num_pages: 326
description: To understand a thwarted Turkish coup an antiWall Street encampment and a packed Tahrir Square we must first comprehend the power and the weaknesses of using new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people. An incisive observer writer and participant in todays social movements Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protestshow they form how they operate differently from past protests and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. She describes how the internet helped the Zapatista uprisings in Mexico the necessity of remote Twitter users to organize medical supplies during Arab Spring the refusal to use bullhorns in the Occupy Movement that started in New York and the empowering effect of tear gas in Istanbuls Gezi Park. These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority technology and cultureand offer essential insights into the future of governance.From New York Times opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci an firsthand account and incisive analysis of the role of social media in modern protest[Tufekcis] personal experience in the squares and streets melded with her scholarly insights on technology and communication platforms makes [this] such an unusual and illuminating work.Carlos Lozada Washington Post Twitter and Tear Gas is packed with evidence on how social media has changed social movements based on rigorous research and placed in historical context.Hannah Kuchler Financial Times 
language: English
title: Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
publisher: Yale University Press