Podcast + Blog: Online Media and Activism
The advent of digital and social media has provided a range of tools and channels through which individuals and organisations lobbying for social change can increase both their reach and their voice.
However, digital and social media come with limitations when it comes to activism. The very same tools and channels that can increase the awareness and momentum of a social change campaign, also increase the visibility and presence of the activists themselves. Groups and individuals lobbying for change – be it a change in government policy or increased accountability in the private sector – are increasingly visible. Their digital footprint can be tracked, the sentiments of their organisations and their followers monitored and analysed. In some instances, and in some locations, views can be censored.
I have explored some of these issues in the below podcast. I focused my research within the context of the student-led movement for greater gun control in the United States and was surprised to learn just how ruthless the online world can be when it comes to lobbying for social change. It’s also alarming how behaviour that was once only witnessed through the actions of anonymous keyboard warriors or trolls, is sliding into the mainstream and evidenced in the actions of some high-profile figures.
Overall, digital and social media provide fantastic opportunities for activists, and they can bolster a campaign significantly. Yet, these opportunities can only be fully appreciated with a clear understanding that digital and social media do not favour social change activists any more or any less than they favour those resisting change. A clear strategy and a thick skin is needed.
Using the US student activist 'Never Again' campaign as a case study, we look at the potentialities of online media offered to activists as they seek to influence social change, and also to those resisting change. Music 'Blue Sky' by Wowa and Chris Rede (CC BY 3.0) https://soundcloud.com/wowamusik/blue-sky-cc0 'Long Way To Go' by Miguel Johnson (CC BY 3.0) https://soundcloud.com/migueljohnsonmjmusic/long-way-to-go Reference Uldam, J 2018 'Social Media visibility: challenges to activism', in Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 40 (1), pp 41-58, doing: 10.1177/0163443717704997 Uyehara, M 2018 'The Sliming of David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez', GQ, 30 March, retrieved 23 April 2018 https://www.gq.com/story/the-sliming-of-david-hogg-and-emma-gonzalez> Image Made with Canva: https://www.canva.com
References
‘Blue Sky’ by Wowa and Chris Rede (CC BY 3.0) https://soundcloud.com/wowamusik/blue-sky-cc0
‘Long Way To Go’ by Miguel Johnson (CC BY 3.0)https://soundcloud.com/migueljohnsonmjmusic/long-way-to-go
Uldam, J 2018 ‘Social Media visibility: challenges to activism’, in Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 40 (1), pp 41-58, doing: 10.1177/0163443717704997
Uyehara, M 2018 ‘The Sliming of David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez’, GQ, 30 March, retrieved 23 April 2018 “>https://www.gq.com/story/the-sliming-of-david-hogg-and-emma-gonzalez>