For its special issue on Egypt and the Arab Spring, Fuse editor Gina Badger asked Anna Feigenbaum to share her insights on social media and social change.
Drawing on her research and teaching, Dr. Feigenbaum challenged the idea that social media is inherently democratic and argued for a new understanding of social media as ‘container technologies’ that we put stuff into for sharing rather than tools that empower us to share. This shift can help us better account for the multiple ways in which protesters and media makers, as well as corporations, police, military and state authorities are engaging with social media.