Introduction

by Rory Clark

The social media boom that began in 2007 is perhaps now coming to an end, with Facebook numbers for millennials and post-millennials in Canada, not to mention the many post US election social media ‘scandals’ (I’ll just let you Google that one yourself and take your pick), as well the ongoing debate concerning how well online activism actually works.

However, let’s go back to that fateful year, 2007, when the first iPhone hit the shelves, with full (touch)screen smartphones proving to be a major of social media engagement. Facebook and YouTube also released their mobile platforms that year. Other notable 2007 milestones include Facebook overtaking Myspace in and YouTube consuming as much bandwidth as the entire internet was estimated to have in 2000, YouTube and other video streaming sites actually might crash the entire Internet in years to come. Also in 2007, Twitter spun off into its own company and introduced the hashtag while also holding a showcase at SXSW whether it might be the next YouTube.

However, the major social media platforms, as mentioned in my earlier post, were not originally intended for, nor was it even envisioned they might be used for the facilitation of activism and social movements to the extents that they now are. As Facebook’s Product Manager of Civic Engagement, ,

While popular discourse on the matter in the West celebrates social media for their supposed facilitation of prosocial endeavors, some academic literature is more suspicious, and one might argue cynical.

The so called (by Western media) Twitter revolutions of 2009-2011 (, and the ones in that spurred the Arab Spring), were held up, cautiously at times, as empirical evidence of how the democratic and emancipatory potentiality of social media was manifesting itself in their ability to support these movements. Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa regions saw uprisings and revolutions that we in the Western world seemed quick to take some credit for via the functionality of social media. The fact the Arab Spring only resulted in one country, Tunisia, transitioning to a constitutional democratic government, and has led to devastating widespread ongoing conflicts and civil wars since dubbed the Arab Winter, is something Western media is less enthusiastically talking about in relation to social media.

Some scholars are questioning whether social media even had the effect or affect we wanted to imagine it had in the first place. Iran, on the eve of the election that led to their civil unrest and mass protests, had only 19,235 Twitter accounts, 0.027% of the population (Morozov, 2012, 15). Morozov goes on to argue that much of the social media traffic that accompanied the Iran protests likely actually originated in the West and proposes that people perhaps were changing their Twitter locations to Tehran to “confuse” authorities (ibid.).

Now the and the academy (Hogben & Cownie, 2017; Obar, 2014) are beginning to wonder if online activism is actually worth the effort, whether it might be, as Morozov and others argue, displacing other methods of more effective action and engagement.

A popular and fairly accurate notion to keep in mind is that the Internet and social media are reflections of society. Just as the Internet does not make people racist or sexist, it is not going to make them activists if the desire does not already exist. As one “Father” of the Internet,

However, it can amplify existing tendencies. Some believe, and some has shown that millennials and post-millennials—while desiring change and to also (somewhat less often however) actually be the agents of said change—they may have conditions attached to their engagement. As noted in the previous batch of interviews, sometimes this is comprised of the social media attention, the social media currency in the form of likes and comments, that one may receive for jumping on a trend like the ALS Ice Bucket challenge or KONY 2012. Sometimes it may be to have something to put on ones CV. Sometimes it may be because the movement directly pertains to issues that affect/effect them. Sometimes they may simply do it out of the goodness of their heart.

Let’s see what this batch of student-scholars have to say.

• Eldora Aoun: Take the Slack out of Slacktivism
• Leiqin Shen: Activism in the Digital Age

Works Cited:

Hogben, J. and Cownie, F. 2017. Exploring Slacktivism; Does The Social Observability of Online Charity Participation Act as a Mediator of Future Behavioural Intentions?, Journal of Promotional Communications, 5(2), 203-226

Morozov, E. (2012). The net delusion: how not to liberate the world. London: Penguin.

Obar, J. A. (2014). Canadian advocacy 2.0: an analysis of social media adoption and perceived affordances by advocacy groups looking to advance activism in Canada. Canadian Journal of Communication, 39, 211-233

Loading…

No people posts are available.

Rory Clark

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Issue 2: Desperate Dreams of Digital Democratization? appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

by Leiqin Shen

Since their mass adoption by the public, digital media and the Web 2.0 have been essential tools for activists, protests and uprisings. More and more people every day are joining discussions facilitated by social media concerning social issues and social movements.

Supporting this notion are the events surrounding rapid dissemination of the short Kony 2012 documentary. The film exposed to the wider public the issues concerning child soldiers in Uganda and it seemed it was these sorts of human rights abuses that touched a sensitive and sympathetic chord with many social media users. Warlord Joseph Kony quickly went from being unknown outside Africa to a household name and people voicing their demand for him to be arrested grew just as widespread. Online activism, the sharing of the video across social media causing it to go viral, was considered a significant factor that enabled this social movement to spread across the globe.

Online engagement is further examined in the New York Times exposé, “” (Confessore, Dance, Harris & Hansen, 2018). Exposed is how the potential of social media for everything to reshaping political debates to gathering attention for not just social issues but even personal ones are so great that one can now purchase fake followers, views, likes, retweets, even plays on Soundcloud, all in bulk. One could imagine the different ways this service could be used, and the article presents one interesting example of how former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken paid the company providing said service, Devumi, to help spread his grievance against Volvo. Devumi Twitter bots retweeted his complaint 5,000 times in just one example of all the different ways people are attempting to mobilize online activism—in the broadest definitions of the term—to transcend national boundaries and reach audiences around the world.

Another perspective provided by Lim (2018), explores how digital and new media enable a spectrum of ways to participate in collectivized social activities, but how they do not create protests, social movements or collective actions, that the human conditions and relations that lead to these things need to be understood in tandem with the technology (31). In this way, the implications of digital media in political activism in certain territories of Middle East, North Africa and Asia largely depends on urbanization and the growth of the middle class. The high levels of social media use by the urban middle-class leads to political/human rights issues they care about, such as freedom of speech and corruption, being the focus of social media discussions. Therefore, protests and civic engagement that are able to gain national and international momentum via social media often exclude the concerns of those in rural areas and those who do not have Internet access. Lim also notes that during the Arab uprisings of 2010-2012, Tunisia and Egypt had very low social media penetration, especially in rural communities. Therefore, this demonstrates how in some cases, movements that were originally credited to social media for their mobilization were actually a result of intermodality between social media and traditional communication networks.

While credit is often given to social media and online activism for the ability to produce a vast impact on political participation and social movements, it can often fail to meet its end goals without enough physical support. The has garnered 102 million views and 1.3 million likes on YouTube, but this clicktivism does not seem to have helped the campaign reach its end goal of arresting and trying Joseph Kony for his crimes. Drumbl (2012) examines how it seems the movement’s supporters had short attention spans and thus the movement itself a short shelf life. While the film’s release coincided with the search volume index for “Kony” rising meteorically, it soon plummeted. Most people are probably unaware there was actually a follow up film, , as evident by it having 100 million less views than the first.

It has been six years since Kony 2012 and he is still at large, and it could be argued this is to some extent due to the movements failure to transmit the online clicktivism into a physical offline movement. Therefore, it is important in this digital age not to downplay the importance of actual physical human bodies as social and political mediums as well. The level of affect that the body as a medium can have on stimulating people’s political participation and civic engagement should not be underestimated in the social media era.

Works cited:

Confessore, N., Dance, C. J.X., Harris, R., & Hansen, M. (2018, Jan 27). The Follower Factory. The New York Times. Retrieved from 

Drumbl, M. A. (2012). 481-485. doi:10.1093/jhuman/hus023

Lim, M (2018). “Sticks and Stones, Clicks and Phones: Contextualizing the Role of Digital Media in the Politics of Transformation.” In C. Richter & C. Harders, & A. Antonakis-Nashif (eds.) Digital Media and the Politics of Transformation in the Arab World and Asia (pp. 9-34), Berlin: Springer

Loading…

No people posts are available.

Leiqin Shen

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Activism in The Digital Age appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

by Eldora Aoun

I know what you’re thinking when you read the title of this article. You’re thinking, “online activism is slacktivism at its finest . . . People participate online just to pat themselves on the back and feel good about doing their part for humanity . . . However, at the end of the day, that Facebook like or that Twitter retweet doesn’t actually change anything . . .”.

Well, I’m going to challenge you on those notions. The 700 words will implore you to rethink your criticism of cyber activism, because cyber activism is a site of engagement that can provoke real change in societies.

My first argument,

As noted by Christensen (2011) online activism is more likely to engage the politically inactive user, than to disengage the politically active. Though it is certainly easier to join a Facebook group or make an online donation than it is to participate in a rally, the former does not impede the latter. The person who is a genuine, self-proclaimed activist, will be engaged both online and offline. And if we are being honest, the politically inactive and disengaged wouldn’t participate in a rally to begin with. Liking a Facebook movement or re-tweeting a political commentary are actions that won’t make activists less inclined to be active elsewhere. However, it does provide a low and easy standard of participation that makes the politically inactive take a first step into more involved levels of engagement.

My second argument,

The Internet is a digital universe connecting people all across the world into one collective cyberspace. It enables connectivity amongst billions of users within seconds. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate on a global scale.

Before this, activism was formed as regional or national movements supported by word of mouth and face-to-face initiatives. Social media has made it possible for movements to spread across borders and onto international stages. Previously, gaining support from across the world was a nearly impossible feat. Now, raising global awareness, international recruitment, and gaining public opinion has become faster and easier and occurs on a greater scale.

Having public opinion on one’s side is crucial in order to realize social change, especially on a political level. What better way to be able to have a conversation with the public and have your side of the story heard than on a virtual platform? Mainstream media often reflects the dominant vies and opinions of society’s elites. Therefore, if you represent a marginalized viewpoint and want it to be heard, the best place to go for complete freedom of expression is the Internet. In online spaces, grassroots social movements can have their voices heard in conversations and begin to shift and gain public opinion.

Here’s my proof,

The movement is my first example. In Egypt, a young man named Khaled Said got brutally beaten to death by police officers. One person took to Facebook and created the aforementioned group to support the movement and create a virtual community around it, one that had grown to over 200,000 members.

The group provides a space for users to come together and build strength surrounding the notions of political activism. This way, in the event of an incident occurring that may trigger a movement, such as the Tunisian Revolution, the group can be mobilized—moving online followers into the streets for protest.

Example number two is how during the 2010-2012 Arab Spring social media was on eof the key factors in exercising freedom of speech, fostering civic engagement and coordinating rallies. Networks formed online were crucial in organizing a core group of activists to activists to simultaneous protests against dictatorship and oppression (Brown et al., 2012; Preston, 2011)

Also, demonstrators on location were able to provide instant updates of the events taking place to national and international audiences. The importance of social media was in communicating to the rest of the world what was happening on the ground during the revolution. Without the Internet, the Arab Spring arguably would have taken a very different meaning in the eyes of Western society (Schroeder et al., 2012).

My third example, remember Kony 2012? In case you were living under a rock in 2012; film maker Jason Russell released a as a call-to action to make War Lord , to imprison him and end the forced drafting of children into his army.

For nearly 27 years, Joseph Kony kidnapped children in Uganda and forced them into his army of child soldiers.

Before the 2012 campaign, Joseph Kony was mostly unheard of. However, after the 30-minute film was released, Kony’s name and malicious activities became instantly viral. Thanks to the powers of the Internet and its online users, a successful global movement transpired vowing to bring down him down.

… Must I go on?

The Internet has proven to do more good than harm regarding social change. So far all you ‘slacktivism’ critics out there who poke fun at online activism: social media isn’t going anywhere. So perhaps there is a more proactive way to leverage cyber space, than to sarcastically criticize the ‘like’ and ‘retweet’ buttons.

Works cited:

Alaimo, Kara. (2015). How the Facebook Arabic Page “We Are All Khaled Said” Helped Promote the Egyptian Revolution. Social Media + Society. Sage Journals. Retrieved from:

Brown, Heather, et. al. (2012). The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings. Arab-America Media. Pew Research Center, Journalism and Media. Retrieved from:

Henrik, Christensen. (2011). Political Activities on The Internet: Slacktivism or Political Participation by Other Means? Peer Reviews Journal on The Internet. Retrieved from:

Invisible Children, (2012). KONY 2012. YouTube. Retrieved from:

Newcomb, Tim. (2012). Internet Campaign Aims to Make Ugandan Warlord ‘Famous’. World. Time.com. Retrieved from:

Preston, Jennifer. (2011). Movement Began with Outrage and a Facebook Page That Gave It an Outlet. Middle East. New York Times. Retrieved from:

Schroeder, Rob et. al. (2012). Mining Twitter Data from The Arab Spring. ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ CTX. Global Ecco. Retrieved from:

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Taking the Slack out of Slacktivism appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.