#aslicebucketchallenge

[super-just-a-random-weirdo]

Week 6: Activism & Protest

The picture/gif above generally gives you an idea of what an activism looks like. Activism takes place when you feel so enraged over an issue or behavior that does not quite match with the principles, ethics, moral or value you believe in and you decided to protest and bring this issue to a bigger place. A bunch of people who feel the same with you will join the protest to make the world witness and actually do something right about it.

The social technologies nowadays have actually brought activism to different forms compare to the old fashion walk on street with posters or cardboards.

One most noticeable and common protest on social media is the #Hashtag activism.

#Hashtag activism

Hashtag activism is a term coined by media outlets which refers to the use of Twitter’s hashtags for online activism. The term can also be used to refer to the act of demonstrating support for a cause through a like, share, retweet and etcetera, on any social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter (Mbabazi 2018).

Alternatively, the term is used to refer to the use of hashtags on multiple social media platforms to plan marches and protests, share stories, connect communities, and ultimately, drive social change.

Here is how it looks like when hashtag activism is being used for #ASLIceBucketChallenge.

(Picture: #ASLIceBucketChallenge)

The Facebook or Twitter newsfeed everywhere were filled with people having ice and water poured over their heads, even the celebrities. My favorite “Ironman” also took part in this ice bucket challenge hashtag activism and called upon my another favorite “Thor” to complete this challenge.

#ASLIceBucketChallenge was the first of the viral charity challenge hashtags, raising money and awareness for the ALS Association, and it set a precedent that many have tried to match in the years since. The ALS Association has received more than $41.8 million from more than 739,000 new donors between July 29 and August 21 2014 (Hales & Calderwood 2017).  

This event was also my first engagement with digital activism by shooting an ice bucket challenge video with my friends and uploaded it online to show my our support for the group. We were proud to help in this donation and contribution to bring light to those in needs. 

Personally, now I think activism and protest has been more powerful than before due to the tech of social that allows more people in this world to hear the voices. With the helps of social technologies, activism and protest can be more creative and inspiring that spark the light in people to take actions against certain issue. The sounds can be spread further, and the light can grow into a flame.

References

Mbabazi 2018, ‘Hashtag activism: Powerful or pointless?’, URL: <https://www.newtimes.co.rw/society/hashtag-activism-powerful-or-pointless>.

Hales & Calderwood 2017, ‘8 Massive Moments Hashtag Activism Really, Really Worked’, URL: <https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hashtag-activism-hashtag10-twitter-trends-dresslik/>.

[averagestudent7]

Activism &Protests via Social Media

Social Media activism is a broad form of activism that uses media and communication technology for social and political movements.   It is also a medium for grassroots activists and anarchists to distribute content that is not accessible through mass media or to post censored news stories (PewResearch 2018). Basically this is where all the juicy content resides, so lets dive in. 

#hashtag Activism 

Hashtag activism is a term invented by media sources that refers to the usage of Twitter hashtags for Int

ernet activism.  Hashtag advocacy is a strategy to broaden the use of communication and make it democratic in such a way that everyone has a way to share their views and opinions (GlobalCitizen n.d).

Here are a few #hashtags that have been used in the past by Social Activits;

1.   #HeForShe

We all know that gender equity affects everyone, don't we? And feminism for women?  Well, we have a significant part of the He For She movement to thank for that. This UN Women movement, endorsed by Emma Watson and Justin Trudeau, aims to consciously engage men and boys in a fight that was traditionally thought of as "a woman's matter” (pwc n.d). 

The United States of America, Mexico and the United Kingdom are among the leading countries in the world in terms of contributions and contributions to join the cause.

2.  #ASLIceBucketChallenge

Who doesn't remember the happy summer of 2014, when Facebook's news streams were all over the place, overflowing with people with ice and water flowing over their heads?

In the UK, one in six people engaged in the ice bucket challenge, which allowed people to nominate their mates to grab the baton to keep the momentum rolling (ALS Association 2019).

Turns out those much-mocked Ice Bucket Challenge videos helped do a lot of good. Two summers ago, the challenge, designed to raise money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, took the internet by storm. Supporters ended up raising over $115 million for the A.L.S (Rogers 2016).   

3. #BlackLivesMatter

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized political and social movement promoting non-violent civil resistance in protest of police brutality and other race based abuse towards African-Americans (Anderson 2016).

With its roots in an emotional Facebook post, after the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012, this hashtag has sparked a civil rights campaign that would transform the face of the United States. There are currently more than 26 chapters of Black Lives Matter across the United States (Calderwood and Hales 2019).

The campaign is fueled by sorrow at the nearly infinite flood of wrongful deaths; anger at institutionalized racism; indignation at the consistent lack of fair treatment for all African-Americans.

How Protests Become Successful Social Movements

While hashtags used for activism are capable of educating and gaining people's interest and mobilizing as many people as possible, they should understand the implications of posting such content and what is acceptable for posting. Activists are urged to devote their time developing and revealing less divisive knowledge and to help people understand about the root causes of the crisis.

Still, protests such as the huge Black lives matter march that took place earlier this year, while vital to the development of transformational reform, is only the first step. There are obvious reasons that some campaigns languish and die away while others flourish, and protesters need to take the lessons of history to heart (PND 2018). In order to make a meaningful difference, the campaign needs to follow these five golden steps:

Step 1: Define the change you want to see

Defining change obviously is a recurring trend for popular campaigns. Gandhi decided to be independent of the British. The Civil Rights Movement required concrete laws to be enacted. The color revolutions required a change in government. This were both concrete targets that could construct a plan around them (Gribbin 2017).

Step 2: Shift the spectrum of allies

When you have specifically identified the improvement that you want to make, you need to start looking at the spectrum of allies. Find out that you should expect active or passive support from and provide neutrality at best — or, at worst, active or passive resistance. As Sun Tzu wrote, "Know yourself, know your opponent, and know the landscape." The terrain is a continuum of allies (abc news 2018).

Step 3: Identify the pillars of power

While it is vital to attract supporters from up and down the continuum of funding, it is also important to recognize the organizations that have the ability to bring about the reform you want. These "pillars of influence" can include the police, the media, the school system, government departments, or other organisations. As vital as public support is to the cause, nothing is going to improve without structural support (Popovic and Satell 2017) .

Step 4: Seek to attract, not to overpower

Every campaign is trying to fix any inequality, so it's easy to slip into the pit of demonizing the other side. And this is when a lot of movements fall off the rails. Anger is an effective mobilizing force, but anger without hope is a crippling force. You ought to have an affirmative argument for affirmative tactics ( Mongiello 2016 ).

Step 5: Build a plan to survive victory

Ironically, one of the most dangerous phases of the revolt is just after victory has been won. In Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, the incoming team was unable to establish a single, efficient administration, and soon the nation reverted to anarchy. Secular demonstrators succeeded in Egypt in 2011, but the subsequent elections were won by the Muslim Brotherhood (Popovic et al 2017)

In conclusion, it is crucial not to associate the call for reform with the ideals that the campaign aims to embody. Only because you win an election or have a policy approved and financed doesn't mean it's time to claim victory. In fact, it is at this stage that you need to reinforce relationships and renew the commitment of each stakeholder to what has generated progress in the first place.

References

abc, 2018. 'No-One Is Listening': Tens Of Thousands Mark Invasion Day With Protests. Abc.net.au. viewed 22nd October<https://www.abc.net.au/new s/2018-01-26/invasion-day-protests-in-melbourne-and-sydney/9364940>

ALS Association, 2019. Ice Bucket Challenge Dramatically Accelerated The Fight Against ALS.  The ALS Association. viewed 22nd October <https://www.als.org/stories-news/ice-bucket-challenge-dramatically-accelerated-fight-against-als> 

Anderson, 2016. History Of The Hashtag #Blacklivesmatter: Social Activism On Twitter. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. viewed 22nd October <https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/08/15/the-hashtag-blacklivesmatter-emerges-social-activism-on-twitter/>

Gribbin, 2017. Hanson Insists She Can Hold One Nation Together. viewed 22nd October <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-30/pauline-hanson-vows-to-prevent-one-nation-fragmenting/8220196>

Mongiello, 2016. Repository.upenn. viewed 22nd October du<https://reposito ry.up enn.edu/cgi /viewcontent.cgi?article=4267&context=edissertations>

Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. 2018. Activism In The Social Media Age. viewed 22nd October <https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/ 2018/07/11/public-attitudes-toward-political-engagement-on-social-media/> 

pnd, 2018. How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't, Philanthropy News Digest (PND). viewed 22nd October <https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/off-the-shelf/how-change-happens-why-some-social-movements-succeed-while-others-don-t> 

Popovic and Satell, 2017. 8 Massive Moments Hashtag Activism Really, Really Worked. Global Citizen. viewed 22nd October <https://www.globalcitizen. org /en/content/hashtag-activism-hashtag10-twitter-trends-dresslik/>

pws, n.d. Pwc Proudly Backs Heforshe. PwC. viewed 22nd October <https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/diversity/he-for-she.html>+

Rogers, K., 2016. The ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ Helped Scientists Discover A New Gene Tied To A.L.S. (Published 2016). Nytimes.com. viewed 22nd October <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/health/the-ice-bucket-challenge-helped-scientists-discover-a-new-gene-tied-to-als.html#:~:text=It %20turns%20out%20t hose%20much,%24115%20million%20for%20the%20A.L.S.>

[jakephamm]

Digital Activism & Campaigning

This week, on my blog, I will talk about something a bit different and controversial which is activism and campaign in the digital age. This is a very interesting topic since as a PR student myself, I found this topic is super relevant to what’s currently trending in the fields as PR is slowly but surely shifting from traditional campaigning to digital campaigning as it is more effective and more cost-efficiency compared to the old school PR approaches. Austen-Smith (1995) defined campaign as active efforts and activities carried out over a specific time period to influence a movement or to achieve a particular result that impacts the society. On the other hand, Baer (2005) proposed that activism is a set of activities to encourage social change. These two definitions will be the main point of this discussion for this week.

While traditional activism and campaigning heavily focus on the protest or physical activities to spread their message to the public, digital uses social media platforms to effectively promote their key point with much less effort. Lewis, Gray, and Meierhenrich (2014) mentioned that online activism and campaign is approximately 30% more effective compared the traditional in terms of interactions and public engagements, the reason behind this is because digital activism and campaign accurately target their aiming public audience with reasonable and efficient messages. Moreover, with appropriate tactics and strategies implemented into the campaign, the message will not only be delivered to s specified target audience but also attract more potential audiences that possibly interested in the campaign itself.

Take the example of #ASLIceBucketChallenge, originally from the ASL Association to raise awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that weakens nerve cells, brain, and spinal cord and caused them to slowly break down which dramatically affect physical functions. Their campaign involves a person pouring a bucket of ice and water over their heads to participate, this becomes viral when celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Bill Gates and Conan O’Brien started to participate in this campaign which results in more than $41.8 million in 2014. The campaign spread all over social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with more than 17 million participation entries all around the world to help funding the ASL Association.

The power of the hashtag is unmeasurable, social media has never been so powerful as it is today by spreading positivities throughout the world. Through the example above, we can see that why digital activism and campaigning is a lot more successful compared to the traditional ones, with the help of social media, people are a lot more empathize and easily attracted by something that is unordinary or different from what they are seeing every day. From a PR perspective, where activism and campaign have always been a concentrated issue, PR specialist always needs to adapt to changes and familiarise with the ongoing flow to get on the trend. The shift from traditional PR campaign to digital PR campaign is noticeable because of the presence of digital community.

   Reference

Austen-Smith, D (1995), Campaign Contributions and Access, American Political Science Review, vol. 89, no. 3, pp. 566-581.

Baer, H (2015), Redoing feminism: digital activism, body politics, and neoliberalism, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 17-34.

Lewis, K, Gray, K & Meierhenrich, J (2014), The Structure of Online Activism, Sociological Science, pp. 1-9.

[amanda-agnes]

Taking activism and protest to the next level via social media

Activism and protest have long existed even before the rise of social media. Targeting global change, activism and protest are conducted to voice out, educate, seek justice or escalate change (Ghobadi 2018). The core of activism and protest may still remain the same to date. However, with the addition of social media, the platform on which activism and protest are spoken out has very much evolved. Activism and protest have evolved from face to face, to written and now social media (Sliwinski 2016). Instead of protesting with placards, demonstrations or rallies, activism and protest now are advocated by hashtags to seek justice.

The extensive use of hashtags has brought about a new form of activism, namely hashtag activism. This term refers to the use of Twitter’s hashtags for activism online. However, the same hashtag can be used across various social media platforms to show support for a certain cause, plan rallies or protests, share stories, connect communities or promote social change (Mbabazi and Mbadazi 2018). Some hashtags which has successfully changed the world for the better include the 2017 Women’s March, #WomensMarch, 2012’s #BlackLivesMatter, 2014’s #ASLIceBucketChallenge, 2006’s #MeToo, #PrayforParis, #Hallyu and many more. These are all notable examples of hashtag activisms that have sparked a broader discussion between communities regarding human rights, awareness, politics and trends. In short, online activism allows people from all around the world to connect in a short span of time.

#boycottbrunei on Twitter

Yes, there are tonnes and tonnes of online activism and protest going on around the world today. Nonetheless, I would like to focus on the recent boycott against Brunei-owned hotels, with the hashtag #boycottbrunei.

This social movement, or in other terms, this social activism and protest all started when Brunei imposed strict Islamic laws that make homosexual activity punishable by stoning to death. This new penal code may not be only targeting the LGBT community but it has most certainly posed a big impact and threat to the LGBT community (Herbe 2019).

The anti-LGBT laws stirred up a protest and boycott of Brunei-owned hotels, led by renowned celebrities like George Clooney, Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres. They voiced their opposition to the new laws and rallied a boycott of nine five-star hotels which has ties to Brunei’s Sultan, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (Guardian staff and agencies 2019). These hotels include Hotel Bel-Air, The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Dorchester, 45 Park Lane, Coworth Park, Le Meurice, Hotel Plaza Athenee, Hotel Eden and last but not least Hotel Principe di Savoia.

These celebrities and politicians from Los Angeles condemned the new law and used their social media platform to urge their followers to stay away from the Sultan of Brunei’s properties. Taking one example from Ellen DeGeneres, her boycott tweet prompting her followers to “spread the word” and “rise up” had been retweeted for more than 120,000 times. This shows that social media spreads like wildfire and is able to spread the word across the world within a short period of time.

Apart from celebrities, brands and universities have also participated in the protest and boycott of Brunei-owed services after the implementation of the new law. Virgin Australia, STA Travel, and Queensland’s state government in Australia have also made moves to cut ties with Brunei. Several UK universities on the other hand are also considering to revoke honorary degrees given to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

As a wrap, social media has broken the boarders between otherwise isolated and marginalized people. It has enabled for many activism campaign or protest to occur online. It has also increased potential audience size and strengthened these activism campaigns to seek justice and change.

References:

Sliwinski, M 2016, The Evolution of Activism: From the Streets to Social Media, LawStreet, viewed 17 April 2019, <https://lawstreetmedia.com/issues/politics/evolution-activism-streets-social-media/>

Ghobadi, S 2018, Going viral: what social media activists need to know, TheConversation, viewed 17 April 2019, <http://theconversation.com/going-viral-what-social-media-activists-need-to-know-96043>

Mbabazi, D and Mbazazi, J 2018, Hashtag activism: Powerful or pointless? The News Times Publications, viewed 17 April 2019, <https://www.newtimes.co.rw/society/hashtag-activism-powerful-or-pointless>

Herbe, AC 2019, Brunei Shariah law applies death sentence for homosexuality, Deutsche Welle, viewed 18 April 2019, <https://www.dw.com/en/brunei-shariah-law-applies-death-sentence-for-homosexuality/a-48076114>

Guardian staff and agencies, 2019, Celebrities boycott Brunei-owned hotels over country's new anti-LGBT laws, TheGuardian, viewed 18 April 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/03/brunei-lgbt-stoning-boycotts>

[eevong]

Social Activism & Protesting

What do you understand about social activism and social media protesting??

Social activism also known as digital activism, and as stated by Fuentes (2014), digital activism is also known as “cyberactivism”. At the very first place, this is a platform that are used by the public to share their thoughts and spread information that they know using Wide Web (WWW), a platform that we are using now. But now as technologies is getting better day by day, some people use it as a site for protesting and also magnifies off-line demonstration. For examples, do campaign through social medias, emailing, and etc. all of this are mostly done by the social activist now.

Online social activism

Some really huge and dominant organisation had been pressured by the social activist via hashtags on the internet. The increment in voices of disagreement through internet has been developing day by day, from the hashtags #Metoo, #TimesUp and #WeStrike to #NeverAgain and #BlackLivesMatter (Ghobadi, 2018). This is a way where people has the same opinion starts to talk to each other and agrees with what each other says in different places all around the world.

For example, a group of activists which called themselves 350.org, they are a group of activists where encourages the society to save the earth. Organizing campaign to contradict new coal, oil and also gas project via the internet has been done by them (Ghobadi, 2018). So, the environment would be “greener” in the futures.

Other than that, who doesn’t remember the most important social activism during the summer of 2014 where the whole internet has been flooded with the #ASLIceBucketChallenge which is started by a lot of celebrities and nominating a lot of other people for charity purposes for the ALS Association. This challenge is to let people know how it feels like when someone is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diseases (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Through this challenge and video, the association has raised funds and also awareness at the same time (Hitchings-Hales & Calderwood 2017).

#HeforShe has also became one of the very trending hashtags because of the participation of Emma Watson and also Justin Trudeau. And in this post, femininity isn’t all about women. Gender equality is the main reason behind this hashtag to be this popular. Emma Watson had tweeted and says “Wonderful men out there. I'm launching a campaign - #heforshe. Support the women in ur lives and sign up here now! ❤️ http://heforshe.org” on her twitter and requests to keenly include men and boys who are struggling and been assumed of as a “women’s thing” (Hitchings-Hales & Calderwood 2017).

Reference......

Fuentes, M A 2014, Digital activism, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. viewed 11 April 2019, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/digital-activism>.

Ghobadi, S 2018, Going viral: what social media activists need to know, The Conversation, viewed 11 April 2019, <https://theconversation.com/going-viral-what-social-media-activists-need-to-know-96043>.

Hitchings-Hales, J, Calderwood, I 2017, 8 Massive Moments Hashtag Activism Really, Really Worked, GlobalCitizen, viewed 11 April 2019, <https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hashtag-activism-hashtag10-twitter-trends-dresslik/>.

[ananyamallick]

Digital Citizenship 2: Social Media Activism and Protest

A form of protest or advocacy for a cause through social media channels is known as social media activism. It includes using hashtags, posts, and campaigns to raise awareness and demonstrate unity. Hashtags especially play a pivotal role in mobilizing such digital movements. Since the 2010 Arab Spring rallies and the initial use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in2013, social media and activism have been inextricably linked. 

In 2010, social media had a role in the Arab uprisings. Online networks were critical in mobilizing a core number of activists, particularly in Egypt. In Arab countries, civil society leaders underlined the importance of "the internet, mobile phones, and social media" in the protests. Arabs have also embraced digital media to exercise their right to free speech and as a platform for civic involvement.

Following the murder of a young black boy named Trayvon Martin in 2013, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started online when the co-founder Alicia Garzia posted the hashtag "#BlackLivesMatter." The BLM movement has pivoted on the social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook to spread its message by taking its inceptive standpoint on social media. Today BLM movement has become a global human rights movement in all 50 states of the United States and in over 20 countries worldwide, in the wake of the dreadful murder of George Floyd.

#DressLikeAWoman, #StopFundingHate, #YouAintNoMuslimBruv, #HeForShe,   #WomensMarch,  #BlackLivesMatter,  #ASLIceBucketChallenge,  #BringBackOurGirls are some other social media activisms that became massive among audiences. 

[colouredbra]

Mariska Hargitay - #IceBucketChallenge 

[jrodtwins]

ASL Ice Bucket Challenge WITHOUT WASTING WATER

[steveaoki]

Ice Ice Baby cover for the #ASLIceBucketChallenge. Full video up on youtube.com/steveaoki. Keep spreading the word on ASL Disease!

[skyeshotward-blog]

I was challenged by moosesquirrelandwings

and challenge edensdragons, theengineer-fitz, optimistic-skye and skyenolimit (and my room mate)

please donate to ALS if you can!!!

[franciscubbins]

By @tobyregbodaily "Torrance and Toby take the #ASLIceBucketChallenge! #torrancecoombs #tobyregbo #reign" via @PhotoRepost_app

[moon-pansy]

Thanks to Alex, @rawr_lizz, and @silviagaldamez for nominating me for the #ASLicebucketchallenge I tag @elenaahh @nayshayyy and @itsnotjulia (also I'm aware this is super late but oh well)

[williamvaldestv]

Happy Monday! Todos mojados después del #ASLicebucketchallenge

[jing0307]

#kathniel #aslicebucketchallenge (at home❤️❤️❤️)