Social Media-Activism Flashcards
Stats on active social media users
As of 2020,out of the 7.7 billion people on earth, 3.8 billion of them are active social media users.
Stats on Facebook
On Facebook, every 20 Minutes, 20 million friend requests are sent, 3 million messages are sent, and 1 million links are shared.
How Social media was used during the Arab Spring
During the Arab Spring, protesters used social media to organize demonstrations, disseminate information about their activities, and raise local and global awareness of ongoing events. Ultimately, it resulted in the overthrowing of authoritarian leaders such as Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya respectively, and civil war in most others.
MeToo
The 2017 #MeToo movement has given thousands of sexual assault and harassment survivors a platform to share their experiences. The injustices of sexual harassment and sexual abuse by powerful and prominent men got revealed, resulting in criticism and backlash.
BlackLivesMatter
Due to the unjust killing of George Floyd, the movement #BlackLivesMatter has regained international attention.Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international human rights movement, originating from within the African-American community, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people. Through #BlackLivesMatter, justice is demanded for the racism and violence directed towards black people.
Example of first hand authentic journalism via social media
After NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin was pulled out of Gaza for reporting on the killing of four Palestinian boys playing soccer on a beach by the Israeli Defence force, the hashtag #LetAymanReport was created to bring attention to the issue. Within 24 hours, he was back on site to provide a fair and balanced report on the issue. This is unlike mainstream media news coverage. What reporters like Ayman are doing is to use social media to provide a raw view on the suffering and killing happening in other parts of the world. Such content is largely not available on mainstream corporate media which aims to abolish these events from the public eye.
‘Slacktivists’
Many people just click “like” or “retweet” on posts pertaining to causes or movements. These people are called ‘Slacktivists’. Essentially, social media is turning people into ‘slacktivists’ by making it easy for them to associate themselves with a cause without actually committing resources to it.
Study on ‘Slacktivists’
A study from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business finds that when people declare support for a charity publicly in social media it can actually make them less likely to donate to the cause later on.
ALS ice bucket challenge
The 2014 ALS ice bucket challenge went into history as one of the largest and most successful online viral social causes. Over 28 million people, including celebrities and politicians joined the challenge. Even then-President Obama joined the challenge!
MeToo eden ang
In Singapore, in 2018, as a result of the #MeToo movement and rise in sexual harassment cases, actor and youtube personality Eden Ang was publicly accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards his 18 year old personal assistant. It was later revealed that Eden Ang had sexually harassed many more women.
MeToo stats on SACC
Since the start of the #MeToo movement in 2017, a growing number of victims in Singapore have begun speaking up about their experiences. Over the first three months after the beginning of #MeToo, the Sexual Assault Care Centre has reported an 81 per cent spike in people reaching out to them for help.
ALS google searches
Google searches for popular ALS phrases were generally infrequent but showed a dramatic spike during the campaign in August 2014, yet this momentum was not sustained as search activity quickly dialled down to previous levels after the campaign ended.
ALS $$
The viral nature of the campaign earned the national ALS Association, an organization which raises public awareness and funding for ALS, an additional US$115 million.
