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The role of social media for social movement
Social media and the impact of social movements
The role of social media for social movement
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FROM WEB TO STREET: OCCUPY WALL STREET AND 2014 HONG KONG PROTESTS
—A QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH OF NEW MEDIA IN SOCIAL ACTIVISM
Yihong (Steven) Li
Instructor: Prof. Arely Zimmerman
Introduction:
It is generally acknowledged that new media plays an important role in participatory politics and social activism. However, it remains ambivalent to what extent new media engages social change. Existing debates and researches approach the problem from broad generalizations and have drawn different conclusions. My objective is to examine the significance of new media engaging social change quantitatively and eventually define the role new media plays in social activism. I further aim to apply the conclusion to predict future developments in 2014 Hong Kong protests.
I choose the cases of Occupy Wall Street (2011) and 2014 Hong Kong protests for their representativeness, both featuring youth participatory politics and active involvement by new media and social network. Occupy happened as an aftermath of 2011 August stock price fall and accumulated antipathy towards economic inequality and corruption. Hong Kong protests took place as a response to Beijing’s control over candidates for Hong Kong’s chief executive. Occupy is a concluded movement while HK protests is an ongoing event. Thus I decide to use Occupy as the frame of reference to forecast moves in HK protests.
I decide to use a
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Cook and Erick R. W.Rice, “Handbook of Sociological Theory”). People trade social wellness, co-respond to incentives, and make rational decisions to each become better off. This theory also finds support in social capital theory, for a society accumulates social capital from individual interactions (making each other better off). Economic models can then be easily applied in this scenario to analyze the social wellness, or vice versa, social
Malcolm Gladwell’s article "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will not be Tweeted" raises a significant question about the prospective contribution of web-based social networking to the advent of progressive social movement and change. Gladwell bold declaration that "the revolution will not be tweeted" is reflective of his view that social media has no useful application in serious activism. Contrasting various elements of the “high-stakes” lunch-counter protests in Greensboro, North Carolina in the 1960’s with the “low-stakes” activism achieved through social media, Gladwell concludes that effective social movements powerful enough to impose change on longstanding societal forces require both “strong ties” among participants and the presence of a hierarchical organizations. In contrast, Gladwell characterizes the social networks as an interwoven web of "weak ties" that is inherently devoid of a hierarchy. Gladwell’s prerequisites for social movement are firmly based in strong body of sociological evidence, but his views regarding the nature of online social networks are laughably lacking in foresight and obstructed by a misleadingly selective body of evidence.
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The Watts riots is one of the most important riots in the many important riots that have occurred in the United States. Thousands of African-Americans, fed up with the horrible police brutality at the time, reacted by battling the police in the streets along with the looting and burning of White-owned stores. The riot was unprecedented, but not unexpected, during a time of great racial tension, with the Civil Rights Movement having become an ever-increasing strain on the country. Police brutality was not the only factor in causing the riot, as there were economic problems in the Black community at the time that also contributed to the unrest. The Watts riot, also known as the Watts Rebellion, influenced riots to come in the decades following
In the U. S today, the approximated population of undocumented immigrants stands at averagely 11 million. Therefore, this has created a hot debate in Congress about the action to take over the undocumented immigrants. Those opposed to illegal immigrants suggest that, their stay in the United States effects U.S citizens on the job market negatively . In addition, illegal immigrants are viewed in certain quarters as takers in the sense that illegal immigrants benefit more from public resources than the american-born citizens of the U.S. However, the reality is that immigrants contribute positively to the U.S economy and pay significantly into the system compared to what they send back home. In addition, the contributions associated with undocumented immigrants involve sustaining the solvency of the SSTF (Social Security Trust Fund). In this sense, the use of cost benefit analysis by those supporting immigration restrictions are unfounded and do not reflect the facts on the ground (Nadadur 1037). The opponents of undocumented immigrants believe that having more undocumented immigrants in the U.S is costly; however, there are no solid reasons to prove that undocumented immigrants are a burden to the treasury. Instead, the undocumented immigrants play an important role in boosting the economy and in particular by taking up jobs those citizens perceive as demeaning because the money they earn goes back to the economy through taxes resulting from consumer spending when they send money back home.
For a movement that impacted the country both socially and politically, the occupy movement started out relatively small. According to Peter Katel of the CQ Researcher, a group of 1,000 protesters settled into Zuccotti Park, in New York City, in mid-September of 2011. This group, motivated by the growing chasm between the wealthy and middle classes hoped that non-violent protest could enlighten lawmakers and bring about economic change. The movement spread from New York to cities across America. The driving force behind the movement was a desire to change national policy, which favors the rich at the expense of the poor. There was a strong push against the movement as well. Many people (mainly conservatives) saw the occupy movement as an attempt to over through the American political system and in its place, impose a communist form of government. Major newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times compare the occupy movement to the Soviet communist uprising. William F. Jasper a writer for The New American, states, “The leading activists openly display their communist, Marxist, socialist, anarchist affiliations and orientations. One would have to be totally blind and totally dishonest not to notice this. The purpose of Mr. Jasper’s article was to show the contrast between the tea party who “paid for permits, police, security, and port-a-potties, and cleaned up after themselves; they did not stick the taxpayers with the tab,” and the occupy movement which he described as a violent communist uprising bent on overthrowing the government. Oddly enough the members of the occupy movement used this Marxist label as a rallying point. This created a peculiar situation in which each side used the term communism in an atte...
“I am not the ‘Illegal’ you think I am, and immigration is not what you think it is” Why do people cross the line illegally? there are many reasons for undocumented immigrants to cross to the united states do to the poverty in the country, high level of education in the united states, and the better opportunity of jobs. Many immigrants decide to emigrate from their country of birth to seek a new opportunity for all the family but analyze the information is not only one culture a lot of different cultures immigrant to have a better life in the united states. Undocumented immigration is a big issue in the united states because many immigrants come to live the “ American Dream”. Immigrants from all around the different country
While many people throughout the world see social media as a trendy new application in the service of personal amusement, the political upheavals in the Arab world have shown how it can change the dynamics of modern day activism. The Arab Spring Uprising interlaced social unrest with a technological revolution. Blogs, news websites, twitter feeds, and political list servers became avenues for communication, information flow and solidarity. Being capable of sharing an immense amount of uncensored information through social media sites has contributed to the success of many Arab Spring activists. Social media played a role in facilitating the events of the Arab Spring, but the main issues are rooted in a broader set of economic, political, and social factors. This paper will examine how social media impacted the Arab Spring Uprising. Specifically, I will look at how social media introduced a novel resource that helped to created internet activist communities, changed the dynamics of social mobilization and revolutionized interactions between protesters and the rest of the world.
Representing Vermont in the House of Representatives for 16 years, from 1991 to 2006, and in the Senate since January 4, 2007, Bernie Sanders is the longest serving Independent in U.S. congressional history. Sanders ran for president in the 2016 election for the Democratic Party, and as a self-identified “democratic socialist,” his positions on social issues are very left of center. Bernie Sanders has a long history of fighting for LGBT equality. By the 1980s, Sanders was considered an ally to gay activists, and in June of 1983, he approved a resolution that declared June 25 to be Gay Pride Day. He strongly opposed the Clinton Administration’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which was instituted in 1994.
Andrew Jackson was nicknamed as a “common man” because he was similar to the citizens who voted him into office. Along with many other achievements, his main reason for being a liked politician was because he gave government power back to the civilians. Jackson reduced the price of tariffs and also dissipated power from central government. He was a friendly personable candidate and his political views were beneficial to America. His success along with his familiar presence granted him presidency. Thoughtout his presidential term, he enacted laws that the people wanted and tried to improve the economy for the American citizens.
Social movements come and go; they represent all manner of political aspirations, and aim to achieve their political objectives by influencing a particular target group’s opinion. Some groups reach out directly to just a few key decision makers or constituencies, while others act more indirectly by broadcasting their message to as wide an audience as possible. Popular forms of social media have played a significant influence in social movements throughout the last few years. Two prominent examples are Ai Weiwei’s use of the social platform: Twitter, and the use of Yik Yak at the University of Missouri. Social movements rely on the media for the mobilization of political support, validation in the mainstreams discourse, and opportunity to broaden
This summer if you were on social media you heard about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The concept was simple, just film yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head, challenge your friends to do the same, and donate ten dollars to the ALS Association. Opt out and donate one hundred dollars (Madison). Many Americans did not know what ALS was and by putting this challenge on social media has brought tons awareness to this devastating disease. Activism used to be taking action to bring social change, people in the 1960s used to gather in front of community centers and protest and or speak about their issue or cause. Now even though people still gather together it is much easier to use the internet. Hundreds of social media applications
Discuss the role social capital in health Social capital is inevitable in our day to day functioning, with the relationships we have with our family, friends, and the socialisation between neighbours and strangers. Consequently, these interactions affect our lives in a variety of ways. In this essay, these effects will be explored focusing on the role social capital plays in our health. In addition, the term social capital will be broken down into its 2 main subsections, providing specific examples of how it impacts our health and overall well-being.
Recently Information technology has been a successful tool for protesting. In June of 2012, there was a massive protest in Shifang, China. Interestingly, the protest was implemented by some young Chinese students whose generation has been marked as “post 90’s”. The reputation of the “post 90’s” is a bad one. They are seen as lazy and nonproductive. Most of them have their lives made for them and live off of their parent’s wealth.
Research Design Assignment Final Research Question: Various studies have shown that journalists rely on “official” sources for information. Social media and the Internet have allowed protest organizers and participants to become more accessible to the public, and in some ways, possibly more official. How has this greater public awareness and access to social movement and protest leaders and participants via social media changed the way media cover protests? Are protester voices and sources given more space and importance than in the past? (1) How does the nature of media coverage protests compare to the nature of content from participants on social media during the protests?
In this essay I aim to discuss all the benefits and pitfalls of digital activism providing corresponding examples, and then conclude with my opinion on the matter. However, it has to be noted that even though I am required to bring forward cases to study and discuss, depending on solely that to provide an argument for or against digital activism is faulty and will only lead to biased reasoning and loss of the true meaning of the movements in question (Joyce, 2010). In fact, I will try to study each example of a social movement very objectively, concluding whether or not it succeeded in reaching its goal through relevant metrics. Professor Dave Karpf set forth two measuring rubrics that could be used to measure the