The State of Disarray of a Networked Revolution The Syrian Uprising's Information Environment

This study explores the Syrian uprising's information environment and the way it is plagued by the absence of credible sources, a fragmentation and overabundance of information, the emergence of information cocoons almost impermeable to different views, a polarization of the debate, and a discursive environment kept hostage by images and emotional content rather than texts and rational arguments. The author argues that one of the main causes for the state of disarray of what was supposed to be, even more than in Tunisia and Egypt, a "networked revolution," has to be found in specific new media's political properties combined with the absence of an experienced community network capable of filtering, accrediting and synthesizing the content circulating on the web and among professional media.