )

Singapore
Singapore

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