Civic Participation in Social Media: How Does it Look Like in the UAE?
“We want every man, woman and child to join us in the biggest ever national brainstorming session to find new ideas for health and education,” said Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, in a tweet in 2013 (AlKhatib, 2015). His Highness called for citizens to contribute in ideas for developing the health and education sectors by sending suggestions to the hashtag: #uaebrainstorm. This example depicts how social media platforms are recognized as having great potential and importance when it comes to reaching people and promoting civic participation.
Indeed, much academic research suggests that social media networks increased people’s civic participation and political expression (Effing, van Hillegersberg, Huibers, 2011). This would explain why the increasing popularity of social media networks in the UAE has fostered civic engagement in several ways such as encouraging voluntary work, stimulating political discussions, and influencing the participation in the elections.
Encouraging voluntary work
The UAE, despite its relatively small population, has more than 8 million users only on Facebook, which is 94% of the population (Fadi Salem, 2017).
Not surprisingly, social media plays a significant role in encouraging citizens to participate in voluntary work and social causes. According to a survey by James Buie and David Bulla (2014), conducted on 250 university students ages 18 to 32, “Emirati students, and other citizens have, since 2013, used social media to organize dozens of charitable, volunteer efforts, as well as public service awareness campaigns.”
For example, through social media networks, youth can learn about volunteering opportunities and find like-minded people who share the same interest in volunteering. Moreover, social media sites allow youth to coordinate and organize offline voluntary meeting and events.
Recently, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, launched a voluntary campaign on social media entitled “Day for Dubai” to spread the spirit of volunteering among citizens. Few days after launching it, many citizens including influencers organized voluntary events and shared their experiences on social media.
Stimulating National and Political Discussions
Social media sites encouraged political discussions and enabled citizens to express their opinions. It empowered people and helped bring new voices to the political conversation (Rainie, Smith, Schlozman, Brady AND Verba, 2012). In the UAE, social networking sites allowed citizens to express their views on various political and national issues in line with the state policies.
The Managing Editor of the Digital Media Department at AlBayan Newspaper, Moza Fikri said:
“Information disseminated on social media coming from official sources increased citizens’ awareness towards national and political issues and stimulated their participation in online discussions.”—Fikri
When you hear the words “Civic engagement” and“Social media,” the first scenes that might come to your mind are pictures of the massive crowd of protesters holding banners and signs that demand the toppling regimes.
However, the context and the results of civic participation on social media varied across countries. While civic engagement on social networks led to the outset of some governments such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya (The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings, 2012), the scene was different in the UAE and mostly “positive”, Fikri explained.
Also, the most significant outcome of civic participation on social media was strengthening the relationship between citizens and UAE leadership. Fikri indicated that many citizens use social media to express their pride, loyalty, and love for the UAE government and leadership. On major local occasions such as the National Day, or the Martyr Day, activists on Twitter launch Hashtags that later tops UAE trends. She added:
“More importantly, social media usage in the UAE conveyed citizens’ sense of responsibility, especially when they use these platforms to encounter the relentless attacks that target the UAE from time to time by extremist groups.”
Influencing the elections
All over the world, social media impacted the elections’ patterns. Messages disseminated through social media networks proved to have an influence on voting during elections encouraging more people to vote (Wihbey, 2012).
The UAE witnessed this influence in 2015 during the Federal National Council (FNC) elections that resulted in electing 20 members representing half of the UAE National Council members, said Zaher Al-Ali, head of the local section at AlBayan Newspaper.
“Unlike the traditional marketing campaigns, AlAli indicated that some candidates ran their campaigns on social media to reach a wider audience, especially youth, and through such networks, they discussed their ideas and goals with users and voters” — AlAli.
A notable example for using social media to win the FNC elections is Saeed Al Rumaithi, who had «zero AED» electoral budget according to AlAli. He launched his campaign on Snapchat and succeeded in reaching voters, especially from youth generation, inside and outside the UAE in London, Los Angels and, Munich.
The future of civic participation on social media
Social media in the UAE has been successful in growing civic participation in various ways that include: encouraging voluntary work, promoting political discussions and impacting the elections. The future of civic participation in the UAE, the first country in the world to have Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, is likely to be connected to the advancements in technology. In the future, civic participation is likely to be personalized, more individual-to-individual communication, powered by virtual reality.
In 2050, social media networks might fade out, and citizens in the UAE might have planted chips in their brains that control all human activities including civic engagement. Are you optimistic about the future of civic participation in the UAE and all over the world? Comment below!
References
AlKhatib, F. (2015). USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT: Lessons Learned from the UAE National Brainstorming Session (p. 1). Dubai: The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government. http://www.mbrsg.ae/getattachment/7da59a49-1076-4d8d-b799-168ae98fa67a/Using-Social-Media-for-Citizen-Engagement
Buie, James and Bulla, D .(2014). Young Emiratis using social media intensely. http://www.mepra.org/knowledge/articles/young-emiratis-using-social-media-intensely/
Effing R., van Hillegersberg J., Huibers T. (2011) Social Media and Political Participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratizing Our Political Systems? In: Tambouris E., Macintosh A., de Bruijn H. (eds) Electronic Participation. ePart 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6847. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-23333-3_3.pdf
Wihbey, J. (2012). A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization Facebook experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature, Vol. 489, Issue 7415, 295–298. doi:10.1038/nature11421.
Brown, H., Guskin, E., & MitchellE, A. (2012, November). The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings. Retrieved 28, 2012, from http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/28/role-social-media-arab-uprisings/
Rainie, L. Smith, A., Schlozman, K., Brady, B., & Verba, S. (2012, October). Social Media and Political Engagement. Retrieved 19, 2012, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/10/19/social-media-and-political-engagement/
Salem, F.(2017). The Arab Social Media Report 2017: Social Media and the Internet of Things: Towards Data-Driven Policymaking in the Arab World (Vol. 7). Dubai: The Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government. http://www.mbrsg.ae/getattachment/05534635-16f6-497a-b4a3-d06f061bda0b/Arab-Social-Media-Report-2017
