ONLINE NETWORKS HAVE ALLOWED SOCIAL CHANGE MOVEMENTS SUCH AS BLM TO ADVANCE AND SPREAD INFORMATION FASTER AND WIDER.
Online Networks have allowed for social change movements to advance and spread news and information very fast. Movements such as Black Lives Matter have been able to spread news faster and create awareness for the current events and injustices occurring in our world (Auxer, 2020). Black Lives Matter is a decentralised political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and inequality experienced by black people. (Heckeymeyer, 2018) Using platforms, groups, and hashtags it allows for people to connect, understand, and learn of the injustice and social change movements occurring in the World. Hashtags such as #BLM allowed for victims, supporters, and protestors to share information about the injustices to everyone creating extremely large amounts of awareness (Burnett, 2018). Along with hashtags using platforms such as twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tik-Tok we saw first-hand the social change movements, live footage of discrimination instantly shared to the whole world demanding change and showing the injustice of BLM (Brown, 2019). Without the use of online networks movements such as BLM would not get the attention, support, and awareness it currently and has gotten (Brown, 2019). The use of these online networks has allowed for social change movements such as BLM to receive awareness through hashtags, forming of groups and setting up support networks for victims and allies. They have allowed for social movements to advance at an extreme rate through hashtags, forming of groups and allowing a platform for allies, supporters, and victims to speak out (Auxer, 2020).
The #Black Lives Matter movement was founded in 2012 by Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of Trayvon Martin, when he fatally shot the unarmed, African American teen (Heckeymeyer, 2018). The idea behind the creation was to draw attention to the issues and injustice occurring (Burnett, 2018). Since then, there has been more fatal shootings of unarmed African American people and the hashtag is used to share this information and injustice to the world digitally. It allows victims, families, and allies to show their support and create awareness for these issues which are occurring way too often (Burnett, 2018). The hashtag is used over a variety of social medias such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook (Auxer, 2020). Hashtags allow people to search a hashtag and view all the posts people have uploaded with it and learn and expand their awareness of the issues currently happening. Since 2012, and the hashtag movement being created there have been more tragic injustice with no punishment surrounding African American / police murders and the hashtag has grown to help connect allies, create events and protests in countries all over the world and give us a better understanding of the systematic racism and oppression experienced daily by black people (Burnett, 2018). The use of this hashtag to share current events and injustice allows for people to see the damage happening but also allows for people to learn about these issues (Auxer, 2020). Without the online networks these social movements wouldn’t be able to educate and inform as much as they do. The hashtag created a global concept of BLM which celebrities and everyday users used to discuss the issues, people with social media shared their support as allies through joining protests through events made on social media in their town, resharing the hashtag with information (Burnett, 2018). Without these online networks allowing social movements to dramatically increase in awareness and create a space to share and learn information, if this platform wasn’t available and these hashtags couldn’t be created, and these movements wouldn’t have gained the big momentum they needed to create change for the better (Burnett, 2018).
The creation of online networks allowed people to give live streams and up to date info of current events in real time (Auxer, 2020). This is a big factor that changed how we view current events because there is no need to wait for the news, or for a news/journalist company to update us, everyone is now a journalist and can put anything on the internet which allows current events and social movements to get a lot more attraction and perspective (Brown 2019). This factor allowed for BLM information to be released instantly and show the truth behind these tragedies. An example of this is when George Floyd was killed by a police officer from being strangled. Multiple bystanders captured videos of him and what became a known saying over the world of Floyd crying out “I can’t breathe” (Brown, 2019). This sentence became a unifying and iconic statement which was shouted at protests and posts of support in fighting for BLM (Brown, 2019). The bystanders being able to film these videos filled in gaps that were left out of the incident report allowing for the full truth to be showcased (Brown, 2019). This incident spread instantly, images and videos surfacing of Floyd being hurt and murdered. Instantly people saw the injustice and tragedy. It also allowed for there to be evidence of the injustice that occurred (Brown, 2019). Outrage flooded the internet and the #BLM hashtag began trending as discussions opened again about the systematic racism towards African Americans throughout America and not only in America but racism throughout the world (Auxer, 2020). Online network applications such as Instagram, Facebook and most recently Tik Tok have allowed the addition of real time live streams. This extension of apps has allowed for users to be able to show the injustice occurring in real time, providing more evidence which can show the injustice and help support getting justice for the victims (Auxer, 2020). Along with this aspect it has allowed for the formation of groups through online networks. The ability to create groups and platforms which people can freely join to discuss and spread awareness of these issues along with learning of ways to help and protests available in their town to show their alliance with BLM (Burnett, 2018). Black Lives Matter has grown in awareness throughout the years and intensified and strengthened thanks to the ability of online networks (Brown, 2019) Without the ability to use online networks to form these groups and get real time current event info with unbiased views we wouldn’t be able to see the injustice and be able to help BLM to increase awareness and make change.
Online networks have allowed for allies to contribute more to the discussion and help more when it comes to social movements such as Black Lives Matter (Wilkins, 2019). With the discussion of political and social justice movements online it not only allows collaboration and strengthening of numbers to help the cause but allows for people to learn how they can help those who have been a victim of the systematic oppression (Burnett, 2019). With the ability to share information about these movements it allows for you to help people who have been a victim (Wilkins, 2019). Previous tragedies in relation to Black Lives Matter where lives have been lost due to police brutality and systematic oppression the online networks have created donation sites and go fund me to help those who were hurt and their families (Burnett, 2018). There is general BLM movement go fund Me’s created by different organisations throughout a variety of countries and states which go to directly helping the cause of BLM in that area and funding the organisation and movement (Wilkins, 2019). Along with this previously the affected families who have lost a loved one to police brutality/injustice have had go fund me set up by allies to help them through the cost and assisting of losing a loved one. This ability to donate and help would not be as easy or able to help those directly affected without these online networks and groups coming together to help those affected and create a change (Auxer, 2020). This money helps fund not only those families and help them with funeral costs and court costs but also allows for the official organisations of BLM to keep funding and allow the movement to continue and continue fighting for change (Wilkins, 2019). Without the funding and donations through online networks the organisations which support and keep the fight running. With these donations to the family of victims to help them through their grieving there is also how the funding to direct BLM organisations which allows for protests, fundraisers, talks, and merch purchased which directly funds to helping BLM advance even further (Wilkins, 2019).The Online networks have allowed for social movements to increase in such a way because they have allowed to reach multitudes of more people than they would without these online networks and allowed for allies and supporters to help in any way in they wish (Wilkins, 2019). This factor has created a huge improvement in social movements such as BLM which wouldn’t be achieved without these online networks. (Wilkins, 2019).
Through online networks specifically the use of hashtags, formation of groups, live stream/real time posts and donation sites it accelerated the Black Lives Matter movement so quickly (Burnett, 2018). It allowed the social movement to spread internationally within hours of these injustices and tragedies occurring. From this it allows conversations to be had, learning, and educating to be had and support from around the globe for the cause (Auxer, 2020). The hashtag #BLM allowed for the social movement to spread awareness and educate and show the systematic racism and oppression experienced by the African American people (Brown, 2019). Along with the hashtag used to bring attention to the injustices and issues there is the ability to form groups and the use of live stream/real time posts being uploaded given unbiased direct sources of these tragedies (Wilkins, 2019). Together these factors show the importance of online networks when it comes to fighting a social movement and how it wouldn’t be as big as a movement without these networks to help spread info and awareness (Wilkins, 2019). Along with these factors the online networks such as Go Fund Me allow for victims and their families to be supported from allies all over the world who just want to support in any way they can, along with Go Fund Me’s set up for BLM organisations all over the world to support and allow the fight for justice to continue (Wilkins, 2019).
References:
- M, Burnett. 2018. “Scaling social movements through social media: The case of Black Lives Matter”. Social Media and Society. 4 (4) 10. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305118807911
- Denise, J Wilkins, 2019. “Rhetorical functions of social media in developing the BLM movement” British Journal Of Psychology. 786-805. (58).4.
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12318
- Katheryn, Brown. 2019. “Critical black protectionism, BLM, and social media”. Howard law journal 60, (2). 367-410
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12318
- Ince, 2017. “Social Media Response to BLM”. Ethic and racial studies. 1814-1850.
- Brooke, Auxer. 2020. “Social media continues to be outlet for BLM protest” Pew research centre. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/12/11/social-media-continue-to-be-important-political-outlets-for-black-americans/
Hi Molly, I enjoyed reading your essay focusing it around BLM and how social media is helping BLM and different causes raise awareness. While social media can help the truth come out, sometimes social media just isn’t not enough for governments and organization to bring the right people to justice like the Trayvon Martin case and many other cases. However, we have seen many times on social media that platforms like Instagram and Twitter can be a public court room where people names can be tarnished and cancelled because of cancel culture and these ramifications of these public court cases people lives can be changed forever and this is seen the is case of George Floyd where the group that killed him will struggle to gain employment for the rest of their lives because social media and the news. Do you think social media can be a open court?
Hey!
Thank You for reading my paper. While I do agree that without the internet these social movements just wouldn’t gain as much momentum I do see where you’re coming from with the perspective of the cancel culture and the ramifications can go beyond the facts and issues at hand. It is a tough one to battle because the Great thing about the internet is being able to spread our views and everyone share their perspectives and stories but then that is also the downfall in many cases. I think finding that happy medium where awareness is raised but we are not degrading and slandering people is the ideal focus for issues like these. Hopefully slowly as an internet culture we will get there! I think though the organisational political movements do a great job on focusing more on the issues and racism and justice for these acts then the direct hate/defamation of people involved.
Thanks for reading my paper.
Hi Molly,
I thought your paper was well considered and well written. I agree with your comment that “Without the online networks these social movements wouldn’t be able to educate and inform as much as they do”. I was also interesting learning about the offline activities such as the fund that have resulted from this online movement.
Thank You for reading my paper!
Yeah it’s wonderful how the internet has provided so many outlets to help so many affected parties of this current social issues such as BLM! Thanks for your comment. 🙂
Hi Molly,
I enjoyed reading your paper, it was very informative and I completely agree with your statement that online networks have allowed for social change and the ability to form groups to share and spread awareness. It has definitely made a huge impact towards the BLM movement, It was also interesting to know who founded the movement and think they deserve recognition.
Hello there Molly,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your paper as it helped me gain a different respective around online activism and spreading of information. Online Social Movements are growing bigger and bigger due to the accessibility that these platforms bring to everyone. The importance of offline action however is extremely important though and while the online activism is a huge pillar of creating awareness around social issues, it only plays one part of contributing to the overall cause. I think my paper would be an interesting read to yours as it discusses the lack of offline action around social movements that social media facilitates. Feel free to have a read, https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2022/onsc/381/social-change-in-online-networks-how-social-media-facilitates-a-lack-of-action-within-real-world-political-movements/
Best Regards,
Jack
Hey,
Thank You for reading my paper. I do agree that online/ internet action is only a part that is played in a much bigger social movement that needs other factors to succeed. That being said the online factors such as the formation of groups for discussion, the local events made for protests allow for those offline events to get a bigger and broader awareness which plays into all the factors. I’ll give your paper a read! thanks.
Hi Molly,
I think you produced a really good essay and I enjoyed reading it.
I agree that online networks have allowed social change especially when referring to movements like the BLM. I liked when you mentioned how it allows collaboration and helps strengthen the numbers around the cause for education purposes regarding those who have been victim of the systematic oppression. By having social media to spread awareness and information it definitely helps increase the number of people behind the cause. I believe social media is a huge way for people to learn and get educated on global events such as BLM movement. I think it’s good that you focused on the BLM movement and really provided a good essay regarding this. If you wanted to go in depth about other issues that relate to your topic you could refer to the Black Deaths in Custody that sadly happens here in Australia and how these issues are spread on social media.
Alani.
Hey,
Thank You for taking the time to read my essay!
Yeah I completely agree. BLM is such a large worldwide focused social movement that caused such an uproar through a multitude of social medias and websites. It allowed them to organise protests and so many more fundraisers dedicated to helping the cause. It’s really interesting and quite upsetting that in our own country with such a large amount of deaths in custody and unfair treatment towards our Indigenous Australians it doesn’t get even a quarter as much coverage or interaction on social media websites and such as BLM. Articles a few weeks ago I saw of another Indigenous Australian death in custody and I only saw one article on it and no outrage or multitude of posts. Its tragic and I hope that we as a country create more awareness to these issues and use the platforms we have to get as outraged as we should be about these issues happening in our own country.
Molly, I really appreciate how you discuss the ways in which Social Networking Sites (SNS) facilitate social change by providing online spaces to raise awareness and discuss important issues impacting human rights. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook provide users with the ability to share video footage of live events, and often these videos depict acts of discrimination against minority groups. Carlson & Kennedy (2021) suggest that Social Media (SM) can be used to reinforce an individual or an organisations sense of self, and act as a vehicle for cementing identity. The power of these platforms to share and amplify the voices of minority groups is integral when it comes to highlighting corruption and abuse of authority within the community, and aiding in the BLM movement overall. Do you think that SNS provide enough protection for minority groups? I feel that there is a need to ensure that people who speak out against injustice are protected. Brusseau (2019) argues that big data companies tend to value authenticity when representing oneself online over all else, however sharing these atrocities to SM using your own name, or to your personal accounts without legislated protection could allow for people to have unwelcome attention in their face-to-face encounters.
Thank You for reading my paper! I do agree that SNS facilitate a large amount of social change and awareness but I do agree with you that minority groups do need to have much more protection on these sites it’s just the question of how do we provide this protection across a multitude of different run social media sites that facilitate different rules, owners and regulations. I am hoping that as SNS improve and advance we will find a way to protect these minority groups and allow people to share their experiences, and help with social movements with no harm to them.
Hi Molly, great paper!
Hashtags and social media are a great way to raise awareness about an issue, but they are also breeding grounds for misinformation. Hashtags can be used by anyone, therefore any information can be written about under a certain hashtag. What are your thoughts on this?
Hey,
thanks for reading my paper. While hashtags do allow people to connect and provide information, there are always going to be people who put false information, wrong information or rude or insulting information toward the selected hashtag. Because we cannot censor or control how people discuss or say under hashtags it makes it difficult to make sure that the hashtag is mainly focusing on the issue and providing facts and correct information. As we’ve seen in previous hashtags such as BLM the majority provided important ones and overtook the stupid/false ones. Hopefully in the future there is a way in which hashtags are fact checked and information is reliable but I’m not sure how we do that on the internet, it is a tough one I agree. Great point!
Hi Molly,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your paper. The Black Lives Matter movement really highlighted the power that social networking sites have in regard to raising awareness of issues and pushing for societal change. Although social media gives a voice to persecuted groups as seen in the Black Lives Matter movement, I believe the platform affordances of social media platforms can just as easily be used by other groups to target minority or vulnerable groups. Do you think social media platforms do enough to protect those who are susceptible to attacks? And do you think social media sites need to do more to support movements like BLM in any way?
You might be interested in my paper. It explores how terrorist organisation ISIS have utilised Telegram’s platform affordances to spread propaganda and coordinate their operations. https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2022/csm/1103/isis-terrorising-telegram-how-the-isis-extremist-community-have-harnessed-the-applications-affordances-to-collaborate-coordinate-and-communicate/
Kim
Hey!
Yes i’ll definitely give your paper a read, thank you for reading my paper.
BLM was a very good example of showing how the internet and social networks can use its powers for good to bring groups and people together to raise awareness. I do see how on the other side of the issue that the internet and social networks can be a very dangerous place for these vulnerable and minority groups and I do wonder how we can facilitate that whilst also not limiting how people are allowed to speak. I believe that social media has a long way to go to make it the best platform possible that doesn’t put these vulnerable and minority groups in the line of fire and I hope we as a community comes up with a solution to improve these apps to make them a positive place for all groups.