The creation of the internet has resulted in a number of positive advancements internationally, especially in the sphere of activism, where the process has been revolutionized. Internet activism involves the use of social media such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube, email and podcasts to facilitate online advocacy in the form of cyberactivism, e-campaigning, and e-activism. Organizations and individuals are therefore able to use their digital devices to lobby, raise funds, organize events, campaign and draw awareness to issues on which action should be taken.
Online activism has been particularly appealing because it allows users to spread a message far and wide within seconds. Therefore, it enables rapid communication with thousands of people, and often this communication is aimed at creating awareness of the need for social and political change. Through this medium, public opinion can be shaped, action plans developed, information shared, and those who were unaware, can be alerted to act.
In this regard, a number of strategies are employed. These include: the creation of slogans, pictures, written details, blogs, on line petitions, videos, images, and the use of mobile applications on cell phones. In a world of instant gratification, this procedure is embraced, as it involves less effort, and much can be achieved simply by clicking a button. Many I phones have signifiers which serve to alert users of particular information or messages, and this proves effective in attracting attention.
Aaron Swartz will forever be remembered for his pioneering work in helping to create Reddit, an effective digital invention which garnered immense support against The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). If these two acts were allowed to become law, they would have infringed a number of fundamental rights, including freedom to access information that was important for the public to have, as this information would impact their lives. Once Reddit was used to raise awareness, Wikipedia blocked or limited access to internet users, as a means of protest. Later, Google, Mozilla and Flickr joined in. Support grew as people marched in protest and hundreds of emails opposing the bills, were sent to Congress. There was also a petition posted on Google. The result was a decision by the law makers to review the legislation, and for the time being, to shelve passing the laws.
Another effective use of social media was the successful campaign conducted to elect President Barak Obama. He was the first presidential candidate to engage in political activism online in order to employ a major campaign strategy. The lasting impact has been a major shift in the way campaigns are now conducted, using digital devices. President Obama included people with digital expertise on his team, and they built communities who bought his ideas and identified with them. There was a major focus on connections and user engagement.Twitter spread the slogan “Yes We Can,” and established a wide outreach. The electorate appreciated the idea that their opinions mattered, and this helped to develop relationships based on trust.
The outcome of this type of activism was that participation grew as people began to feel that they had the power to make a difference and this in turn, gave them a sense of ownership. Nearly one billion dollars was raised through small donations on social media and cell phones. Memes also played a role as they became important in getting messages across to the voters. However, Barak Obama’s memes were not the only ones on social media, as his opponents took the opportunity to post memes that were parodies of him, and some of these went viral, possibly attracting more support for Obama. The 2016 presidential candidates have been making full use of social media in their campaigns, attracting people to Facebook likes as well as twitter tweets and re-tweets. This process allows for online data collection, termed user data mining by which data is collected and analyzed on a large scale. Besides allowing the campaign officials to determine the size of the following that various candidates attract, they are able to use the information to predict donor behaviors and get people out to vote.
Will this meme hurt or help Donald Trump?
Information about funds raised could be used in the candidates’ favor, or against them. An embarrassing outcome was experienced recently by Republican front runner Donald Trump. In an interview on CNN television with Anderson Cooper, Trump boasted that his campaign was self funded. He indicated that the donations he received were very small. Cooper had done his due diligence in checking the data, and informed Trump that he had received donations of some 9 million dollars and that was not small. An unintended outcome of the use of social media in campaigning is, therefore, transparency in reporting monies received.
Although social media has often been successful as a tool for advocacy, it has not always met the expectations of the organizers. Several factors might be responsible for this. For example, where people do not have access to the internet or I phones, their participation could be limited to the conventional campaign methods. Additionally, if the users do not have some degree of digital literacy, this could be problematic. In some instances, fear of censorship by the authorities could reduce the impact of online activism. Also, those who abuse their privileges by hacking, could have the negative impact of reducing confidence and therefore, involvement in the process.
It has been argued that activism through social media was unsuccessful in stopping Joseph Kony and his group from engaging in rape and child abduction in Africa. Some people believe it was in fact successful because social media caught the attention of the world and rallied support from millions. Others felt that a strong message was sent to people engaged in such atrocities, and so restricted their actions. The problem here, is that all outcomes are not always measurable, and if online activism failed to help the authorities find the victims, this does not mean that it was a complete failure. In these cases, public awareness is critical, and if this awareness leads to action such as putting public educational programs and other structures in place so that a proactive approach is adopted, then this would represent an important achievement.
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Kevin Lewis, Kurt Gray and Jens Meierhenrich argue that the Save Darfur Cause launched against genocide on Facebook, allowed them to examine what turned out to be “a massive online social movement,” but, “the vast majority of Cause members recruited no one else into the Cause and contributed no money to it …In the case of the Save Darfur campaign, Facebook conjured an illusion of activism rather than facilitating the real thing.” This is unfortunate, as the members who joined but did not work could not have been committed to the cause and the researchers indicate that as time passed, “more and more people did less and less.”
It is difficult to understand how Facebook could be blamed for this failure. Furthermore, the suggestion that when large numbers sign up supporting advocacy on social networks, this acts as a disincentive to others to follow through and take action, cannot be applied as a generalization. We can, however, agree with Lewis, Gray and Meierhenrich that “the nature and scale of the typical activist’s involvement with social media have remained important but unexplored topics.” There are many instances when organizations and individuals have experienced tremendous success as a result of online activism.