Activism and protest have been happening for years! Demonstrations, boycotts, strikes, letter-writing and more recently, social media, are the most common techniques used.
When it comes to digital protest and activism, social media has its pros and cons. It has the awesome ability to support local activist groups looking to raise funds for their organisation or charity, but it also can facilitate unnecessary and damming propaganda and culture jamming that can mislead the population (Swinburne Online).
What’s ‘Culture jamming’? Culture jamming is the movement where activists point out flaws and unethical elements of a global brand by making a parody and turning a brand against itself. This can be done through graffiti art, digital art, hacktivism and adbusting (Swinburne Online). It has been around for a while, but social media has only amplified and given culture jamming a new life through digital tools and social platforms to share. Depending on which side you sit on, culture jamming can be seen as good or bad. The bad being that it can have a damming effect on a brand, the good being that it can bring attention to a much bigger issue (Brie 2017).
Sandora, J (2015) Culture Jamming
Although social media can amplify the negativity that comes from propaganda and culture jamming, it does have a good side! For example, it gave light to the Black Lives Matter movement which occurred on the back of the murder of George Floyd. Millions of people from all corners of the world took to the streets in protest, while others expressed their voice on social media to help raise awareness around systematic racism (Khiry 2020). The movement is still in process, but it has already made a massively positive impact on society.
Not all digital activism and protest fall into the above categories, social media has also seen an increase in subactivism. At first glance, subactivism can be seen as a real movement or world issue that need’s addressing, but if you were to look further into it, there is no external or objective truth behind it. An example of this would be the clickbait you see most days or on a large scale the ‘Kony 2012’ campaign. Do you remember how big that was at the time? Subactivism can be seen in a negative light as false allegations can spread like wildfire on social media and can be damming on certain groups of people or organisations. Other people see subactivism as fun and trivial. It’s up to you to decide on where you sit with it all!
Now that I have gone through the pros and cons of activism on protest on social media, what do you think? Do activism and protests benefit from social media?
Reference List:
Brie, 2017, Culture Jamming: The Pros and Cons, Media Literacy, viewed 27 August 2021,<https://medialit237.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/culture-jamming-the-pros-and-cons/>
Khiry, Z 2020, Why is social media activism important?, Online Optimism, viewed 27 August 2021,<https://www.onlineoptimism.com/blog/social-media-activism/>
Swinburne Online, 2021, 6.2 Digital activism and digital citizenship, viewed 27 August 2021,<https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/2966/pages/6-dot-2-digital-activism-and-digital-citizenship?module_item_id=229026>
Swinburne Online, 2021, 6.3 Culture jamming, viewed 27 August 2021,<https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/2966/pages/6-dot-3-culture-jamming?module_item_id=229028>.
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