Distant Witness: Social Media, The Arab Spring and a Journalism Revolution

The series of Arab uprisings collectively known as the Arab Spring is a flashpoint in history ¬ perhaps the biggest we¹ve seen since the collapse of the Soviet bloc 20 years ago. It¹s also been a stunning revolution in the way breaking news is reported around the world — and who controls the news.

In this book, NPR social media chief Andy Carvin – “the man who tweets revolutions” – offers a unique first-person recap of the Arab Spring. Part memoir, part history, the book includes intimate stories of the revolutionaries who fought for freedom on the streets and across the Internet – stories that would have never been recorded before the days of social media.

From the early weeks of the Tunisian revolution through the fall of the Libyan regime, Carvin became known for unflinching, real-time depiction of conflict. His work is reinventing how people experience the news. No longer merely consuming it, they participate in it, interacting with the very people on the ground engaged in the uprisings. Like Mosaab Elshamy, a young Egyptian pharmacy student who found himself caught in the most perilous fighting in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Like Sami Ben Gharbia, the Paul Revere of Tunisia, who mobilized his country to protest via the Internet. Like Amina Arraf, a Syrian blogger whose reported kidnapping shook the foundations of the Arab Spring. And like Mohamed Nabbous, a Libyan tech geek who became the country¹s first independent journalist in over a generation ¬and stared death in the face just hours before NATO air support bombs began to fall.

Controversial, visceral and timely, this book distills the Arab Spring¹s most important moments with these portraits of bravery: heroes who fought for freedom by embracing new technology to spread the true story of their revolution.