{"id":525,"date":"2020-01-23T01:09:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T22:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/?p=525"},"modified":"2022-10-13T16:11:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:11:03","slug":"can-social-media-support-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/2020\/01\/23\/can-social-media-support-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Social Media Support Activism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marie Alardot<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, \nIdeologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku.\n <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protests have been around for a long time, but with the arrival of social media, activism has changed. How can social media support activism? How has social media changed activism? Has the impact been positive or negative? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive Aspects <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my\nopinion, social media can support activism in a positive way. Thanks to social\nmedia, activist groups can reach a worldwide audience in an easy, cheap, and\nfast way. Online digital platforms make it easier to persuade and influence others.\nSocial media connects people and gathers them together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her article, \u201cMedia Literacy: The 5 Key Concepts,\u201d<\/a> Stacey Goodman said: \u201cWe are no longer just consumers of media, but content creators and distributors, as well as editors, opinion makers, and journalists.\u201d I agree with her. Social media gives a voice to everyone, including minorities. It is a tool that is easily accessible.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, social media enables movements to grow and reinforce themselves. For example, after the mass shooting in Parkland<\/a>, Florida, students organized a demonstration called \u201cMarch for Our Lives\u201d and, thanks to Twitter, the movement spread widely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u00a9 Arlinda Smith Broady, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another example is the #MeToo movement<\/a> which, again through Twitter,\nhas had a significant worldwide impact. It also helped spark another movement: #balancetonporc<\/a>, the French version of #MeToo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media can also allow\nlatent movements to reappear very easily. The press is no longer the only one\nwho decides what is important. This way, people can control the information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negative Aspects <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There can be downsides to social media as well. Let\u2019s look at the concepts of backlash and slacktivism, for instance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u00a9Bertrand Guay\/AFP <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A backlash is a strong negative reaction to an action or development. For example, in the BalanceTonPorc case<\/a>, Sandra Muller \u2013 the journalist who started France\u2019s equivalent of the #MeToo campaign \u2013 took to Twitter to speak out against a man she said had harassed her. The man then sued her for defamation, and in the end, Muller was condemned to pay 15,000 euros of compensations. I find it aberrant, but unfortunately, this is what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201cslacktivism<\/a>\u201d refers\nto a soft, weak form of activism created by and present on social media. People\nshare a message on an online platform or “like” a post, and feel\nproud of themselves. But actually, in my opinion, they could be considered as\nlazy activists. Social media helps to engage more people but the level of\ncommitment can be lower compared to traditional activism. In this case, social\nmedia has a negative impact by increasing disengaged activism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, there is not much\nregulation on social media platforms, and sometimes activist groups can lose\ncontrol because of disrespectful words or images. However, Twitter has established rules<\/a> to\nencourage proper conversation. In my point of view, social\nmedia needs to be much more regulated because we can come across shocking and\nharmful content, which can damage the original cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, using social media as a platform for activism can have positive and negative outcomes. In my view, social media helps activism. It allows movements to reach a bigger audience faster and cheaper. It enables activist groups to become more influential and have more impact. And most importantly, they give everyone the opportunity to be heard. But we must be careful with our words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marie Alardot This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku. Protests have been around for a long time, but with the arrival of social media, activism has changed. How can social media support activism? How has social media changed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}