Month: November 2020

Climate Change is a pressing issue in modern society, especially with how divisive the responses to it are from both sides of the political spectrum within the US. With the advent of the internet, this issue has only been given a bigger platform to be discussed, and the #ClimateChange campaign was an effective & efficient utilization of social media to help a social movement.

One important thing is that social media facilitates the exchange of information. This means that the movement could cut through the red tape that would incur from spreading information through the mainstream press. “#ClimateChange” is a well publicized movement, so climate activists have used nearly every popular social media platform to advocate for their cause [1]. Many hashtags were employed by this movement, including “#ClimateChange”, #ProtectOurWinters” and “#FridaysForFuture”

An example of how this can contribute to the flow of information includes instagram posts like the one below from National Geographic:

The image showcases the negative effects that climate change would have on animals like a polar bear. This would be an effective tactic to have people join the cause as it would appeal to their emotional senses, and as it was liked over 1.7m times it was clearly a success.

Another great way that the social movement employs social media is through celebrity endorsement. Leonardo DiCaprio and former President Barack Obama are both prominent Climate Change advocates, and have both tweeted out hashtags and voiced their support. This makes it an effective tool in bringing about awareness & action towards the cause.

Finally, social media can contribute to protestors being informed on any protests being organized near where they live. The hashtags could act as a solid hub of information, and it provides a greater ease of convenience than ever before. Like the BLM movement, #ClimateChange protesters can mobilize quicker, and more effectively, with the advent of new technology.

Sources:
[1] https://moveme.berkeley.edu/project/climate-change/

The Black Lives Matter movement saw a resurgence in the summer of 2020, following the untimely death of George Floyd, and a lot of this can be attributed to the advent of social media and cell phones in the modern day.

The reason why this technology was so imperative to this resurgence was because the video of Floyd had been uploaded to popular social media platforms like Twitter, where it served as a call to action for followers. More importantly, cell phones played a huge role in orchestrating protests and marches across America to show solidarity and further the cause. Much like Hong Kong protesters had done earlier in the year, BLM supporters used platforms like twitter to mobilize rallies and protests in an efficient manner. By using the “BLM” hashtag, they were able to efficiently communicate when and where protests would be taking place. This resulted in an easy platform of information. An issue with this, however, was that the hashtag could become cluttered – as seen on “Blackout Tuesday”, where supporters were encouraged to post a black photo with the BLM hashtag attached. This “caused more harm than good” [1], as it resulted in information being clogged up, which would negatively impact the flow of important updates coming through.

Another important reason for cell phones being used during this movement was through the advent of camera phones. Citizen footage kick-started the resurgence, and it played a pivotal role throughout. Protestors at marches shouted out “This revolution won’t be televised! It’s going to be streamed!” [2], and that was true. This shows a shift in how information that captivates protests and civic action has changed, with bystanders being able to control the narrative that they are taking part in. Another reason why this was important was because it could disprove any statements or videos published by the mainstream media, which might have depicted the protestors as nothing but rioters and shied away from the severity of police conflict taking place. The use of easy internet access that cell phones provides means that the time between documenting and uploading this footage has been greatly reduced, to the point where twitter live videos can capture these moments almost as soon as they happen. This can help boost the speed through which citizens can process this information and engage in civic action than ever before.

Sources:
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/02/us/blackout-tuesday-black-lives-matter-instagram-trnd/index.html
[2] https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2020/0617/Black-Lives-Matter-movement-A-case-for-camera-phones