My engagement with digital activism
Recently, I have been a part of digital activism. Well, to be more specific a clicktivism, categorized under the criticism of social media activism. It is sort of like a lazy form of activism. If I’m not mistaken, two days before the university had decided to defer classes for two weeks, there was an online petition being shared in WhatsApp and other social media platforms I suppose, in regards to appeal for the university to provide online classes to combat and minimize the outbreak of COVID-19 within Sarawak. There were asking for the students’ full name and student id to join the petition. So I did it because why not right? At the end of the day, the main concern is the students’ and lecturers’ safety and health.
The other online petition is also from the students of Swinburne Sarawak, not too sure on who has been developing these petitions, but after the online class appealing, there have been another one in regards to seeking a partial refund of the tuition fees. It is being shared via link by my friend also in WhatsApp. As I signed the petition, it has already garnered nearly to 1000. It occurs not only within Sarawak but all over the world where university students campaign for refund as they say online learning is not what they paid for.
There are many online petitions out there since not everybody can afford to skip work or school to protest on the streets for example, because just like how politicians use social media to reach to larger audiences, the online petition also reach a far greater number of people.
Example of a fandom that has been part of a protest
I’m a huge fan of Kpop, recently, a sex abuse case called the ‘Nth room’ shocked Koreans as they have to deal with yet another serious sexual abuse scandal after ‘Burning Sun’. It includes a lot of victims including minors where it is confirmed that the victims are being enslaved by the offenders to film sexual acts to sell online through Telegram. Not only that, Lee (2020) also claims that the videos were usually posted with the victims’ names and addresses. In consideration of this case, not only Korean citizens have posted and shared a petition but a lot of celebrities also takes advantage of their power and influence including EXO’s Chanyeol and Baekhyun, members of a popular Kpop boy group by posting multiple photos of the petition through his Instagram story in the hope that their fans around the world would help sign the petition. Song (2020, p. 1) stated that one of the petition is to request for the users’ identity to be released to the public. Another one is to request that all the users and offenders of the group chat to receive fair punishment. After both of them posted the petition on their social media respectively, fans are grateful because they spread awareness about this case, considering they have lots of fans internationally, it has significantly helped in the number of people signing the petition.
How does graffiti/street art become symbols of a protest or a social movement?
Street arts can be very controversial but it can also be a channel for voices of social change and protest (Maddox n.d.). For instance, ‘the girl in the blue bra’. In Cairo, 10,000 women protested over the treatment. Banners were held up showing the woman’s bloodied and stripped body. In the result of that, she has quickly become the symbol for Egyptian protestors trying to end the country’s military power (Higgins 2011, p. 1). She was being labelled like that because, in the video, the soldiers are seen beating and dragging the women along the street during the protest. Her cloth was torn apart until her upper body was exposed. Not only that, Higgins (2011, p. 1) also claims the soldiers are seen to be stepping on her which then leads to photos of her being abused shocks and creates anger for both the country and internationally. To conclude, street arts became a tool for both social and political matters. It is filled with powerful social and political commentary. The streets eventually became canvases for artists to show their riot and in hope that the public will remember the people who have been abused or killed in the protest. Martinique (2016) stated that varying from writings to drawings, street arts were the public mediums to send a message.
Social media in activism and protest
A lot of things can happen because of the potential in alternative and activist media. New media especially social media has made it so much easier to gain access to information. Besides, activists can also find a group for others who share the same ideas and opinions. New media also allows activists to build and sustain communities without any sort of geographical restrictions. It also allows them to gain visibility and voice (Chin 2020). Furthermore, they can use new media tools to resist or talk back to dominant views, confront dominant media institutions, politics and structure of power. Chin (2020) explained that a lot of times, major media institutions like CNN and BBC might not publish news that we want to watch and their views might not be agreeable to ours. So it allows them to present alternatives or marginal views legitimately. All they need is a phone, a social media account and there you go, they can already participate in anything.
This is eventually link to this idea of networked publics. Networks provide new digital authoring and distribution tools. On digital space, the publics can be reactors and remakers, for instance we comment on a tweet and share it (Chin 2020). We are engaging in this shared culture and knowledge through discourse and social exchange. On top of that, there is also an offline extension. For instance, Chin (2020) explained that on the streets, it’s often the placards who do the talking. But on the other hand, people are sharing information online, snapping photos and sharing them on social media. Not to mention people are also sharing information as to where to meet and where the protest is going to take place.
Our current dependency on social media extends this participation online to what we would call digital citizenship. Once this is extended online, it is often without National as well as geographical, boundaries, or restrictions (Chin 2020). It means that nothing would stop us from following news or organizations from overseas. We are keeping up to date with what’s happening in other parts of the world as information is at our fingertips as long as we have access to the internet.
Plus, we all have become a mobile witnesses. How much the idea of activism and protest has changed. But then, the mobile witness now is also a global witness. There are many facets and perspectives of protests that are happening on streets, schools, university, shopping malls, and its aided by the global reach of social media. For instance, Facebook and Twitter played a substantive role in the riots by speeding up the flow of communications across multiple spaces. Information is being passed much quicker and it was harder to maintain and control by anyone who is in power.
Chin, B 2020, ‘Lecture 6.Digital citizenship 2: Activism and protest’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 20 April, viewed 24 April 2020.
Higgins, M 2011, ‘Police beating of ‘girl in the blue bra’ becomes new rallying call for Egyptians’, National Post, 20 December, p. 1.Lee, S 2020, ‘South Korea’s latest sex crime scandal is a blackmail ring streaming abuse on Telegram’, Quartz, viewed 24 April 2020,
<https://qz.com/1824130/korea-shocked-by-telegram-chat-room-sexual-abuse-scandal/>.
Maddox, D n.d., ‘Graffiti and street art can be controversial, but can also be a medium for voices of social change, protest or expressions of community desire. What, how and where are examples of graffiti as positive force for communities?’, The nature of cities, viewed 24 April 2020,
<https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2016/03/23/graffiti-and-street-art-can-be-controversial-but-can-also-be-a-medium-for-voices-of-social-change-protest-or-expressions-of-community-desire-what-how-and-where-are-examples-of-graffiti-as-a-posi/>.
Martinique, E 2016, ‘A history of protest art through examples - From Ai Weiwei to Banksy’, Widewalls, viewed 24 April 2020,
<https://www.widewalls.ch/protest-art/arab-spring-graffiti/>.
Song, D 2020, ‘EXO’s Chanyeol and Baekhyun posts petition regarding “Nth room sex abuse case” through Instagram’, Koreaboo, 23 March, p. 1.
