Prompt 9: Social Media Mobilization

By: Victoria

Image Source

Social Media played a big and important part in the 2014 political protests in Hong Kong. The article I refer to for this blog post (which can be found here) writes that social media was used to mobilize and document the protests (Sile para. 7). Furthermore, due to social media’s instantaneity, people were able to update information about the protests as quickly as possible (Sile para. 11) and people who could not attend the protests could also show their solidarity on social media (Siles para. 2).

This is not exclusive to the Hong Kong. Social Media Mobilization is phenomenon that occurs around the world and is currently being studied. Breuer, who studied the role of social media in the Tunisia Revolution finds that this type of mobilization works because of three factors.

1.    The ability to form a network.

2.    Easy information transmission and

3.    Collective Identity Formation (Breuer, 26).

In more recent news, the surprising result of the 2016 Presidential Election has also sparked off waves of protests around the country. Many people felt disenfranchised, afraid, and in a state of emotional distress, and understandably so.

The protests not only occurred in big cities like Manhattan and Los Angeles, who overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton, but a large number of students have also played a big part in the protests (Resmovits et al. para. 2). A rally even occurred right here at MSU (Dimmer para. 1). Facebook was used to coordinate people. 

While some people may argue that holding protests were wrong, one cannot deny the power Social Media plays in allowing people to fight for what they believe in. Social Media has revolutionized the way we communicate, and in this instance, how we organize.

Works Cited

Breuer, Anita. “The Role of Social Media in Mobilizing Political Protest.” German Development Institute, Oct. 2012, pp. 1-31. http://edoc.vifapol.de/opus/volltexte/2014/5019/pdf/DP_10.2012.pdf. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016

Dimmer, Olivia. “Michigan State holds 1,000-student march to protest Donald Trump.” USA Today, http://college.usatoday.com/2016/11/11/michigan-state-holds-1000-student-march-to-protest-donald-trump/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016.

Resmovits, Joy et al. “Thousands of L.A. County high school students stage walkouts to protest Donald Trump's victory.” Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-high-school-walkout-trump-20161110-story.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016.

Sile, Aza Wee. “Hong Kong's digitized fight for democracy.” CNBC, http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/16/social-media-key-to-hong-kongs-occupy-central-fight-for-democracy.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016.