While the Ministry of Information in Yemen controls printing presses, the main television channel and radio stations. Hence, radio and television broadcasters are not completely free to decide the content of their shows and printed press is not free from censorship.
Our group at Change Square called the media committee assigned ourselves as one of the media voices covering the revolution. Information, photographs and videos are updated regularly on their blog, YouTube channel, and Facebook group. Some of our information was used by local, regional and international media. Also Twitter has become a very important source for spreading information to the world minute by minute especially given the low number of foreign journalists in Yemen due to the strict laws regulating entry visas to the country.
Actually, social media add new arrows to the quivers of social activists. These social media were helpful in: a) mobilizing protesters rapidly; b) undermining regime‚ legitimacy; or c) increasing national and international exposure to a regime‚ atrocities.
Online forums and Facebook groups help people meet each other from different parts of the Yemen. It helps create connections between people with similar interests that otherwise would have never met. These groups, some of which are private, are also the hubs of organizing for the next day‚ marches.
Also Online social networks like Facebook and Twitter have made headlines as a powerful tool for Yemeni protestors. Protest and revolution are still born of the same decision-making process, but social networks have allowed protestors to connect and see atrocities in a way that was not possible before social media. These online social networks have been analyzed as a type of social capital, but only recently have they revealed their immense value for political dissent. This paper is an attempt to combine complementary elements of sociological and economic traditions in order to analyze social online networks as productive social capital and the implications for how we model revolution. And many independent groups who have members from various parts of the country hold online meetings in closed Facebook groups, where they vote on important matters, and share documents. There are over 30 revolutionary Facebook groups that vary in theme and topic which include women in the revolution, media campaigns such as Support Yemen, and revolutionary news.
Social network sites increase the visibility of the revolution and thus change the perceived consequences for individual citizens of joining the revolutionaries. In addition to decreasing the cost of information and coordination efforts, social network sites are able to demonstrate that massive support for revolution exists. Twitter and Facebook act as a direct link for individual citizens to information about protest efforts, participation, police harassment, and arrests going on at that moment, some of the information is even geographically coded. As the protests become more visible, the tipping point will begin to shift back due to the increased social capital revolutionaries acquire from social network sites. The implication being that spontaneous revolutions will happen more often when social network sites are employed
It is important to emphasize that users of social media are a minority in Yemen. Nevertheless, new media, as one tool out of many, has indirectly played a significant role in the mass people's movement.
