A pair of “political information efficacy” “young adult” survey instantiations juxtaposed with a plurality of generally held sociopolitical beliefs does not a telecommunications dynamics thesis prove; however, this thesis may be correct.

Underneath vague ideological “citizen participation,” “open government,” and “democratic societies” vectors, and a fascinating narrative recalling a dense chaotic system of asynchronous events, are delicate issues regarding dynamic influences of broadcast and interactive information, trust therein, and respective group strength perceptions. Furthermore, even retrospective analysis of vast archives of targeted tags and tidbits might not portray underlying psychological and cultural orientations of that historical episode; thus, most analytical commentaries of historical events eventually include a cautionary note: “You would not say that if you had been there.”

Accordingly, even in light of this modest statistical survey of “educated, young adult Tunisians” (who appear to represent those spreading reports of violent protests in a rural, presumably undereducated town), it may be that this particular government simply failed to appreciate the need for greater investment in counter public-information disbursement. Personally, having witnessed the explosion of social media from a few print and broadcast hierarchical channels to an apparently self-organizing sea of poly-tentacle information sponges, I find the density of noisy information pollution increasingly hides occasional significant signal fragments. Accordingly, this paper is most applicable (of greatest interest) to those living in, governing, or trying to influence the course of events in nascent democratic states, and it provides a cautionary warning to “idealistic person” networks therein.