Digital Communities

media communications blog, focused on concepts and ideas of social media

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Global Social Media Practise – behind China’s firewall.

It is hard to imagine a world where social media exists, but in an entirely different way – but this is exactly what is happening in China. An experience of place is created through both social culture and natural environment – and how outsiders are dealt with (Wang 2015, p.34), and this is true online as well as in person. Global social media practises differ from culture to culture, with varying laws, regulation and traditions impacting the use of social media. China has a very strict set of laws, with significant government censorship – and this follows over into the citizens internet access. All of the servers in China are located in Bejing, where microdata can be accessed and searched by the Chinese authorities. The country is also strict on maintaining their own servers, and not having other countries have access to their data and citizens, China is one four countries without access to Facebook, Syria, Iran and North Korea being the others (Anti 2011).

 China has their own forms of social media, with most ‘Western’ platforms having a similar platform available in China – but with restrictions placed on how the site is used. Twitter becomes “Weibo”, and has over 300 million users, YouTube becomes Youku; Ren Ren, Douban, QZone and Kaixan are all alternatives to Facebook (Crampton 2011). Activities taken on these sites offer a ‘targeted freedom’ where there is a sense of freedom of speech, not in words but more so in slang, memes and other creative ways to spread a message as these sites are censored to avoid certain words or topics, including the presidents last name. Censoring memes and slang, which are constantly evolving is more difficult. The Chinese government can also pick and choose what they censor to use social media and public opinion to their own advantage. Sites like Weibo can also be political in how they are used, alongside being used for constructing and negotiating a ‘geo-identity’ (Wang 2015, p.36). in these circumstances geo identity uses the idea of the internet as the place, rather than location, although is more so specific to China than it would be in another country with shared networks and servers (like Australia).

So, although China doesn’t have a western idea of social media they have created their own equivalent, something that the government can still censor but keeps consumers happy. It is also a huge part of marketing, ignoring social media in marketing campaigns was considered a risk in 2011 (Crampton 2011) and is probably impossible now. Even in 2012 Chinese consumers reported being more likely to purchase a product they had seen used on social media (Chiu et al. 2012, p.1). Just because it is not how we know social media to be, does not mean it is any lesser – although the differences can be hard to imagine from the other side of the firewall.

Wilfred Yang Wang (2015) 'Remaking Guangzhou Geo-identity and Place-making on Sina Weibo'

Anti, M 2011, 'Behind the great firewall of China', TedTalks viewed 20 May 2018  <http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_anti_behind_the_great_firewall_of_china.html>

Chiu, C, Lin, D and Silverman, A 2012, 'China's social-media boom', McKinsey and Company, 1 May 2013

Crampton, T 2011 'Social media in China: The same, but different' China Business Review, Vol 38, Issue 1, pp 28-31 viewed http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/

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[thesocialsocietyx]

China's social credit system

Nosedive, an episode of 'Black Mirror' paints a world where a person's place in society is dictated by a number. People are rated based on their interactions...

Wooaahhh. Okay. Just watch this 

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wow!

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Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd

The history of video games is not a very long one but it is a topic that is constantly discussed; whether it be about the positive implications or the negative. A videogame that was critically discussed during this unit was the game EVE Online. To be honest before today I have never heard of it, however with the help of the unit readings and Google of course, I started to get a better understanding about what I should explore as part of this week’s topic.

For those who don’t know (like me before my extensive research), EVE Online is a science fiction themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) (Suzor & Woodford 2013, p. 5). Players of EVE Online can participate in a number of in-game professions and activities such as, mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and combat; both player versus environment and player versus player.

Much like any videogame, there always comes a discussion about the positive and negative implications that come with the interaction of these games. And that is exactly what I will be examining today.

Video games have the potential to teach people a variety of things. With EVE Online, people not only have to understand how to play the game, but also understand how the economics in the game works. The game entails players to buy and sell raw materials, create their own fluctuating markets, gamble on commodities and form trade alliances and banks. The game therefore teaches players to learn how to control the market or gamble on something to sell and hope that it sells for a good amount of money. The economy of the game can relate to economy in real life; teaching players important lessons.

Connecting with other players online every day when playing multiplayer games is another positive. It helps players build online relationships forcing people to interact with the environment around them. It allows for players to connect with a diverse group of people around the world and form online communities.

However, it is not all good news when it comes to connecting and interacting with people online. An example of this was an incident where a key member of the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) known as ‘The Mittani’ made comments outside the game environment about another player. The comments made by The Mittani lead to the suspension of the player for thirty days because he breached the terms of service.

According to de Zwart and Humphreys (2014, p. 80), players must accept the terms of service in order to join and remain the game. An example of the terms of use is that players must “not abuse, harass or threaten another player or authorized representative of CCP, including customer service personnel and volunteers” and “may not use any abusive, defamatory, ethnically or racially offensive, harassing, harmful, hateful, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, threatening or vulgar language” (de Zwart & Humphreys, 2014, p. 80).

The Mittani (the leader of the Goonswarm Alliance), streamed a live presentation on the internet and as part of the presentation showcased a number of slides quoting in-game chat or posts made from players who have been defeated or defrauded by Goonswarm (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 87). It is within the Goonswarm nature to commit fraud, scam and sabotage players within the game. One of the slides showed an expression of grief from an (at the time) anonymous player about repeatedly being harassed or killed in the game and includes the player commenting “since my divorce all I want to do is die, and I have been doing that a lot in this game” (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 87).

At the end of the presentation the audience was encouraged to partake in a Q&A whereby many people made remarks about their issues with the anonymous player’s statement. In response The Mittani made a number of comments that identified the player, and said “if you want to make the guy kill himself, his [in-game] name is [xxxx]” (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 88).

After the incident with The Mittani, a public apology was issued, however many EVE Online players were not happy with the outcome of someone’s identity being exposed. This lead to another user posting The Mittani’s address online and another claiming they were on their way to rape his wife (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 91).

Although videogames have a number of positive effects such as allowing users to interact and connect with people around the world and form online communities, it is displeasing to know that not many people use this opportunity for good. The abusive comments and the fact that our personal information can be exposed is alarming.

References:

- de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014, ‘The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online’, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

- Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, ‘Evaluating Consent and Legitimacy amongst Shifting Community Norms: an EVE Online Case Study’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1-14.

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The economy of the game can relate to economy in real life; teaching players important lessons.

Sometimes the rules learnt online; whether set by the game developers or social rules, can be brought into and applicable in everyday life! While ‘gaming’ often gets a lot of criticism it can have positives beyond that of the communities created and friendships made.

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Social Gaming and HQ

Online gaming is a place where an online community can be created. Multiplayer games create a space where users can negotiate their own rules and code of conduct – game rules created by the game developers intersect and overlap with social rules created by the players, which leads to a cultural norm that exists inside the game rather than in a place (DeZwart & Humphreys 2014, p.77).

Multiplayer games are often considered contractual environments – with the players agreeing to a set of terms and conditions before being able to access the game (DeZwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 78). These online spaces are largely viewed as private, in relation to legal regulation – however they often boarder between public and private, with many aspects and viewpoints represented on these sites being a matter of public regulation (Suzor & Woodford 2013, p.2). So while many of the rules are set by the game developers these are a contractual agreement, and punishment for violating them can be difficult to establish. Another major set of rules that can be found on social gaming platforms is the idea of user created and enforced rules – these are considered a code of conduct, and reflect the cultural norm present on the site. These can impact the way the game is played and can be inconsistent with the user acceptance agreement (set by the developers that users have to accept before playing the game) (DeZwart & Humphreys 2014, p.78). The final impacting factor on the social environment within online gaming is the external laws – while users can come from all over the world their play and interactions can be impacted by their understanding of the laws of their home country (DeZwart & Humphreys 2014, p.80). Some players will expect their countries laws to apply within the game space, where others expect a suspension of reality and the law – these ideas most typically apply to rules relating to harassment and vilification (DeZwart & Humphreys 2014, p.80). While it can be hard to find and punish those breaking the law, social code of conduct or user entry agreement groups like ‘anon’ and ‘the illuminati’ find users breaking these ‘rules’ and present their own sense of justice – a sort of online vigilante. (example of an anon hacking vid, example of an illuminati video)

Online gaming comes in a variety of shapes and forms, and does not always have to be social – even in multiplayer style games. An interesting example of an online game is HQ Trivia – a modern android and ios app where users compete in a trivia competition in a game show style format with a comedian host and the potential to win a share in the sessions prize money. HQ gets users from all over the world competing at set times – and can get an audience of up to 2.18 million people at once. So, while HQ is not something that necessarily fits in with the typical idea of multiplayer games it is a game that reaches a huge audience, and has its own set of rules for users to follow. HQ is interesting to consider in the ways it intersects television game shows and participatory culture to a massive audience – and it will be interesting to see how or if a user based code of conduct eventually emerges, and what the app in general means for both the television and gaming industries.

de Zwart, M. & Humphreys, S. (2014) The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online' Cultural Studies Review

Suzor, N. & Woodford, D. (2013) 'Evaluating consent and legitimacy amongst shifting community norms: An EVE Online case study' Journal of Virtual Worlds Research

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[digi-tal-communities]

The role of social media in eating disorders

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This is such an honest and insightful look into the weeks topic - thank you for sharing!

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Dr. Google and public health

Since the 1990’s the discussion of the potential role social media, digital citizenship and the internet at large, can play in public health and health education has existed (Burgess et al. 2013, p.22). Social media can play a number of different roles in areas of health including but not limited to; education, fundraising, support and ‘public diaries’. In relation to education the internet was first expected to make health education easier, it would hopefully supply improved accessibility (use patients own resources, be available 24/7, to suit needs and lifestyles and offer increased interactivity), however there is an issue of reliability – with many sources being untrustworthy or unvetted and readers or patients not being able to tell (Burgess et al. 2013, p.22). Today ‘googling’ most symptoms will lead to a diagnose of something life-threatening – often cancer, but sometimes brain tumours and, every so often, something else unique (but equally terrifying). More than 83% of internet users seek health information online (McCosker 2015, p.1) so while the internet does offer good resources for understanding diseases it should never be used for diagnosis.

On a personal level blogs can become a ‘personal diary’ for the ill, giving them a chance to spread their story and find a basis of support. These blogs can a level of personal involvement for the ill, which can help create a healthier physical and psychological understanding of their illness – whether it is mental or physical (McCosker & Darcy 2013, p.6). Despite the positives of blogging on illness the audience for these blogs can forget, or fail to understand the labour that goes into creating them on top of the labour of the illness (McCosker & Darcy 2013, p. 12). Fundraising is a definite plus for social media and health education – social media campaigns can be used to raise significant funds for any medical condition, from common to obscure, and they can reach a world-wide audience, although a potential downside is that there is the potential for engagement in causes to be superficial, with celebrities attending events or engaging online causing fans to briefly engage online - rather than any form of substantial involvement (Burgess et al. 2013, p.23). 

Social media also plays an important role in understanding and raising awareness for mental health, although it can also be accused of exacerbating mental health issues. To write love on her arms (TWLOHA) is a movement that began when its founder started selling tee shirts on Myspace to raise funds for his friend’s substance abuse rehabilitation, and is now a social justice, non-profit organisation that has presence in over four countries, and has received mainstream media support (Milner 2012, p.423). TWLOHA is just one organisation that uses social media to spread a story and send a call to action, using non-traditional stories, branding methods and fundraising efforts to raise awareness for mental health issues, especially in the youth. 

Burgess, J., Cassidy, E., & Light, B. (2014). ‘Deeply superficial Digital Media Engagement? The Case of Twitter and Movember 2013’. Paper presented at AoIR 15, Daegu, Korea.

McCosker, A. (2016) 'Digital Mental Health and Visibility: Tagging Depression', in P. Messaris and L. Humphreys, Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication(2nd edn), Peter Lang.

McCosker, A. and Darcy, R. (2013) 'Living With Cancer: Affective Labour, Self-Expression and the Utility of Blogs'', Information, Communication & Society 16(8), 1266-85.

Milner, R. M. (2012) ‘To Write Love Through the Indie Imaginary: The Narrative Argument of a Mediated Movement’, Continuum, 26:3, 423-435

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[abbeydigitalcommunity]

Crowd Sourcing in Times of Crisis

What is Crowd Sourcing?

Crowd sourcing can be defined as an ‘open call for proposals or solutions to a problem or issue of social need’ Jeff Howe (Wired, 2006 outsourcing) however with the rise of social networking sites and digital communities a more modern definition would be a large number of people who are working together to reach a common goal involving electronic communication networks (Littmann and Suomela, 2014).

Why Social Media?

Social media has changed the way in which people connect and interact with each other. Proximity used to determine our social life, we met with people within our immediate environments and relationships were sustained by regular face to face contact (Siapera 2012, p.191). Social media is “powerful tool for mobilizing the public” (Schimak, Havlik, & Pielorz, 2015) as it is quicker and easier to connect large groups of people and spread awareness than in traditional media forms.

Social Networking sites can be understood as sites at which individuals and groups make sense of events and experiences.’ (Horbury & Hughes, 2010, ‘Social Media After Black Saturday’ p 144). Making them perfect for crowd sourcing during disasters when people are confused and scared.

#qldfloods

During the 2011 South East Queensland floods social media played a major role in “disseminating and sharing crisis information and updates from state and local authorities” (Bruns ,2012). #qldfloods was used more than 35,000 times and most the most used Twitter hashtag between the 10th to 16 of January 2011. People using the hashtag were about to share information advice, news and reports quickly. The information included things like road closures, flood warnings and offers of assistance.  

How to Successfully Crowd Source…

According to the ABC’s national social media coordinator, Ping Lo, the way to successfully crowd source is to use clear, simple questions. That  is the most effective way to get a response particularly in emergencies when people do not have time to sift through a lot of information. Consistency is key, people in times of crises need to know when and what the account will be posting. You also need to remain flexible and to be able to adapt as the people in crisis needs may change or there may be a new development in the emergency.

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“the way to successfully crowd source is to use clear, simple questions. That  is the most effective way to get a response particularly in emergencies when people do not have time to sift through a lot of information.”

This is a key part of understanding crowdsourcing - understanding how to use it effectively :) it’s an important part of the theory and practicality of the user generated content, and important for its successful continuation!

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Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

When disaster strikes social media can play a huge role in spreading information and updates, keeping audiences informed and safe. Crowd sourcing refers to the idea of using large groups of users on social media to obtain and spread information, and was used in Australia in 2011 – during the January Queensland floods. One of the earliest instances of crowdsourcing was the Ushahidi platform – a site that gave citizens the opportunity to report human rights violations, and has been decreed both a catalyst for social movements and a form of liberation technology (Ford 2012, p.33). Although it was initially successful in a local market, and was integrated into other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter Ushahidi struggled when it was introduced into other markets – there were issues in gaining the trust of citizens who would be relied on for the information and reports (Ford 2012, p.35). While Ushahidi is now a successful open source community (Ford 2012, p.38) other platforms and organisers are still trying to find the same success for their own markets. The ABC was one such organisers during the 2011 Queensland floods. The ABC used Twitter and the hashtag #qldfloods. During the floods over 35,000 tweets were sent with the #qldfloods, with over 11,600 being sent on January 12th along, and with over 15,500 twitter users participating (Bruns et al. 2012, p.7). As a response to the floods, and the important role Twitter played in reporting the ABC expanding on their social media reporting – first initiated during the 2008 Black Saturday fires, and established social media as a form of emergency reporting – with the Twitter handle @abcemergency (Poblet et al. 2014, p.35). It just so happened that at the same time the floods occurred the ABC were trialling the use of Ushahidi – for feral animal spotting’s, and found the importance of having reliable information on the platform and online was especially relevant (Poblet et al. 2014, p.37). 

Another aspect of crowdsourcing is the idea of crowd funding – collecting money from online patrons for all sorts of causes. Sites like ‘gofundme’, ‘kickstarter’, ‘indiegogo’ and ‘rockethub’, alongside many, many others allow their users to raise money from people all over the world – for a variety of causes. Some people use crowdfunding sites for serious matters, healthcare costs, legal and housing fees, others to fund their creative projects – novels, television shows and app designs often offering funders ‘initiatives’ in exchange for their contributions. Sites like patreon, allow creators the freedom to write, draw or create their own content, with their ‘subscribers’ paying a monthly, or project based fee, in exchange for access to said content. Although these are all positive uses of crowdfunding there are those who use these sites for miscellaneous purposes; new clothes, make up and the like. Zack Danger Brown used kickstarter with the aim of raising $10 for a potato salad. He ended up with over 55 thousand dollars, and used the funds to throw a potato salad themed party – and a create retail cookbook.

Ford, H. (2012) ‘Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, pp 33-39 Executive Summary: ‘#qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods’, pp 7-10. Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Crawford, K., Shaw, F. (2012) Poblet M., García-Cuesta E., Casanovas P. (2014) Crowdsourcing Tools for Disaster Management: A Review of Platforms and Methods. In: Casanovas P., Pagallo U., Palmirani M., Sartor G. (eds) AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8929. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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[inclusivefeminism]

Open/closed More graphics for everyone! Feel free to share, download, whatever! Hope you enjoy!

Image description 1: Graphic of an open sign in red that says: “Come in, We’re open minded” Words are in white. The word come in is in script, the rest is in capitalized type. Theres a brain icon in red overlapping the o and p of the word open.

Image description 2: Graphic of a brown closed sign that says “Sorry! We’re closed to hate & trolls” The word sorry is in white script, and the rest is all in white capitalized type except for closed, which is in red capitalized type.

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trolling and online bullying

Alongside all the benefits of social media come the downsides – perhaps most notably the effects of trolling and bullying that can occur online, with no punishment to the perpetrator because of social media’s “anonymity”. Trolling is an online example of hostility, and before there was trolling there was ‘flaming’ (McCosker 2013, p.4). Of course, this has been an issue for almost as long as social media has been around and there are several theories and ideas on how to deal with, and punish bullies online. Now days there a several influences that limit the negative content that can be spread online. These include state and federal regulations in several countries that offer punishments for those operating outside of ‘appropriate behaviour’, technological controls and affordances of the platforms themselves, and education programs enforced on young children (McCosker 2016,p.1). While these systems are far from perfect, and hard to keep track of country to country or even state to state, they are a step in the right direction of protecting the youth online. The idea that digital domains are inherently agonistic, not the source merely the platform for acts of bullying or even criminal harassment (McCosker 2016, p.4) explores who is to blame; the platforms do not actually create potentially harmful content but they do help spread it, and while systems of utilities and flags can help keep users’ safe, it depends again on how they are utilised by both the platform and the user (McCosker 2016, p.10). Even social media researchers can struggle to agree on what constitutes as bullying, whether it be in real life or online; this can be seen in two ways, the line between bullying and criminal harassment and the line between bullying and gossip (Boyd 2014, p.131,132). What an adult might see as bullying may merely be seen as the spreading of gossip by a teenager, the idea that the younger generation requires or wants a lot more drama in their lives then their adult counterparts (Boyd 2014, p.137). In some cases, teens will even engage in acts of online self-harm, that is destroy their own image or send themselves invasive anonymous messages, in order to increase their popularity (Boyd 2014, p.141).

Whatever acts of online bullying or ‘trolling’ are committed it is not social media or any particular platforms fault, rather the fault of the user committing these acts. While some platforms that allow, or even, encourage anonymity make these acts of bullying easier for some people to commit, the internet is a hard place to police and there will always be people willingly taking advantage of that fact. Behaviour in the online world and face to face world can be quite different, especially when the consequences in each world are also drastically different (for the moment at least).

Boyd, D. (2014) ‘Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?’, in It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, pp 128-52. McCosker, A. (2013) ‘Trolling as Provocation: YouTube’s Agonistic Publics’, Convergence McCosker, A. (2016) 'Managing Digital Citizenship: Cyber Safety as Three Layers of Control', Chapter 1, Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture, (forthcoming, 2016, Rowman & Littlefield Int., London) Draft.

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[lvideon-digcomm-deactivated2019]

Greenpeace is a good example of social media activism

As social media has become a dominant mode of communication in our society it makes sense that it would used by activists and organisations as a method for creating change. Environmentalism is currently a topical issue, and so many causes have implemented social media as a tool to complement their activism.

While activist groups will have their own individual agendas and desired outcomes for their campaigns (such as protecting a particular area of habitat, or a specific animal species), in general most of them have similar objectives in their social media use. According to Lievrouw (2009), these objectives include the obvious aim to broadcast their message, but can also include internal organisation of their members. An example of how a group has used social media as a way to collect and mobilise their followers is Greenpeace. Being a worldwide organisation with many sub-organisations in various countries, they can run several campaigns simultaneously. Typically, a Greenpeace campaign is directed towards major companies with a goal to change business policies. In the real world they conduct actions such as protests and rallies. But on social media, they create content directed at the general public with a call to action for viewers to complain to the company they are targeting. In 2010, Greenpeace employed this method in a campaign against Nestle’s unsustainable palm oil sourcing. They made a parody advertisement for KitKat (a Nestle brand) titled ‘Have A Break?’, showing a man eating an orangutan finger in a KitKat wrapper. The shocking video prompted followers to harass Nestle with demands to commit to sustainable palm oil. In response, Nestle committed to using 100% sustainable palm oil within a few years. One of Greenpeace’s marketing specialists discussed the importance of social media in the Nestle campaign, owing its success to the video being shared on social media and gaining 1.5 million views (Forbes, 2010).

Below: The “Have A Break?” video. Warning: contains blood and is rather gross.

The act of sharing a video would be considered “slacktivism”, defined by Oxford as “the practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions”. The term “Slacktivism” is often used as an insult, implying the actions a slacktivist takes do not result in real change, yet it was in fact over a million slacktivists who pressured a multinational company to change its ways.

What I personally admire about Greenpeace’s method was that they managed to use social media to make it easier to involve the public in a protest, and therefore able to summon more of their people power than they could do for a real-life protest. They have also managed to adapt to the changing technological climate around them and seize upon slacktivism as a genuine form of activism to create change.

References

Forbes.com. (2010). Greenpeace VS Brands: Social Media Attacks To Continue. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/2010/07/19/greenpeace-bp-nestle-twitter-facebook-forbes-cmo-network-jeremiah-owyang.html#6bb962ab4675 [Accessed 30 Apr. 2018].

Lievrouw, L. (2009). NEW MEDIA, MEDIATION, AND COMMUNICATION STUDY1. Information, Communication & Society, 12(3), pp.303-325.

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While activist groups will have their own individual agendas and desired outcomes for their campaigns (such as protecting a particular area of habitat, or a specific animal species), in general most of them have similar objectives in their social media use

It is sometimes hard to realise that just because an activist group has a good social media presence, does not necessarily mean their activism is good. This phrasing is a good way of re enforcing the idea of looking into groups beyond their socials!

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mda20009

prezi for in class group presentation, 13/4/2018

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Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Gil Scott Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Pieces of a Man (1971) Flying Dutchman/RCA - New York Johnny Pate - conductor Brian Jackson - piano Ro...

“The Revolution will not be televised, it will be liveI”

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Activism and Protest

In recent history, social media has played an important role in social justice and activist movements, however these ‘revolutions’ have still relied on the groundwork of previous revolutions and movements (Sigal & Biddle 2011, p.287). Activism that occurs online is easily accessible, and available to everyday use but it is the purposes and intentions that these online actions serve that truly impacts a community or issue. While the few seconds it takes to send a tweet, or share a Facebook post may spread a message, it is generally the people who come together for action that create change. A fairly recent example of digital activism and protest is the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement – a movement that started online after the shooting of a young black man, Trayvon Martin, in 2013 and flared up again in a similar situation with the death of Mike Brown at the hands of a police officer in 2014 (x). While the movement trended, and sometimes continues to trend, on social media world-wide (x), there were also protests in the cities of the shootings. This relates to another theory of digital activism and protests – which is the idea that Social media allows for those with a common grievance to come together, provides the tools for organised dissent and allows for collective action (Sigal & Biddle 2011, p.288 & Lafi Youmans & York 2012, p.315). Although social media has a global reach, and issues aired on these platforms often reach a global audience uprising on social media most effect local communities. While variations of black lives matter trended worldwide, they had the most popularity and impact in America, where the shootings happened – and led to marches and sit in protests in these areas (x).

In terms of past revolutions, the symbols of these revolutions are commonly human; emotional and capable of drawing out emotions as well as having the potential to be historically important, while this still runs true – both Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown serve as symbols of these revolutions, technology has always played a significant role in organising mass uprising – and social media is the next form of technology serving protestors (Sigal & Biddle 2011, p.292). In the BLM movement, social media was used to provide information on the protests and help keep protestors safe (x). A downside to social media activism is the idea of ‘slacktivism’ or ‘hashtag activism’ – the argument that social media activism is nominal acts of support that don’t mean much for the real world (McCafferty 2011, p.17). Despite this there has been no evidence that acts of slacktivism negatively impact an issue (Lee & Hseih 2013). While BLM is an ongoing issue, social media has so far played an important role in raising awareness and keeping protestors safe.

Gerbaudo, 2012 Tweets and the Streets.

McCafferty, D 2011, ‘Activism Vs. Slacktivism’, Communications Of The ACM, vol. 54, no. 12, pp.17-19.

Lafi Youmans, W & York, J 2012 ‘Social Media and Activists Toolkit’, Journal of Communication, pp 315-329.

Lee, YH & Hseih, G 2013, Does slacktivism hurt activism? the effects of moral balancing and consistency in online activism ', CHI Conference on human factors in computing systems, Michigan State University, Paris, pp. 811-820 numbers. Sigal, I, and Biddle, E 2011 'Our Enduring Confusion About the Power of Digital Tools in Protest', Fibreculture Journal, 26

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(x)