The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: It Will Be Live-Streamed
The Importance of Social Media and the Inclusivity of Cyber Space in Revolutionary Times
Millennials tend to be criticized for their media consumption habits by, well, just about every previous generation. These people like to say that social media is an inaccurate and unreliable source for news and can’t be taken seriously as a journalism platform. In other words, “don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” While it is functionally true that we should be critical of articles we see online, the same is true for all news sources and outlets for media consumption as none are without bias. The key difference between the internet’s social media and traditional media is the contributors, and this makes a world of difference.
Traditional media is often the result of someone (often relatively educated) producing material for the mass consumption of the populous. The key issue with this is the capacity for the person reporting on the issues to not actually have anything to do with the issues at hand and generally results in the reification of the institution through which these journalists are educated. This is why politicians have press secretaries and journalism outlets tend to be owned by larger corporations which pay to perpetuate whatever ideals currently benefit the system. Through the use of sophisticated language or complicated ideology, current events can not only become spun a certain way, but often become inaccessible to a large portion of the population. Social media on the other hand is created by and for the common person. Contributors include people of all backgrounds from education level to gender to race. It is also often based in an individualistic sense of first-hand observation and creates space for dialogue. It allows people who may not be in line with the ideals of the system to create material, thus creating a more diverse pool of ideas and propositions from which to choose. It provides a platform for these people to, as described by bell hooks in Theory as a Liberatory Practice, take the concrete details of their experiences, and explain it abstractly, even creating their own theory, though they may not intend to or understand the process on an academic level. It allows everyone to participate in order to provide a more well-rounded and accurate description of our reality. The intersectional issues that are allowed to be publicized through this open forum allowing for a wider variety of perspectives create a more truthful view of our world and current events that is not only more reflective of the general public, but also more accessible in a literal and figurative way.
This accessibility and truth (as opposed to the non-existent Truth fed to us by the system) found within many social media outlets that allow for the users to create the news content as opposed to merely consume the recycled propaganda of institutions (such as Medium) become exceptionally important during times of crisis. Hashtags which have been previously mocked have turned into the names of movement, with tag lines like #BlackLivesMatter #YesAllWomen and #NoDAPL that were generated on social media sites and were hugely successful in spreading important information to millions of people through the use of user-generated material on these kinds of platforms. Because of the ease of accessibility, more people are able to be informed and participate in protests or self-educate about hot-button issues.
This increased visibility also has revolutionary affects on our leadership and power structures. In example, the case of Brock Turner being met with outrage because people were actually informed and able to bring the awful situation to light instead of having it swept under the rug as many sexual assault cases have been and continue to be. The use of extreme forms of violence such as rubber bullets, tear gas, pressurized hoses, and attack dogs on the water protectors protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline were shown in photos and videos to the point where mainstream media could not ignore the atrocities at hand, despite their best efforts to do so. And of course there are the hundreds of deaths of young black people at the hands of police officers, perhaps the most disturbingly visible of which is Eric Garner (TW), whose infamous last words of “I can’t breathe” echoed across social media and enraged millions of people. Without the visibility of such incidents, there would be no knowledge, and without knowledge, the people can nor create change.
In Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, he explains how societies changed from a more public and gruesome form of torture and punishment to a more private — and more effective — form because the visibility of the centralized power punishing the perpetrators with consequences that often exceeded the violence of the original violation caused the general public to feel pity and remorse for the criminals and view the system as being just as awful as the original criminal. By moving punishment to a privatized prison system, the state effectively employs the “out of sight, out of mind” tactic to keep the general public from opposing them. Through the control of education where they are able to dictate the curriculum and the creation of an academic sphere that is inaccessible to the public, the state can create the ideal situation for the consumption of propaganda designed to increase public support. This is where social media becomes important. Because social media exists outside of this constructed and “legitimized” news realm, it does not abide by the rules of the system. Many political powers from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump bash the “fake news” spread on social media (and of course, media owned by the opposing side) because they are trying to illegitimate the power that social media has. When the injustices perpetrated by those in power are exposed, the people then have the knowledge and responsibility to take action and fight those injustices. Through increased visibility the establishment only loses support as more and more people become aware of the atrocities through the spread of knowledge on social media platforms. It has become imperative that we continue to increase this visibility, through the consumption and production of media that exists outside the constraints of the establishment, and remain adamant about the importance of maintaining freedom of speech and the neutrality of the internet in order to preserve our current form of visibility and communication through which the new generation will livestream their revolution.
