Case 7-2 Social Media and Activism: Anyone Can Now Easily Play Situation analysis: Change.org was launched in 2007 as a free website that anyone can join and voice their views. It was started by Ben Rattray a Stanford graduate, he created this website as a groundswell of opinion without leaving the house when he saw the power of petitions being available on the internet. In 2011 - Molly Katchpole, a 22 year old college graduate, was incensed that Bank of America was going to charge its customers $5 a month to use the bank’s debit card. She initiated an online petition against the bank using Change.org and her petition attracted more than 300,000 supporters in a month, giving the bank sufficient cause to revoke the fee. o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79aNILZzsTM …show more content…
Since it’s free and doesn’t restrict subject matter, people are able to practice free will. Public Relations Practitioners can not only use Change.org to look for what the audience cares about but also start their own petitions and use the tools to their advantage. 2. Is the decline of mass media a positive or negative for PR practitioners? Why? This can go either way, with money comes power to get more air time or an assured amount of exposure and reach. So a decline in mass media could result in not being able to have that assurance, this scenario fits better on PR practitioners For-Profit orgs. However, when it comes to non-profit orgs, a decline in mass media would mean everyone gets an equal opportunity to get exposure. 3. Why does Change.org seem to favor “populist” causes? It supports populist causes because it empowers the public and the masses. The company empowers anyone, anywhere and on any interest unless it promotes hate and violence. It gives the power to the people to voice their opinions and gain support, with the growth in internet and PR, the voice of the people weighs heavier than
Change.org is an online petition tool with over 68 million users and counting. Change.org users can either support causes by signing petitions or create petitions and request signatures. The purpose of Change.org’s website is to increase the number of users in its social network in order for more people to create and sign petitions. Change.org generates and retains a large user base by gaining the trust of a worldwide audience, inspiring users to action and retaining users through an effective website design. For profit, Change.org depends on large organizations like Amnesty International and the Humane Society to buy advertising to support their petitions. Thus, its website not only recruits more users but also convinces large organizations to buy additional advertising.
We now live in a liberal democracy were public opinion influences political action. So as public opinion has sustained an influential presence within politics we have now seen the emergence of public relations within politics. According to Moloney public relations is “the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning the understanding, support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain good will and mutual understanding between organisations and its publics” (Moloney, 2:2006). In relation to politics public relations is about maintaining a positive relationship with the public. Public relations main concern in relation to politics would be the reputation and image...
How do you capture the attention of people? Well, a civic group by the name of OUTRAGE has knowledge in that department, due to their upper case lettering and strong group name. OUTRAGE stands for the rights of all those that are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. OUTRAGE is located in the United Kingdom and was founded in 1990.
Online social movements are effective by achieving their goals. The pros are being able to easily advertise and spread the word of their issue, online petitions are accessible to a larger audience, emails are cheap and quick, websites have a lower cost than maintaining offices, and supporters can easily donate money. The cons are policy makers and politicians ignore online social movements because they value emails lower since it is inexpensive and easy.
"The role of online activism is to increase public awareness of what is being done, or needs to be done, in the real world."(Current Controversies). Two examples of Internet activism could be interactive technology, and signing an online petition. Even though people believe that internet activism is allowing people to be lazy calling it slacktivism which gives people the feeling that they have accomplished something and are making a difference in when it comes to politics. The internet can be used for political purposes and activism gives people the motivation to stand up for the causes they believe in. With the Internet advancing everyday it’s becoming easier to show support for a cause in the comfort of your own home. Hopefully one day everyone will participate in democracy.
It enables folks to engage on a mental and physical level. For instance, if we consider campaigns or movements that are solely done online and through social media, society can freely choose to engage by either sharing/reposting a status on Facebook or Twitter, taking a photograph and using a hashtag in its caption, making a donation, posting your own ideals on a particular cause and allowing for interaction with other folks that may or may not agree, or by simply purchasing goods that have been branded in association to a specific organization and/or purpose. This is how media allows for, as Guo references, a “bottom-up participatory” experience. Media is an outlet to conduct outreach in terms of both spreading awareness and getting involved. Furthermore, Guo expresses that a “greater emphasis on the public’s attention may also benefit the vitality of the nonprofit sector by concentrating its focus on external constituents”
Social media is a revolutionary way to connect to friends and family through a single app much like Facebook. Also allowing the public to be more informed on current events whether that would be an issue in today 's society all the way to a heartwarming story or a funny video. Although this sounds amazing and the fact that this type of news outlet is practically new. An issue arises that involves “fake news” and with that comes many opinions on what to do about it. I believe that people browsing these platforms should have a little bit of skepticism behind each story and if it the topic truly intrigues someone then they should look into the topic on a reliable resource before passing on the authors misinformation.
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
Public relations work consists of two activities, research and communication. Research is a pivotal part of i...
Social media activism has no sense of organization or leadership. According to Gladwell, “Networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals (Gladwell).” Organizations find agreeing and establishing goals problematic. Not having the ability to set specific goals and complete them effectively leaves networks vulnerable. Using social media lacks the organization required to properly execute an aim for a group. It is quite obvious that since anyone can take part in social media sites and simply the vast number of people online; it would complicate anything that they were trying to achieve. Working even in small groups of people can create difficulty. Social media increases the number of people. So using social media as a platform for activism can prevent change from
The people of the 21st century get to enjoy the many amazing advance technologies that are available to them. The new technology has changed our history in numerous ways in countless aspects, and it will be very difficult to turn back to older ways when it comes to certain things. Things such as ways of communication, medicine, and one that stands out to me the most, activism. The internet has allowed activism to occur in real time, and available to anyone who has access to internet. In the past activism has happened through word of mouth and many other systems used around the world. Now in the present, the internet has allowed everyone to be an activist and in no time, spread the word with ease about a cause. As well as, organize and come
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
The number of revolutions in the last 3 decades has increased, and seems to keep increasing. Civil unrest and protests brought many victims including civil and political figures throughout the world. In the era where technology is at the peak of its success, especially in communication technologies, mankind suffers from lack of communication. Problem is not caused by the technology itself, the problem is in human nature. I will continue with an analogy. Man invented the knife, which is very useful tool in our daily lives. The problem occurs when one thinks about the purposes that knife could be used. Story repeats itself with Newspapers and News Media. Technology improved the speed and the size that news can reach anywhere in couple of seconds. In a few seconds we can reach our friend at the other pole of the globe and receive pictures and live videos in response. We can send information, receive it and even create it in the artificial world. Life has become easier with technology. We can control our cell phones with voice command and reserve a table in the closest restaurant for dinner. Technology is everywhere in our lives, but if we think for a second the purposes we could use them for then the danger begins. In this short essay I will be talking about the struggle of mankind for freedom and the stages it went through. There are 3 parts to my paper. In the first part I will discuss the birth of World Wide Web and how the purpose of it went through changes. In the second part, I will be talking about birth of newspapers in the Web, precisely how it developed into an intermediate body that transfers information to people. Ultimately, I will discuss the Ukrainian revolution and the role of the news media in it and ho...
Public Relations has acknowledged public involvement as the most essential factor of the practice since its creation. However, the means and methods of reaching the public remained significantly limited until recently. Over the last decade, public relations has welcomed the use of varied tools, including new media, to further their reach and cultivate relationships with its publics. The term “new media” encompasses a variety of non-traditional methods including social media. Social media has become a significant catalyst in the communication sector of public relations. The pairing of social media and public relations has helped create new opportunities for brands through two-way communication, social case study campaigns, and social sharing.
According to Dearing and Rogers (1996) agenda-setting is driven by “issue proponents,” (e.g., public relations practitioners, media representatives) aiming to direct public attention to a social problem (e.g., climate change, gun control) (p. 2). To advance their intended agenda, public relations professionals must consider three key elements impacting issue selection: media influence, organizations/individuals with competing messages, and current events affecting public life (Zoch & Molleda, 2006). When incentivizing media coverage of an organization’s issue(s), research suggests practitioners should offer access to high profile