Download or read book Social Media Activism Digital Indexicalities written by Marybelle Issa and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis outlines the confluence between political activism and social media by examining contemporary multimodal approaches to political engagement on Instagram by Lebanese activists. Social media is a site of perpetual identity performances and constant dissemination of (mis)information, calling into question both the authenticity of online discursive content and the authority of users over this content. As the borders between the digital and physical realm become increasingly blurred alongside the progressive integration of technology into social and economic exchanges, the parameters of the public space are expanding to include the cryptic dimensions of the digital sphere. As a result, the following question arises: does there exist a continuum between the online and offline spheres? From a sociolinguistic perspective, this research provides an overview of the digital affordances and limitations of social networks in promoting or hindering political interactions online and calls attention to the important distinction between active political engagement and political passivity in the exploration of what it means to be an activist, to do activism, and to do being an activist in the digital era. This is accomplished through an assessment of the different processes of participation and identification online, the former referring to analytical roles of interaction inspired by Goffman's 'participatory framework' (1981) in the production and reception of speech, and the latter in relation to the discursive means by which users identify and are identified on social media. I challenge scholarship that defend the centrality of code-switching in online Lebanese interactions and conduct discursive analyses of text-based militant initiatives online to present hypotheses delineating the use of juxtaposed monolingual texts of English, Arabic, and French besides indexing targeted addressee(s). I propose to view the clenched/raised fist, both in its physical and digital emoji form, as a performative semiotic device and I question the extent to which mutual understanding of and engagement with the meaning behind this icon of protest can index participatory membership to a 'community of practice' (Eckert, 2006).

Download or read book Online Activism written by Amanda Vink and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2018-07-15 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The growth of the Internet has changed almost every aspect of society, and social activism is no exception. Circulating petitions and organizing rallies is easier than ever, but so is the illusion of creating change without putting in effort. Readers learn the ways activism has changed in the Internet era. The informative text is supplemented with detailed charts and annotated quotes presenting multiple points of view. By learning more about online activism, young adults can become more informed about how to take a stand on issues they are passionate about.

Download or read book Digital Activism Decoded written by Mary C. Joyce and published by IDEA. This book was released on 2010 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The media has recently been abuzz with cases of citizens around the world using digital technologies to push for social and political change: from the use of Twitter to amplify protests in Iran and Moldova to the thousands of American non-profits creating Facebook accounts in the hopes of luring supporters. These stories have been published, discussed, extolled, and derided, but have not yet been viewed holistically as a new field of human endeavor. We call this field "digital activism" and its dynamics, practices, misconceptions, and possible futures are presented together for the first time in this book."--Pub. desc.

Download or read book Strategic Social Media as Activism written by Adrienne A. Wallace and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-08-25 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives, this volume examines the roles strategic communications play in creating social media messaging campaigns designed to engage in digital activism. As social activism and engagement continue to rise, individuals have an opportunity to use their agency as creators and consumers to explore issues of identity, diversity, justice, and action through digital activism. This edited volume situates activism and social justice historically and draws parallels to the work of activists in today’s social movements such as modern-day feminism, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Missing Murdered Indigenous Women, and We Are All Khaled Said. Each chapter adds an additional filter of nuance, building a complete account of mounting issues through social media movements and at the same time scaffolding the complicated nature of digital collective action. The book will be a useful supplement to courses in public relations, journalism, social media, sociology, political science, diversity, digital activism, and mass communication at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Download or read book The Revolution That Wasn t written by Jen Schradie and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This surprising study of online political mobilization shows that money and organizational sophistication influence politics online as much as off, and casts doubt on the democratizing power of digital activism. The internet has been hailed as a leveling force that is reshaping activism. From the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, digital activism seemed cheap, fast, and open to all. Now this celebratory narrative finds itself competing with an increasingly sinister story as platforms like Facebook and Twitter—once the darlings of digital democracy—are on the defensive for their role in promoting fake news. While hashtag activism captures headlines, conservative digital activism is proving more effective on the ground. In this sharp-eyed and counterintuitive study, Jen Schradie shows how the web has become another weapon in the arsenal of the powerful. She zeroes in on workers’ rights advocacy in North Carolina and finds a case study with broad implications. North Carolina’s hard-right turn in the early 2010s should have alerted political analysts to the web’s antidemocratic potential: amid booming online organizing, one of the country’s most closely contested states elected the most conservative government in North Carolina’s history. The Revolution That Wasn’t identifies the reasons behind this previously undiagnosed digital-activism gap. Large hierarchical political organizations with professional staff can amplify their digital impact, while horizontally organized volunteer groups tend to be less effective at translating online goodwill into meaningful action. Not only does technology fail to level the playing field, it tilts it further, so that only the most sophisticated and well-funded players can compete.

Download or read book Dissent and Revolution in a Digital Age written by David Faris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Arab uprisings of early 2011, which saw the overthrow of Zine el-Abadine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the role of digital media and social networking tools was widely reported. With tens of thousands publicly committed to public protest through their online social networks, and with calls to protest circulating through email networks, Facebook groups, and street organizing, the activists had set in motion a staged confrontation with the Egyptian regime, of the sort that had previously been unthinkable. The potentially subversive nature of social networks was also recognized by the very authorities fighting against popular pressure for change, and the Egyptian government's attempt to block internet and mobile phone access in January 2011 demonstrated this. What is yet to be examined is the local context that allowed digital media to play this role: in Egypt, for example, a history of online activism has laid important ground work. Here, David Faris argues that it was circumstances particular to Egypt, more than the 'spark' from Tunisia, that allowed the revolution to take off: namely blogging and digital activism stretching back into the 1990s, combined with sustained and numerous protest movements and an independent press. During the Mubarak era, where voicing a political opinion was - to say the least - risky, and registering as a political party was onerous and precarious undertaking, it was online avenues of discussion and debate that flourished. Over the course of those years, digital activists - bloggers and later, users of other forms of social media like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube - scored a number of important victories over the regime, over issues largely revolving around human rights. Faris analyses these activists and their online activities and campaigns, examining how the internet was used as a space in which to create identities and spur action. Dissent and Revolution in a Digital Age tracks the rocky path taken by Egyptian bloggers operating in Mubarak's authoritarian regime to illustrate how the state monopoly on information was eroded, making space for dissent and for those previously without a voice.

Download or read book Digital Activism written by Kyle Chapman and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social media has brought significant changes to all spheres of our social existence, particularly modern activism. While many researchers have analyzed the use of social media in activist movements, there has been little scholarly work on the impacts and implications of social media, particularly as they pertain to language and the values underpinning activism. This thesis seeks to fill this gap in social media studies. Based on the theories of Stuart Hall and Kenneth Burke, it analyzes recent activist movements and social media trends in modern activism through a sociocultural/rhetorical lens. Specifically, within the context of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and the #occupywallstreet movement, this thesis examines the manner in which values and action are both constructed and enacted. I also examine the complex relationship between content and content creators, social media’s influence on production and consumption, and the potential risks social media presents when used as a means for activism. By providing a comprehensive analysis of the sociocultural and rhetorical impacts social media has had in these movements, this thesis aims to highlight the risks of using social media for activism as well as the importance of media literacy to us all.

Download or read book Digitally Enabled Social Change written by Jennifer Earl and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-03-04 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation into how specific Web technologies can change the dynamics of organizing and participating in political and social protest. Much attention has been paid in recent years to the emergence of “Internet activism,” but scholars and pundits disagree about whether online political activity is different in kind from more traditional forms of activism. Does the global reach and blazing speed of the Internet affect the essential character or dynamics of online political protest? In Digitally Enabled Social Change, Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport examine key characteristics of web activism and investigate their impacts on organizing and participation. Earl and Kimport argue that the web offers two key affordances relevant to activism: sharply reduced costs for creating, organizing, and participating in protest; and the decreased need for activists to be physically together in order to act together. Drawing on evidence from samples of online petitions, boycotts, and letter-writing and e-mailing campaigns, Earl and Kimport show that the more these affordances are leveraged, the more transformative the changes to organizing and participating in protest.

Download or read book Social Media Materialities and Protest written by Mette Mortensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far from being neutral, social media platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WeChat – possess their own material characteristics, which shape how people engage, protest, resist, and struggle. This innovative collection advances the notion of social media materialities to draw attention to the ways in which the wires and silicon, data streams and algorithms, user and programming interfaces, business models and terms of service steer contentious practices and, inversely, how technologies and economic models are handled and performed by users. The key question is how the tension between social media’s techno-commercial infrastructures and activist agency plays out in protest. Addressing this, the volume goes beyond singular empirical examples and focuses on the characteristics of protest and social media materialities, offering further conceptualizations and guidance for this emerging field of research. The various contributions explore a wide variety of activist projects, protests, and regions, ranging from Occupy in the USA to environmental protests in China, and from the Mexican Barrio Nómada to the Copenhagen-based activist television channel TV Stop (1987–2005).

Download or read book Digital Activism in the Social Media Era written by Bruce Mutsvairo and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-12-12 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book probes the vitality, potentiality and ability of new communication and technological changes to drive online-based civil action across Africa. In a continent booming with mobile innovation and a plethora of social networking sites, the Internet is considered a powerful platform used by pro-democracy activists to negotiate and sometimes push for reform-based political and social changes in Africa. The book discusses and theorizes digital activism within social and geo-political realms, analysing cases such as the #FeesMustFall and #BringBackOurGirls campaigns in South Africa and Nigeria respectively to question the extent to which they have changed the dynamics of digital activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative case study reflections in eight African countries identify and critique digital concepts questioning what impact they have had on the civil society. Cases also explore the African LGBT community as a social movement while discussing opportunities and challenges faced by online activists fighting for LGBT equality. Finally, gender-based activists using digital tools to gain attention and facilitate social changes are also appraised.

Download or read book Democracy in the Disinformation Age written by Regina Luttrell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-23 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book established researchers draw on a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives to examine social media’s impact on American politics. Chapters critically examine activism in the digital age, fake news, online influence, messaging tactics, news transparency and authentication, consumers’ digital habits and ultimately the societal impacts that continue to be created by combining social media and politics. Through this book readers will better understand and approach with questions such as: • How exactly and why did social media become a powerful factor in politics? • What responsibilities do social networks have in the proliferation of factually wrong and hate-filled messages? Or should individuals be held accountable? • What are the state-of-the-art of computational techniques for measuring and determining social media's impact on society? • What role does online activism play in today’s political arena? • What does the potent combination of social media and politics truly mean for the future of democracy? The insights and debates found herein provide a stronger understanding of the core issues and steer us toward improved curriculum and research aimed at a better democracy. Democracy in the Disinformation Age: Influence and Activism in American Politics will appeal to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as academics with an interest in areas including political science, media studies, mass communication, PR, and journalism.

Download or read book Digital Activism and the Global Middle Class written by Lukas Schlogl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-06-16 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the causes of a growing wave of digital activism across developing countries, arguing that it is driven by social change, rather than technological advancement alone. Beginning with an investigation into the modernization of ‘middle-income countries’ and its ramifications for political culture, the book examines large-scale social media protest during political controversies in Indonesia. The book connects empirical evidence to classic theories of value change and political behaviour. It departs from a narrow ‘digital divide’ framing whereby Internet access produces Internet activism. It introduces the concepts of ‘digital self-expression’ and of ‘middle-class struggles’ to capture the value-stratified nature of political engagement in the online sphere. Drawing on a blend of ‘big-data’ text analyses, representative opinion research, and socioeconomic household analyses, a rich picture of the determinants of digital activism emerges. This truly cross-disciplinary book will appeal particularly to students and scholars in Political Science, Sociology, International Development, and Communication, but also to anyone eager to learn about political activism, social transformation, and new media from a global perspective.

Download or read book Visual Activism in the 21st Century written by Stephanie Hartle and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-07-28 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is in crisis, bringing activists and protesters onto the streets and into the public eye. More than ever, activism relies on spectacle and visibility in order to be noticed in the era of globalized capitalism and networked media. At the same time, a growing number of artists employ creative strategies to critique the establishment, act in resistance, and demand change. Visual activism of this kind is not new, but it is rapidly evolving. This anthology presents 16 case-studies of visual activism from across the globe, providing an up-to-date picture of the impact of contemporary visual and art activism, and combining a scholarly interrogation of visual activism with an examination of how it works in practice. The case studies address a wide range of issues including human rights abuses; state violence; gender and sexuality; racism; migration; and climate breakdown. They examine a range of approaches from playful carnivalesque parades to extreme practices such as 'lip-sewing', and are drawn from a wide range of international contexts – from Europe and the US, to Iran, India, Pakistan, Tunisia, and China. This diverse scope enables readers to consider examples comparatively – noticing emerging trends and key differences to reveal how geopolitical and cultural factors play an important role in shaping activist practices. This rich and timely collection provides a fresh perspective on the possibilities, limitations and politics of visual activism, as activists, artists, and curators respond to the changing world around them in this most uncertain of times.

Download or read book The Role of Social Media in Political Movements and Activism written by Mayfair Digital Agency and published by Mayfair Digital Agency. This book was released on 2017-06-08 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book "The Role of Social Media in Political Movements and Activism" offers a comprehensive and insightful exploration of how social media has transformed the landscape of political activism and social movements. It delves into the significant impact of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in mobilizing people, disseminating information, and organizing protests and demonstrations. The book covers historical examples and contemporary case studies to illustrate the power of social media in amplifying marginalized voices and driving social change. With a focus on the democratization of information, the book discusses how social media facilitates rapid dissemination of news, connects like-minded individuals, and enables grassroots movements to gain momentum. It also examines the challenges and ethical considerations surrounding the use of social media in political movements, including issues of misinformation and censorship. This book serves as a vital resource for researchers, activists, and policymakers seeking to understand the multifaceted ways in which social media shapes and influences political discourse and activism in the digital era. By providing a nuanced analysis of the subject, it enriches the conversation on the evolving relationship between technology and social change.

Download or read book Technology Media and Social Movements written by Cristina Flesher Fominaya and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-29 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an interdisciplinary set of contributions from leading scholars, and explores the complex relationship between media, technology and social movements. It provides a valuable resource for scholars and students working in this rapidly developing field. Providing theoretical engagement with contemporary debates in the field of social movements and new media, the book also includes a theoretical overview of central contemporary debates, a re-evaluation of theories of social movement communication, and a critical overview of media ecology and media approaches in social movement scholarship. The theoretical contributions are also developed though empirical case studies from around the world, including the use of Facebook in student protests in the UK, the way power operates in Anonymous, the "politics of mundanity" in China, the emotional dynamics on Twitter of India’s Nirbhaya protest, and analysis of Twitter networks in the transnational feminist campaign ‘Take Back The Tech!’. This book was originally published as a special issue of Social Movement Studies.

Download or read book From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation written by Aim Sinpeng and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2020-10-21 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reflects on the role of social media in the past two decades in Southeast Asia. It traces the emergence of social media discourse in Southeast Asia, and its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratizing and authoritarian states. It explains the growing decline in internet freedom and increasingly repressive and manipulative use of social media tools by governments, and argues that social media is now an essential platform for control. The contributors detail the increasing role of “disinformation” and “fake news” production in Southeast Asia, and how national governments are creating laws which attempt to address this trend, but which often exacerbate the situation of state control. From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation explores three main questions: How did social media begin as a vibrant space for grassroots activism to becoming a tool for disinformation? Who were the main actors in this transition: governments, citizens or the platforms themselves? Can reformists “reclaim” the digital public sphere? And if so, how?

Download or read book Social Media Freaks written by Dustin Kidd and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social media has been transforming American and global cultural life for over a decade. It has flattened the divide between producer and audience found in other forms of culture while also enriching some massive corporations. At the core of Social Media Freaks is the question: Does social media reproduce inequalities or is it a tool for subverting them? Social Media Freaks presents a virtual ethnography of social media, focusing on issues of identity and inequality along five dimensions-race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. It presents original and secondary findings, while also utilizing social theory to explain the dynamics of social media. It teaches readers how to engage social media as a tool for social activism while also examining the limits of social media's value in the quest for social change.