R8: Social Media Activism

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISM 

Social media activism has reinvented the notion of social activism through the notion of strong and weak ties. Strong ties on social media are defined in the sense that you know who it is you are interacting with because you have a strong connection to them. Social media also allows for weak ties to be present because of the nature of social media. Social media platforms are so vast in the sense that people can reach each other through very minimal connections. They can form a small connection with a random stranger because of a mutual like or dislike. As a result, that weak tie can then be transformed into a strong tie based on the level of interaction one chooses to have with another on social media. But the issue then becomes, for social media activism who is the real authority figure for the movement? How do they make sure that the agenda of the movement is correctly being defined and fought for across multiple platforms and within different online communities? Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “Small Change” highlights the central argument that is placed with social media and activism. Gladwell states, “Because networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals” (Gladwell). The main issue with social media activism is despite its ability to reach multiple people at once, the access to information and the messages are not always representative of the unified beliefs of the movements, in other words the movement is not centralized.

The Black Lives Matter movement started in the summer of 2013 with the death of Trayvon Martin. As a result, people took to social media with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to express their outrage at the death of this young man as they considered it to be a racially targeting killing that stated that society devalued black lives. Because of the hashtag, people were able to come together for their first protest the following year for the death of Michael Brown. Because of the sheer number people who showed up in protest and demonstration against the injustice those of the black community faced, they were seen more as movement that was expanding on activism for the black community across the nation.

But the issue as stated in the definition of the Black Lives Matter Movement, “The phrase "Black Lives Matter" can refer to a Twitter hashtag, a slogan, a social movement, or a loose confederation of groups advocating for racial justice” (Wikipedia). Because of social media’s decentralized nature, there has been the ability to attribute multiple meanings of the movement in just defining the words "Black Lives Matter". Ryan Miller from USA Today states the uniqueness of the movement is it its decentralized nature, “the decentralized approach and reliance almost solely on local, rather than national, leadership. Cullors said organizing is often spontaneous and not directed

by one person or group of people” (Miller). As a result, the spontaneity of the movement and the activism can lead to data issue and in terms of classifying information about certain racially charged issue in society.  DeRay Mckesson, one of the most prominent voices of the Black Lives Matter Movement commented on the issue of accessing and classifying information. Mckesson states “If I could create one thing in the next five years around remedying the data issues, it would be a massive crowdsourced big data project that got volunteers from across the world to sift through some of these issues. Right now, we’re working on creating a public database of all the public information for all the elected officials in the country” (Opam). By attempting to crowdsource a big data project, it is attempting to centralize the movement in the information gathered from multiple platforms and people. It is attempting to give the movement some way of classification through the message derived from social media platforms. Therefore, one can officially define what "Black Lives Matter" stands for and what proponents of the movement are fighting for.

I think social media is ultimately a valuable tool to help these movements reach their ultimate goals. Social media allows for mediums to reach more people across a wider range, because of the notion of weak ties. Weak ties allow for any form of connection to be built, whether by medium or certain likes or dislikes. As a result, there can be multiple connections and as a result, people can traverse those connections to meet and talk with others. I think social media is necessary to help these movements to help reach their goals. I believe the issue that needs to be addressed is that social media needs to work in conjunction with an already established movement, because that way there will be an established form of governance or leadership. Or if there is a movement that is created online, there needs to be a physical person or group that serves as leadership. Regardless, social media is a tool that facilitates social activism.

 Works Cited:

Gladwell, Malcolm. "Small Change." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 12 May 2015. Web. 30

Apr. 2017. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell>.

Miller, Ryan W. "Black Lives Matter: A Primer on What It Is and What It Stands for." USA

Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 08 Aug. 2016. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/07/11/black-lives-matter-what-what-stands/86963292/>.

Opam, Kwame. "DeRay Mckesson on Black Lives Matter and Building Tools for Digital

Activism | Verge 2021."TheVerge.com. The Verge, 29 Nov. 2016. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://www.theverge.com/a/verge-2021/deray-mckesson-interview-black-lives-matter-digital-activism>.

Wikipedia contributors. "Black Lives Matter." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,

The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Apr. 2017. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.