Social Movement Protests

Recent studies show that at least 60% of American adults use some form of social media, and of the 60% at least 66% have used social media for political activity (Rainie, et al., 2012). In North America there is an estimated 78% internet penetration, 60% in Australia, 50% in Europe, and the highest usage growth is in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America (Heywood, 1780). The introduction of new media has led to numerous political activities. Some of the myriad ways in which it’s been used include: the formation of revolutionary movements, engagement of public criticism against politicians, reporting or documenting environmental concerns at both global, and local levels, and mobilizing the general public around environmental issues. Even

An example is the rise of an internet based campaign of international networks of organizations from 70 countries. The protest they created involved informing and mobilizing people against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment by the Third World Organization which had been posing questions on the unequal distribution of wealth and the dubious roles of international organizations such as the World Bank. This protest led to the end of the negotiations and the failure of the agreement by the Third World Organization (Van Donk et al., 90). Not only did the mass succeed at bringing this agreement to an end, the movement also empowered citizens to stand up for their rights. This was seen when the global coalition with a mixture of NGOs protested against the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization by engaging in colorful marches, road blockings, and confrontations with the police (Van Donk et al., 90). The outcome was not exactly what the WTO representatives expected. This led to the failure of the meeting living the demonstrators with a feeling of victory. Although this action was not achieved virtually through social media the internet played a vital role in mobilizing people with collective identity and empowering them to voice out their concerns on matters that involve

However there is tremendous demand on news organization to make a profit. This is only achievable is by selling their audience to advertisers, mainstream large markets then cater to the mass audience. Fearful of losing their market shares these organizations tend to reduce their coverage of serious political debate, and thus abandoned their responsibility for educating and informing citizens, the favor of material intended for entertainment (Heywood, 181). In addition news organizations targeting niche markets instead opt to provide alternative information to unsatisfied audiences with whatever they can find in the mainstream media. Usually mainstream journalists are inclined initially to censor information to avoid unpopular or controversies. And it is that information which niche media has an incentive tackle, especially stories about human rights violation. In Lawson’s book he discusses how Mexico’s media led to increased coverage by niche media, then by mainstream media of the corruption by its government he