Conference Paper
The Impact of Independent Media on Political Mobilization during the Arab Spring
No.
ERF30_20
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2024
This research examines how independent media networks influenced political mobilization during the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The study zeroes in on two prominent media networks in the Arab world: Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Measurement of political mobilization mainly revolves around protest activities. Data for both political mobilization indicators and media networks are sourced from Arab Barometer surveys. Initially, the primary analysis is conducted at the regional level, focusing on Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine due to data quality constraints. Subsequently, the scope expands to encompass nine countries within the MENA region. To account for potential endogeneity, the study employs the frequency of lightning strikes and submarine cable seaquake shocks as instrumental variables, highlighting non-random utilisation of independent media. The results reveal a positive and statistically significant influence of independent media on political mobilization. On average, a one-standard deviation increase in access to independent media corresponds to an approximately 4 percentage point increase in the likelihood of participating in protests. At the mean of protests, it corresponds to a rise of about 24%. Supplementary analyses suggest that these estimates predominantly capture the effects of Internet access rather than television. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that the driving force behind mobilization is mainly rooted in the informational aspect of the media rather than the ideological content of the news.
Authors
Laura Angelini
Ph.D. Candidate, Université Catholique de Louvain
Authors
Luisito Bertinelli
Associate Professor in Economics, University of Luxembourg
Authors
Rana Cömertpay
Research Associate, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research...
Authors
Jean-François Maystadt
Professor and FNRS Research Associate at UCLouvain,...