Role of Social Media in Social Movements Term Paper

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Role of Social Media in Social Movements

The rapid technological advancements have played a major role in shaping today’s society, especially in terms of communication and information sharing. Technological developments have contributed to the emergence of social media, whose use has grown rapidly over the last decade (Anderson et al., 2018). Currently, many people across the globe including in the United States are using a wide range of social networking sites to get news and information. As a result, social media has become a key avenue for public discourse on various issues as people engage in civic-related discussions and activities. For many people, social media allows them to obtain more secure and reliable information or knowledge on various issues including civic-related issues (Balci & Golcu, 2013). By providing avenues for people to get more secure and reliable information and enhancing communication, social media has played a critical role in recent social movements. 

Social Media and Civic-related Activities

Balci & Golcu (2013) state that rapid technological developments in recent years have enabled people to experience major transformations in ways of communication and information sharing in daily and social life. The developments in communication technologies have contributed to the emergence of new communication networks that allow people to obtain more secure and reliable information. Social media is a new communication network that has emerged from the development of communication technologies and become a critical part of daily communication. Social media has provided an avenue through which approximately 30% of the global population is connected (Clark, 2012). The rate of growth in social media use is expected to increase to more than 60% in the next decade. 

The increased growth in the use of social media is attributable to its ability to allow people to engage in public discussion and civic-related activities. As people increasingly turn to social media to get news and information, they use these platforms to engage in political debate and discussions (Anderson et al., 2018). In some instances, social media becomes a place for people to engage in civic-related activities. Social media users can easily engage in civic-related activities as messages shared on these platforms spread quickly. 

Role of Social Media in Recent Social Movements

Cammaerts (2015) define a social movement as a social process through which members collectively articulate their interests, express their critiques and grievances, and recommend solutions to address the identified problems. During this process, the collective actors in a social movement engage in a series of collective actions that are geared toward resolving the identified problems or issues.

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Social movements have some characteristics including conflictual and clearly identified opponents, dense informal networks, and focus on sharing collective identities (Cammaerts, 2015). Modern social movements suffer gradual transformation and have similar features even when they are organized in different contexts and scenarios (Soares & Joia, 2015). Most of the contemporary social movements comprise young people who are mobilized to action through various channels of communication, particularly social media. 

Recent social movements have been affected by information and communication technology, which affects all aspects of the modern world. Information and communication technologies have affected both developed and developing countries across the globe. These technologies…

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The power of social media in mobilizing actors and coordinating activities is evident in different examples of recent social movements. For example, in the Tunisian uprising, social media was used as a tool to mobilize people and coordinate activities that culminated in the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 (Breuer, 2012). Social media promoted coordination of activities between these actors by allowing the digital elite to create personal networks and dodge the national media blackout. Through this, actors effectively shared information outside mainstream media. Actors also used social media to report the magnitude of protest events and create a national collective identity that facilitated and supported protest actions that transcended socio-economic and geographical disparities. During the Arab Uprisings, social media was used by activists to mobilize, organize, and coordinate activities (Hempel, 2016). Social media played an integral part in the Arab Uprisings by facilitating the creation of networks that were crucial in coordinating actions (Brown, Guskin & Mitchell, 2012). Social media helped to coordinate activities during the uprisings by promoting circulation of information that increased expectations for the success of democracy in North Africa and the Middle East (O’Donnell, 2011). 

In conclusion, contemporary society has experienced significant changes in communication and information sharing due to developments in information and communication technologies. These technologies have contributed to the emergence of social media, which continues to affect all aspects of the modern world including social movements. Social media has played an important role in recent social movements like Arab Uprisings, “Me Too”, and Black Lives Matter. The role of social media in these recent….....

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