Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis

The Syrian crisis is considered the ‘world’s single largest crisis for almost a quarter of a century that has the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation’ (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2016). The rapid adoption of Facebook among Syrians questions whether it helps in m...

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Main Author: Reem Ramadan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2017-12-01
Series:Heliyon
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844017304462
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author Reem Ramadan
author_facet Reem Ramadan
author_sort Reem Ramadan
collection DOAJ
description The Syrian crisis is considered the ‘world’s single largest crisis for almost a quarter of a century that has the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation’ (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2016). The rapid adoption of Facebook among Syrians questions whether it helps in maintaining the social capital of a war-torn nation and a dispersed Syrian population worldwide. Data was collected by means of a Facebook survey from 964 Syrian users. Results indicated that Facebook enhanced social identity and social capital through facilitating communication, collaboration and resource sharing among dispersed Syrians inside and outside the country. However, the offline rift of the nation was extended to Facebook through promoting hate speech among opposed parties. Results of this study may advance the understanding of the role of Facebook on social capital in countries going through similar crisis situations.
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spelling doaj.art-432bcdf5d7244f1b8ecf9bb198374af42022-12-21T19:43:26ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402017-12-0131210.1016/j.heliyon.2017.e00483Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisisReem RamadanThe Syrian crisis is considered the ‘world’s single largest crisis for almost a quarter of a century that has the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation’ (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2016). The rapid adoption of Facebook among Syrians questions whether it helps in maintaining the social capital of a war-torn nation and a dispersed Syrian population worldwide. Data was collected by means of a Facebook survey from 964 Syrian users. Results indicated that Facebook enhanced social identity and social capital through facilitating communication, collaboration and resource sharing among dispersed Syrians inside and outside the country. However, the offline rift of the nation was extended to Facebook through promoting hate speech among opposed parties. Results of this study may advance the understanding of the role of Facebook on social capital in countries going through similar crisis situations.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844017304462SociologyInformation science
spellingShingle Reem Ramadan
Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis
Heliyon
Sociology
Information science
title Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis
title_full Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis
title_fullStr Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis
title_full_unstemmed Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis
title_short Questioning the role of Facebook in maintaining Syrian social capital during the Syrian crisis
title_sort questioning the role of facebook in maintaining syrian social capital during the syrian crisis
topic Sociology
Information science
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844017304462
work_keys_str_mv AT reemramadan questioningtheroleoffacebookinmaintainingsyriansocialcapitalduringthesyriancrisis