With the uprise of many digital platforms there is becoming an increase in the various ways in which social and political activists can promote and access an intended audience, but in doing so it empowers the citizens they have a chance too, a more easily accessible and efficient medium to be involved and take a stand. This has seen great progress and is a big shift from more traditional means of 'taking to the streets'. Sure its easy to hit like on a Facebook page showing your support for a current issue you feel strongly about but are we missing something? Is it naive of us to think that by simply clicking like on Facebook that some sort of action becomes of this? I also am guilty of this, every now and then I will be moved reading about an important issue where justice needs to be served and find myself clicking away at that like button along with hundreds of thousands of other individuals hoping to make a difference and change the world.
There are many opinions/perspectives surrounding digital activism, is it good is it bad? The internet and different social networking platforms do mobilise political campaigns and give it greater scope and gives the potential to reach a wider range of people all over the world (optimistic perspective) however, it also somewhat distracts the general population and encourages laziness, it promotes the idea that 'hey if you hit like a change will happen and our society will benefit'. There is also a fear for anti-demographic control of technology, that governments can gain control over the activists (pessimistic perspective). Unfortunately political and social change hasn't been totally revolutionised there is still a requirement for physical action in the real world (persistent perspective).
Getup! Action for Australia is an organisation established to hold politicians to account. they are working toward a "parliament with economic fairness, social justice and environmetal sustainability at its core". They run campaigns such as 'end victim blaming, marriage equality, refugee and asylum seekers and many more'. There are currently 628, 624 members of Getup! This organisation also uses social media platforms to promote their campaigns such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.
Here we have a campaign from Getup! Addressing the issues surrounding refugees and asylum seekers. The government has sent Australia's detention centres off shore to Manu island. Below is a video from forgotten children who detained on Manu island.
Displaying campaigns like this through out the digital sphere, results in greater recognition and it will potentially never leave the internet world, it there for everyone to see time and time again.
Images from:
http://mkrstovic.edublogs.org/files/2012/02/Digital-Activism-1x5h70z.jpg
http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/protestbanner.jpg
Quote from:
https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FcontentWrapper.jsp%3Fcontent_id%3D_3392122_1%26displayName%3DLinked%2BFile%26course_id%3D_142971_1%26navItem%3Dcontent%26attachment%3Dtrue%26href%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.getup.org.au%252F
I understand simply clicking like on Facebook shows our support, but it would not turn into actions. A change will hardly happen. The Get Up campaign is a good example of raising awareness in the digital sphere. It encourage people to concern about the issue more than just liking or sharing a Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we can't merely sit by and click like on a Facebook page or jump onto our Twitter account and tweet about some horrific thing that's happening and expect a REAL change to occur. The buck kind of stops there. We really need to keep rallying and get the attention of politicians who can make a change. Though I agree it is getting us involved and raising awareness.. I think its deffinitely a start.
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