Emergence of the Twitest: Is it as effective as the Protest?
Social movements have held incredible historical significance with almost every generation influencing change throughout posterity. In finding inspiration for how I could portray where social movements have come from overtime I stumbled across a Blog by Peter Driere called Social Movements: How People Make History. Although he does not directly address the role of media in these movements he does provide insight into the role a diverse range of people throughout history have had on influencing change and discusses the generational impacts of these actions for movements of today. There are three core elements I hope to create discussion around the first is the transformation of social movements over time, the second is the concept of the new public sphere and the third is how far can we go as digital change makers?
Significant moments in history around the world such as ‘Racial’ and ‘Women’s’ Equality, anti-slavery (continuing) and the beginnings of movements to end poverty all had one thing in common. Each of these movements started from a single person standing up for change, one action against the norm that started a movement, one normal lady on a bus who inspired Martin Luther King and thousands more to unify as one voice . It just takes one person to stand up for change, it can be a physical person, it can be a digital person either way it is a brave voice. The difference here is that the 1960’s physical voice was limited by geographical location and person to person connectivity whereas the digital voice of today has global influence over a mass audience and the flexibility to create own understandings through the internet. Previous movements were relevant for their time utilising mediums of radio, TV and newspapers to promote local engagement in issues which directly affected that specific community at that particular point in time and were highly effective in influencing change. However given the significant changes in media and particularly the political failings of today we have little leadership in the public eye to inspire change and must rely our inward motivations and on one another for inspiration.
Previous Generations have been incredible change makers inspiring equality of gender, race and rights for all. In comparison to these incredible catalysts for mass social changes our social movements of today are often criticised and undervalued. Regularly referred to as Slacktivism in the assumption that all forms of online activism by youth held little meaning and achieved limited real world outcomes. For many people it is easy to sign a petition, like a Face Book page, share a video or make an online donation and Yes for some the ‘care factor’ may cease there. However for others this is one sample of the broader values they live out through their life and the availability of information and global connectivity provided through the internet is often a catalyst for further action. The current generation is more connected by the click of a mouse than previous generations were by phone calls and televisions. Yes television inspired change in the masses of couch potatoes and telephones connected mothers around the world but it is the Tweeting, Face Book posts and Blogs that are the inspirations of today. Langman (2005) refers to this virtual activism as “Internetworked Social Movements” creating possibilities for democratic interaction and information exchange between infinite actors rather that relying on dominate media for dissemination of messages.
The reality of the 21st century is that the public is no longer a physical presence comprising of a central time and place but rather a virtual global public which actively creates and engages with online content anywhere and anytime. In this world where individuals have so much freedom to control their media consumption and yet are also overwhelmed with content choice it can be difficult to not only attract interest but also to maintain focus in such a clustered networked society. This often leads to the assumption that those that are actively immersed in the digital world, often seen as a youth dominated space, are disconnected from reality and therefore disconnected from real world issues. This perception is becoming less relevant to the current generation whom Brown and Bobbowski (2011) found to make up the majority of the networked public and increasingly engaged in social media processes of politics.
A recent example of powerful political action by youth was represented on the Oak Tree Road Trip to End Poverty in which a thousand young people around Australia came together for a week of conversations, social media blitz’s and political meetings to keep the promise on Foreign Aid. Certain collaborative actions were able to attract significant political and media attention with synchronized Twitests whereby at a set time every person in every training in every state around Australia posted a Road trip to end poverty tweet # tag their local politician and Julia Gillard. Given the geographical distances of states in Australia it would have been easy to feel disconnected as QLD from the other states but this technology created a united voice for our cause. This action was repeated during the Road Trip where we were #tagging radio stations and were successfully mentioned on their talk shows. The Road Trip culminated with a thousand young people gathering on the lawns of Canberra’s Parliament house and each of us meeting with our political leaders representing a variety of virtual and personal political actions of activist involvement. There will always be limits to any social movement, limits of reach, of effect, of awareness and of action but the important achievement here is that each person in the digital age has potential to be a change maker and every voice is now more powerful than ever before regardless of who or where you are!
