The first few months of 2011 have seen an astonishing unfolding of political change across the Maghreb and Middle East. These build on long-standing grievances and inequalities and older forms of political mobilization, so cannot simply be labelled as ‘Twitter revolutions’, yet at the same time there is little doubt that different forms of new media were creatively used in these uprisings.

Khaled Koubaa was active in the first such mobilization in Tunisia while Gigi Ibrahim participated in the Tahrir Square processes that rocked Mubarak’s regime in Egypt. They will each describe and analyse the mix of face-to-face politics and use of new media that facilitated political change in these two countries.

Alongside Khaled Kouba from Tunis and Gigi Ibrahim from Cairo, IAMCR members Marwan Kraidy (Annenberg, Philadelphia), Joe Khalil (Northwestern, Qater), Tariq Sabri (Westminster) and DIna Matar (SOAS) will all make short interventions.