Slactivism comment

This posting may be out of synch with our class discussions but I came across this blog today and it offers comment on slacktivism – the accusation that social media really does not effect change because it is easy for people to sit behind computers and click “like” without making any real commitment.  It is part of the criticism that Malcolm Gladwell made in his commentary in the New Yorker when he compared this to courageous activists who bravely fought for racial equality in the deep south during the 1960s .  This was one of the references in Linda Komori’s posting, Cute Cats and the Arab Spring. 

I like Gladwell’s writings but I couldn’t help but think he may have missed an important point on this one. While we will never know for sure, I wonder if a quiet majority of people had had access to the Internet and used it to tell elected officials that they wanted change, what impact it may have had. I’m not suggesting it would have or could have replaced the hard sacrifices people made in that important movement.  I don’t think change would have happened without the actions of people like Ezell Blair and his supporters from North Carolina A.&T.  And while their actions spread quickly, social media might have provided another powerful message behind those actions.   No doubt mainstream media hampered the delivery of messages of those who were protesting for change – social media would have provided a channel that those in control could not have stopped.

It is said that the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing. Perhaps those likes and links on social media are a way for good men to do something – if it is not within their abilities to take any other form of action.    

The toppling of corrupt regimes as we have witnessed this past year didn’t happen just because of social media, but social media did play a role. 

http://stryvegroup.com/if-this-is-called-slacking-what-do-you-call-doing-nothing/

Cute Cats and the Arab Spring - Assignment 2, Text 3

Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, delivered the 2nd Annual Vancouver Human Rights Lecture in 2011. The lecture was subsequently broadcast as an episode of CBC's Ideas radio program. Zuckerman's lecture, Cute Cats and the Arab Spring, is a wide-ranging reflection on the impact of social media in human rights movements. He contends that the role of new media in collective action falls somewhere between Malcolm Gladwell's (2010) stance - Why the revolution will not be tweeted - and Clay Shirky's (2008) stance, which emphasizes the ridiculously easy group formation possible in a Web 2.0 environment. Zuckerman points out the complexity of group formation through examples of protests in Egypt and Tunisia, which relied on rich media ecologies that included, but were not solely based on, social media.

Zuckerman also discusses the effectiveness of tools such as Facebook and Twitter for collective action. The power of social media, according to Zuckerman, lies in the fact that these tools were designed for sharing photos and videos of cute cats - which resulted in broad reach, ease of use, and devoted users. Such platforms have proved politically dangerous for governments to censor: if governments take down social media sites, they disrupt the activities of a large proportion of the population, bring attention to causes, and inadvertently assist protesters.

Because social media sites have proved so useful for collective action and for documenting human rights issues, Zuckerman warns that such public digital spaces must be protected. He describes the difficulty in posting controversial material in countries such as China, and the ways that participants find ways to subvert censorship. He also points out that there is some danger in relying on corporations to provide these spaces, as few of us are aware of our rights regarding the material we post. He calls for a "magna carta movement" to ensure that public digital spaces remain available for collective action.

Delicious stack for the three texts I've chosen.

References

Gladwell, M. (2010). Why the revolution will not be tweeted. The New Yorker.

Retrieved from: http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/twitter.pdf

Shirky, C. (2008). Here Comes Everybody. New York: Penguin.

Zuckerman, E. The Vancouver Human Rights Lecture - Cute Cats and The Arab Spring. [Audio Recording].

Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2012/02/24/the-vancouver-human-rights-lecture---cute-cats-and-the-arab-spring/

New Media Writing Forum

Andy Campbell of Dreaming Methods (guest lecturing later on in the term!) has invited you all to participate in the newly established New Media Writing forum!

Here is his DM tweet:

Click here to access the hub.

Technology Narratives?