#keyboardwarrior
Twitter in particular, can mobilise and represent the power of movement with the simple use of the # to collate the voices of millions of people around the world. This can enact raise awareness, spread news, and in some cases enable political revolution.
In Egypt in 2011, Twitter was used to arrange a protest on #Jan25. The protest was against the regime of Hosni Mubarak, who’d been in power for 30 years. The protest was attended by thousands of people and the demonstrations had the desired effect when days later Mubarak stepped down as President of Egypt.
However as Fawaz Rashed pointed out in a tweet, this was not a revolution on social media. Social media was the tool that mobilised the people:
Social media activism is only effective to a point. Eventually the onus is on people to take real world action.
Hi! Great take on Social Media Activism. I think you’re right with your last statement but it’s so interesting that it was happening even back in 2011 with the #jan25 campaign. I guess I always thought about it as something that was more recent. I found this article really interesting and maybe you will too. https://theconversation.com/beyond-hashtags-how-a-new-wave-of-digital-activists-is-changing-society-57502
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Oooooh, a really great smashcut of this weeks lecture- with the internet we can announce our outrage over an injustice in minutes, but rarely do we use that same social media to organise, unite and physically go out to face an issue head-on to make a difference.
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Thanks for sharing of the #jan25 campaign that’s a great case study for this week’s topic. It is complicated to use social media for a social campaign or revolution. I’d suggest reading this article http://theconversation.com/going-viral-what-social-media-activists-need-to-know-96043, it shows how activists can transform media presence into real world results (like your last claim)!
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