The Role of social media in the Armenian Velvet Revolution and the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (Maidan): A Comparative Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Eco College of Insurance, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor / Department of International Relations, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Allameh Tabataba'i University

10.22059/jices.2025.358379.1048

Abstract

Through the recent decades of social media’s widespread accessibility, historical evidence indicates its significant impacts on various occasions, including decision-making processes within states, public objections, and specific activities during elections or campaigns aimed at representing official requests. Consistent with this trend, the present article investigates the role of social media in the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (2014) and the Armenian Velvet Revolution (2018) to examine the mechanisms of their potential impacts. The main question in this study regards the application of social media in social upheavals, specifically the two mentioned velvet revolutions. The hypothesis proposes that the main impact of social media was targeted toward people’s actions through the attitude formation process, as one significantly affected area by social media in both societies was public awareness. The current article explores and maps out the process that formed a political behavior through social media that affected these two velvet revolutions. While the qualitative research method collects information related to the roots of revolution and the role of social media, the systematic study assists in analyzing the similarities and differences. It was found that although social media acted as a strong tool to bridge awareness and activism, they couldn’t initiate the revolution process in any of the countries.  Social media could only speed up the process of revolution in Armenia by connecting people with the leader, while it could form the primary social unification core in Ukraine through organizing protests and demands.

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