8
lesson pretestMultiple Choice

Pretest

Question 8 • World Literature CR SUSD (EX)

Read the excerpt from "The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings" by Heather Brown, Emily Guskin, and Amy Mitchell. Now, research is emerging that reexamines in a more detailed way the role that social media played in the Arab uprisings. In July 2012 a report was published by the United States Institute of Peace based on an extensive content analysis of bit.ly links from the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Bahrain. Bit.ly links, or short URLs, are predominantly used in social media such as Twitter. The authors came to some conclusions that countered the initial assumption that social media was a causal mechanism in the uprisings. Instead, the study suggests that the importance of social media was in communicating to the rest of the world what was happening on the ground during the uprisings. "New [or social] media outlets that use bit.ly links are more likely to spread information outside of the region than inside it, acting like a megaphone more than a rallying cry." Data from the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project at least somewhat supports this conclusion with its findings that the majority of Egyptians are not online. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the total population do not use the internet. What reasons do the authors give to support their claim about the importance of social media in the Arab uprisings? Choose two correct answers.

Answer
A
the clarification that Twitter is relatively new and frequently used
B
the explanation that most Egyptians do not use the technology
C
the fact that information from bit.ly links was shared around the world
D
the detail that a US institute collected data in multiple countries
E
the description of social media as a causal mechanism

Explanation

The excerpt argues that social media worked more like a “megaphone” for informing people outside the region than a rallying cry for people within it. The finding that 65% of Egyptians do not use the internet supports the idea that social media was not the main way uprisings were organized locally. The statement that bit.ly links spread information outside the region supports the claim that social media communicated events to the rest of the world.

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