Why do Facebook and Twitter facilitate revolutions more than TV and radio?

Hubert Janos Kiss and Alfonso Rosa-García

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: A distinctive feature of recent revolutions was the key role of social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). In a simple model we assume that while social media allow to observe all previous decisions, mass media only give aggregate information about the state of a revolt. We show, first, that when individuals' willingness to revolt is publicly known, then both sorts of media foster a successful revolution. However, when willingness to revolt is private information, only social media ensure that a revolt succeeds, with mass media multiple outcomes are possible. This suggests that social media enhance the likelihood that a revolution triumphs more than traditional mass media.

Keywords: social media; mass media; revolution; coordination game; sequential games (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D02 D74 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cta, nep-cul and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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