#MeToo using Social Media to Impact Social Change

The #metoo movement was started to raise awareness of the sexual violence acted against women. According to Sandoval-Almazan and Gil-Garcia (2014) there are four stages of social movements that use social media. The first stage is what is referred to as the triggering event (Sandoval-Almazan & Gil-Garcia, 2014) . In the case of #metoo the triggering event was Alyssa Milano asked social media to respond “me too” if they had been sexually assaulted. The second stage and third stage are media response and viral organization (Sandoval-Almazan & Gil-Garcia, 2014). After Alyssa Milano posted that, people were shocked and moved and the phrase went viral, being used by millions in several different languages. The final stage is a physical response (Sandoval-Almazan & Gil-Garcia, 2014). After the viral movement many corporations changed how they approached sexual harassment allegations from women. It also helped raise cultural awareness to the magnitude of sexual violence against women.

If this movement could be this powerful, perhaps it is time to start a movement for domestic violence to empower women to report their abuse and force the courts to hold the perpetrators accountable.

References

Sandoval-Almazan, R., & Ramon Gil-Garcia, J. (2014). Towards cyberactivism 2.0? Understanding the use of social media and other information technologies for political activism and social movements. Government Information Quarterly, 31(3), 365–378. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.10.016