I’m not going to argue with my distinguished colleague Kevin Marsh’s latest post denying that it was Twitter that did it for the protestors in Tunisia and Egypt. I’m not going to dispute that the gatherings of hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square, that drove the final stages of the revolution, grew despite the restrictions Mubarak’s dying regime inflicted on the web and mobile phones. I’m not even going to disagree that some over-excited new media gurus have been over-claiming the organisational and political power of social media. But I am going to take issue with the positing of the argument in a yah-boo-sucks, oh yes it was - oh no it wasn’t (delete as appropriate) social media wot won it framework. At the risk of enraging not just Kevin but a whole new bunch of academics and commentators, it’s a bit like arguing that Gutenburg had nothing/everything to do with the Reformation.

Matthew Elthringham, Assistant Editor, Interactivity and Social Media Development, BBC

(Source: BBC)