Global Activism

In his article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, published in the New York Times on October 2010, Malcolm Gladwell looks closely into the notion of social change and the different means to achieve it. He makes a clear distinction between traditional activism, which implies sacrifices and physical devotion, and current activism, based on social networks. The writer considers that “social media can’t provide what social change has always required” (Gladwell, paragraph 1).

Also in Bryant Simon essay “Global Brands Contend with Appreciation for the Local” Simon argues that “global brands will erode national, regional and neighborhood distinctiveness.”(368) Ariela Garvett talks about internet democracy and social media and its potential. She focuses on the potential of worldwide social media and the amount of group power it can give.In Garvett essay “Tweets and Transitions: How the Arab Spring Reaffirms the Internet’s Democratizing Potential” she writes, “The Internet demonstrates the possibilities of change

With the recent advent of social media we are now more aware to the plights of the less fortunate. Former Vice Provost of Duke University Cathy Davidson, author of the essay “Project Classroom Makeover”, discusses the rise of our interconnected society through the use of social media in her essay. In tandem with Davidson is Maggie Nelson, whose essay “Great to Watch” explores the violence that is so entrenched in our society. The advent of the internet created social media platforms for previously unheard of connection. Giving everyone an equal voice, this platform was prime for being used for activism. However it is not that simple, being an activist for human rights will expose a complex world of parallel and sometimes contradictory ideas. Well used is social media for activism, and for good purpose, it is the most powerful tool for exposing the oft overlooked humanitarian issues of our world.

In Mark Pfeifle’s article “Changing the Face(book) of Social Activism,” the definition of the term slacktivism is introduced with the words of the Urban Dictionary which defines it as an idea that belong to people who want to look like they are taking action to support a cause when they mostly do nothing. Despite the dictionary’s meaning of the term, Pfeifle concludes that slacktivism has completely changed social activism because people all over the world now have the ability to create impacting and beneficial reforms on society. He argues that social media is more powerful than ever, and the way people play a role in politics has changed because of it. Pfeifle gives an example of the power that social media has when he points out that the Democrats regained power through the use of social media during Obama’s run for presidency. He states that social media can form political groups with greater masses of people while reducing the expenses as well as the difficulty of organizing one anywhere in the world from Cairo to Zuccotti Park. He also supported his conclusion with the example of Kony, a cruel guerilla leader whose brutality was exposed to the world with the help of slacktivists. Keeping all these events in mind with the contribution of social media, Pfeifle sees the totality in the positive change of social activism from slacktivism. Pfeifle is right about slacktivism having successfully transformed social activism since it causes vast social changes, increases the

Digital campaigning is a medium which uses electronic communicative technologies like Facebook, twitter and youtube etc. Individuals or groups may take to these forums to discuss particular issues with other users, with the intention to simply vent or to make zealous change via petitions, campaigns or advertisements. “Networking and strategising among women and women's groups have led to activism, such as the Women's Internet Campaign” Sutton, J and Pollock, S (2000) Online Activism for Women’s Rights. Cyberpsychology and behaviour. Vol. 3, pp 699-706. Since it’s uprise, digital campaigning has been the fundamental reason behind many significant changes regarding the fight for feminism. An example of a small scale but still very much momentous

Social media is a commodity that is increasingly exceedingly available, used and relied upon by individuals around the world. Social media has become a way for people to share and receive information of any kind. Today, we are going to take a look at ways that social media is connected to neoliberalism, specifically promoting neoliberalism, or characteristics neoliberalism, in the global South. First, social media allows more private entities to penetrate the global South and expand their influences in ways that wouldn’t be possible without the technology we have today. Second, social media gives empowerment to individuals. Empowerment is a very broad topic and the majority of discussion will take place in this section however, we will drill down into a few specific process that explain how social media empowers the global South in relation to neoliberalism.

Since the NSFNet was decommissioned in the early 1990’s and restrictions on commercial traffic was removed, (Costello,2016) we have seen the individual empowered to a point where they can compete with the tradition, media, retail and content outlets.(Abel, 2011) ‘Right now, with social networks and other tools on the Internet, all of these 500 million people have a way to say what they 're thinking and have their voice be heard.’ (Heussner, 2016)

In his book, Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age, Manuel Castells, a Spanish professor of sociology and communication, focuses on current social movements and protests in the world recently. Examples of such movements are the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Spain. These revolutions demonstrate the role of social networks and the Internet which broadcast the details of these social movements. Each movement has social, cultural, and political aspects, which are what Castells examines in his book. The Internet and social networks obviously give people a greater power of communication to achieve the goals of their revolution. Their success has proved the internet and social networks as a valuable tool. The common factors of social movements that Castells has observed are that they were non-violent of getting rid of the dictatorship, and were based on social networks.

In the current digital space, social media has been a powerful tool in shaping the public sphere. Public space is known to be accessible to everyone; digital media has overcome geographical barriers. The public space is a considered space which is “societal, meaningful interaction where ideas and values are formed, conveyed, supported, and resisted; space that ultimately becomes a training ground for action and reaction.” (Castells, M. 2013). From politics to social challenges all sorts of information are placed in an objectified and subjective fashion for the participants to make a call and shape their opinion. Boyd (2011), in his writings, mentioned that “digital media started witnessing communication of people in the form of rage and hope as well. The specific structure of communication of a given society shaped social movements. In other words, social movements, and politics, insurgent or not, spring up and live in the public space.” This triggered the rise of communities and networked publics. One of the strongest ways of communicating opinions on social platforms has been trolling. Online Trolling has been defined in as a deviant behaviour but there are also traces of trolling discovered that are close to activism. The activism in trolling depends on the issue that is being trolled. Hence in this report, we study the activism that takes place through trolling and the agenda that trolling accomplishes for activists.

Contemporary society has built itself around new networks, both social and physical, which allow for more and more information technology to facilitate interaction. How will society instigate social change in a world where networks shape how we interact and the technology driving these networks is shaped and controlled by a specific group in society. The fact is, communication is increasingly dependent on information technology, which has been monopolized by a relatively few, largely american corporations. More and more information is produced and distributed at a global level, by means of new forms of communications and media

“In essence, it would therefore appear that while social media have undoubtedly changed the political map, this may not necessarily have been in the interests of the poorest and most marginalized – or even of democracy.” (Unwin 5)

Online activism is increasingly advocated in many modern societies by allowing activists to instantly spread and deliver information to a broader audience. In the digital age, activists can easily raise awareness, share videos and opinions through various online platforms. This new phenomenon of activism driven by media technologies has been widely used in Hong Kong to retain human rights, protesting for more autonomy and democracy. Given the ability of online activism to raise awareness and rally support for different political or social movements, it places great challenge for the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese authorities to keep their power intact.

The nature of human rights campaigns in modern day American contains within it a use of social media. The way that humans interact today is predominantly through use of social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and a plethora of other options. It cannot be denied that the findings of the Walaski study that social media is an immediate source of communication (1) is true, as qualitative research methods have shown. Incorporating By providing insights and advice on the best ways that human rights advocates can make effective use of the social media at their disposal, improvements can be made in the outcomes of human rights campaigns in modern day America. The Kalai study in 2014 found that most people believe that human rights is an important part of modern society (234), and the study found that through social media, more people became educated about what human rights involved. This is supplemented by a study led by Ford in 2014 which found that more people use social media for their news than any other source (44). From the survey methods used by both Kalai and Ford’s studies, we know that human rights ' activist group leaders ' need to incorporate this surge of social media into their outreach methods to spread their cause. Due to its popularity, social media has the innate ability to reach a large number of people very quickly and, as Dutt and Rasul discovered in a 2014 study, proper use of social media can result in

In the contemporary times with the advent of the internet, the high technology mass media also known as new age media has come into existence. New media refers to innovative and emerging technologies, the digital media, social media and networking sites, online newspapers and magazines. As per Robert Logan, New media is “very easily processed, stored, transformed, retrieved, hyperlinked and, perhaps most radical of all, easily searched for and accessed.” (Logan, 2016) Since the earliest times, the times when human beings started to communicate, most of the communications have been one to one based on inter-personal contact, taking the form of personal conversations. Then new innovations like postal systems, the telephone, postal cards came which facilitated interpersonal contact but over long distances. Now the new technologies emerging have permitted not one to one only but one-to- many based connections. This new age media is not only faster but has a wide range, consisting of mobiles phones, computers and internet. Out of these, Internet is the one that has opened up countless new opportunities for mass communication comprising of websites, podcasts, e-books and social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have made the communication faster and easier. The advent of 'new media' represents a radical, even shift in terms of who is in control of information. Mass media share one obvious but crucial characteristic: what we read, hear or watch is decided by others, whether book publishers, newspaper TV and radio programmers and editorial boards. (Gilmore, 2012) We are all passive consumers to the

With the development of the world wide web, substantial opportunity has arisen for people around the world, as easy and free access to an immediate audience of people is prevalent in the cyberspace. For example, most people in modern society are not only attached to, but also dependent on the internet for a number of reasons. These reasons may include things such as a resource for news or simply a way to stay connected with friends through social media. People who possess the ingenuity to effectively access this ever-growing audience have unthinkable opportunity to accomplish simply anything imaginable. This opportunity has not gone long without recognition in the political world, as candidates, political