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Measuring the Efficiency of Digital Communities: A Case Study

Authors:
Farid Shirazi

Keywords: Social Media; ICT; Web 2.0; Information Use; Public Discourse; Digital Community; Data Envelopment Analysis.

Abstract:
A new type of citizen participation has recently emerged in the Islamic Middle East countries through discourse on social media Websites, which opened up opportunities for citizens’ participation in socio-political movements. Despite Internet restrictions in the form of heavy imposed state filtering and censorship, the Internet and its various applications provide effective communication channels for acquiring free information and disseminating thoughts, ideas, opinions, reflections and information sharing about socio-cultural, political, environmental and economic matters. The results of this empirical study show that there is a linkage between information usage and citizens’ organized social actions, in the form of waves of street demonstrations, as we have seen across the region, as citizens demand a more open society, freedom and democracy. By applying the theory of new media communication, this study has found that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has not only played an important role in building digital communities across the region, but also citizens’ who use effectively and efficiently ICT communication channels are more likely to participate in political discourse and mobilization.

Pages: 95 to 101

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: June 24, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4227

ISBN: 978-1-61208-206-6

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from June 24, 2012 to June 29, 2012