Week 5: Digital Citizenship: Activism and Protest
With the ability to publish information and messages to entire networks and audiences it is no surprise that social media and the Internet have progressed to now act as a platform for ‘Digital Activism’. For those unfamiliar with the term it is quite simply ‘the practice of using digital technology to increase the
effectiveness of a social or political change campaign’. (Joyce, 2010). The benefit of digital activism is most obviously it’s ability to reach audiences instantly at the click of a button and to have these messages circulating around multiple networks. Using social media as a form of activism however has its limitations, for it segregates potential supporters who fail to connect through social media and therefore the strength of the overall impact of digital activism can be debated.
It also raises the issue of ‘Slacktivism’, and Clicktivism’ both of which referring to the plain fact that whilst Digital Activism can raise awareness and interest into an issue, the efforts of online campaigning do not necessarily reach the desired change. Anyone can click share, like a page or voice an opinion in relation to a campaign but for change to occur it evidently takes more. An excellent example of Slacktivism is the activist campaign Kony 2012, a campaign that aimed to capture Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony. The campaign caused uproar on social media and achieved heightened awareness surrounding the issue but it failed to reach its main aim of arresting Kony. However ‘this does not mean there is anything wrong with digital tactics. It just means that change is difficult, the powers that be are arrayed against it’ (Joyce, 2012). Local Digital Activism has seen organisations such as change.org encourage to petition for change online. The website has seen over ‘87,000,000’ (Change, 2014) petitioners participate for multiple causes worldwide.
The term Digital Citizenship refers to the benefits of social media and digital technology for all of society and raises the question of how connected we need to be in order to be apart of this Digital Citizenship. The introduction of social media into society has ensured we are so easily connected as an entire planet. To think that I can frequently communicate so freely with friends and family on other continents so easily and compare it to 50 years ago where I would have written a letter is somewhat astonishing. It makes me wonder where we as a society will be in another 50 years time. I am interested to see where it will take us!
Change.org 2014, ,viewed January 2015 https://www.change.org/en-AU
Joyce, M. (2010). Glossary. In: Joyce, M Digital Activism Decoded: The New Mechanics of Change. New York: International Debate Education Association . 218.
Joyce, M. (2012). Slacktivism is Like a First Kiss . Available: http://www.meta-activism.org/2012/11/slacktivism-is-like-a-first-kiss/. Last accessed January 31 2015.
Image: Elsa, (2013), Vote Online [ONLINE]. Available at:https://helloelsa.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/vote_online.gif [Accessed 31 January 15].