Throughout history, the press has long been known for its didactic approach to educating and gaining supporters of a cause. Written by a select few, newspapers and news broadcasts have been inadvertently biased in their deliverance of current events. However, with this increasing rich pool of information coming from a network of authors, the internet has become the new portal to current events – throughout the world. Particularly, new media, such as blogging or “tweeting”, has had a shockingly profound and lasting effect on non-democratic countries around the world, setting a firm foundation for revolutions. It has introduced a world far more informational and accommodating, setting up a fundamental basis to spark revolutions around the world. New media allows a brief glimpse into democratic societies and cultures formerly unbeknownst to a people, triggering curiosity and anger strong enough to overcome even the most oppressive despot. Specifically, social networking is a powerful tool prevalently influencing peace building and influencing individuals to leverage resources such as Facebook, Tumblr, or Youtube to further prevent violence and promote peace among a nation.
For example, young protestors in Egypt successfully harnessed social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to plan protests and gain supporters. This new realm of information allowed an estimated 20 million Egyptian internet users to distribute material and rally followers, thereby increasing probability that a movement would produce positive and permanent consequences. Moreover, YouTube was widely used to broadcast public demonstrations and shed light on the despicable militia violence. News networks brought massive attention to demonstrations of solida...
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.... Hopefully, with the addition of such tools and compromise, war can be replaced with negotiable conflict management, leaving countries with less genocide or economic depletion and encourage positive government reconstruction.
New media has certainly had wide influence over the actions of citizens in revolution, and allowed them to proceed with peaceful and harmonious intentions rather than destructive and vehement actions. If harnessed correctly, new media can allow for peaceful reconciliation between two opposing forces, and hold despotic governments accountable for their injustices. Although there are drawbacks to new media, there is much more to gain. With the ability to influence an entire generation of peoples, new media can provide a positive way to resolve conflict and eliminate tyranny and gender-specific, racial, homophobic and religious discrimination.
The article named “spring awakening” wrote by Jose Vargas describes the impact of social media in converting the mentality of young Egyptian generations into bold and defend their inalienable rights as a citizen. This article justifies how social media can mobilize a tremendous number of people to stand up for their rights. The reasons that inspire my emotion is emerging of “Wael Ghonim” as a legendary vocal figure of action for change, revelation of social media as earthquake for change, and fundamental soci-political change.
New technology has fuelled the expansion with the growth of phone apps, social media formats, smartphones able to capture video and upload instantly onto the web. The public is now recording, documenting, sharing and viewing events as they happen, often before professional journalist or reporters. Technology allows people to view major events in real time anywhere in the world, creating a ‘global village’ in which everyone is connected (McLuhan 1964; cited in Giddens 2013). However, the mass medias of television, radio and newspapers both in print and online, continue to be the mediums the public accesses the news and events on a local, national and international
...ities to come together, and causes people to re-evaluate their relationships with one another, all toward ensuring that, on the whole, peace continues into the future.
However, books and newspapers are not our sole source of the written word. Online blogs, articles, and newsletters now exist. Television and books have merged into one: the Internet. Revolutions, riots, and rebellions don’t just happen in our living rooms now, they happen on the go with us. On the subway, when we’re waiting in line at Subway, at our friend’s house as he talks about how he’s “way into subs.”
Gil Scott-Heron’s song “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” has been praised as a slogan for activists after its release in 1971. Scott-Heron sings about people “not [being] able to plug in, turn on and cop out” in defense of the activists who are actually working towards change (Scott-Heron). Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian journalist, tackles the same subject in his essay, similarly titled “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted”. Gladwell recounts historical events of activism that were not perpetrated by social media, and goes on to explain that regardless of what the media says, social media has not in fact “reinvented social activism”. Despite Gladwell’s examples, however, it is clear through events such as the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, that social media can have a crucial part in social activism.
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.
In an article captioned “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for the New Yorker, and crowned one of Time magazine’s top 100 greatest influential people in 2005, argues that, social media is effective in uniting a large group for a cause, but ineffective in promoting high-risk activism.
For example, in Saleem Kassim views, “As a result of the many technological advancements and innovations that have revolutionized how individuals communicate, an abundance of information has become available to everyone.” Saleem Kassim’s point is that anyone and everybody can put out information that can be seen by everyone when you are an internet user. For example, the news can tell you that there’s nothing happening in a certain country; whereas, someone from that country can post on twitter and upload videos showing anyone that decides to see the truth of what is really happening in their country. Kassim also states, “Ultimately, public information supplied by social networking websites has played an important role during modern-day activism, specifically as it pertains to the Arab Spring.” In other words, Kassim believes that digital communication has brought people together to fight for something that is a good cause. To have people aware of the truth and to have someone do something about it. Indeed it is highly likely that we bring people together for a good cause but digital communication can also cause a downside through having no censorship on what you post. When more people are brought up of current events trending they decide to hope on board to see if there is anything they can do to help. Not to mention, Graff and Birkenstein view it the same way. Like I mentioned earlier, Graff and
For example, print technology highlights the visual aspect of the media, but isolates sound. However, electronic media, such as television, allows us to see and hear, and therefore, reconnects senses that have been isolated by previous media (e.g., print and radio). McLuhan expands on the effects of electronic media in War and Peace in the Global Village, arguing that electronic media creates a “global village.” Because electronic media allows people all over the world to see and hear the same information, physical distance is no longer a barrier.
These reforms have to occur in an environment in which peace itself does not necessarily signify the end of violence but relatively secure environment for the reforms to flourish but in which peace settlements can continue to be contested. However, peace agreements can temporarily be slowed the situation that may exacerbate the warring parties to regroup and replenish arms supplies, as the case was in Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola. Therefore, actors involved in peace building face somewhat daunting tasks in simultaneously demobilizing and disarming the armed factions and wider society, whilst also re-imposing effective and impartial law and
Safranek, Rita. 2012. The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change. s.l. : Proquest, 2012.
In mere minutes, any active user can access information and associations regarding various causes, such as the riots happening in Egypt and the Middle East. Teenagers, in the Middle East, used their Facebook accounts to campaign the “Day of Rage” in Saudi Arabia. Helping to set the Arab riots in motion, the event demanded elections, freedom for women, and the liberation of political prisoners. The activists’ goals to bring democracy to Egypt and removing Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s fourth president from 1981 to 2011, still continue and perhaps with the assistance of Facebook they will accomplish these ambitions. The causes campaigned through Facebook have served as a fundraise...
“Social media has also created an exciting outlet for the people to see news and stay updated on current events in the world” ("Are Social Networking Sites”). The majority of the media broadcast the troubles and trials the United States have and to some extent people could get ideas from the bad broadcast and could do the same things. Maybe if the media could limit the broadcast of bombing, gun shootings, killing police officers, and much more than all of it would gradually disappear.
Participatory media technologies break the one-sidedness of traditional media platforms yet inherit improper ideas from audience’s perception of representation. Through participatory media technologies, people are able to aware of the monotonous representative in politics of representation, and by using various kinds of participatory media, people is challenging the stereotype brought by traditional politics of representation. As one of the most significant symbols of the development in the 21st century, participatory media technologies play important roles in the representation of democracy. From the extensive use of participatory media technologies today, it can be concluded that the trend of politics of representation is changing. Participatory media technologies contain features of liberty, equality, and
While the liberty of speech on Internet strengthens the democratization, it also provides political dissidents with channels and arranges to undermine. McLaughlin (2007) reveals that in Middle East, the Internet offers non-state dissident actors a potentially potent tool to accomplish their political objectives. Consequently, without the nation-imposed constraint... ... middle of paper ... ... ool, the public even the nation might suffer inestimable disasters.