New Media and Social Change - Case Study Example

NEW MEDIA AND SOCIAL CHANGE Name: Course: Professor’s Name University Name City, State Date due Introduction The Greenpeace movement is a non-governmental organization that deals with environmental conservation. The organization has offices in over forty countries worldwide but has its headquarters in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. The company was founded between 1969 and 1972 in Vancouver. The organization is formed with the goal of ensuring that the earth remains sustainable in all its diversity [Sea09]. It focuses on the emerging global issues such as overfishing, climate change, genetic engineering, deforestation and anti-nuclear issues. The organization is a non-profit making organization that receives its funding from foundations and individual volunteer supporters. To ensure the organization’s decision making processes are not influenced by other organizations or institutions, Greenpeace does not accept any form of support from political institutions, governments and intergovernmental organizations [Ann051]. The organization was established to create an opportunity for social change in the current issues facing the environment. Change is, usually, a gradual process irrespective of where it is to occur. However, for a change to occur, it should be profitable to people or have a positive impact on the firm. It should be embraced by the people, and they should see its importance. Patience and persistence have been key characteristics of Greenpeace which currently has about 2400 staff working all around the world and 15000 international volunteers. The current budget for the organization as at 2011 stood at 236.9 million Euros [Bes09]. Objectives of the campaign When Greenpeace was formed in 1971, and was formerly known as Don't Make a Wave Committee. Its main objective was to prevent to testing of nuclear in an island in Alaska as it was viewed that the tests would be hazardous to the environment. The organization made small protests at the time as such as entering the nuclear testing zones that had been previously closed and forbidden for public use so that they can attract more public attention [Jul04]. Today, Greenpeace has expanded in its programme and currently works towards achieving six major objectives. The most important objective for the organization remains to be climate change and how they can work towards reduces the change. Other important objectives include; the protection of the oceans and seas to protect marine life, saving and conservation of ancient forests, work towards achieving disarmament and peace, encourage sustainable agriculture and the reduction of toxic materials in products through the encouraged use of chemicals with little or no toxins. Greenpeace objectively achieves this through garnering as much media coverage as currently possible so that they can mobilize people to work with them to help address such issues as the environment, unfair fishing, genetic modified organisms and to conserve the ancient forest cover. To ensure that there are systems that are set in place that provide for open dialog between the people who are actively involved in making the decisions and those who are directly affected by the decisions made. When the people are united in their decisions, it is easier for them to air their views. Greenpeace provides the public with a platform through which they can protest against some of the environmental factors that they consider unethical and work towards socially changing them [Bob09]. Greenpeace current new media campaign strategy for the social change Page, (2004) argues that campaigns are very complicated projects to undertake. They require that the planners should provide a well directed and clear strategy for the campaigns to be successful. He continues to argue that Greenpeace needs to communicate their strategies to ensure that they are successfully undertaken by the organization. For their campaigns to be successful, Greenpeace uses three major types of strategies namely; direct action, lobbying and public education. Some of new media strategies that organizations have increasingly been using include the use of websites, Facebook, Twitter, and Messaging, Smartphone apps, emails and others. They provide a clear understanding of the type of campaigns that the organization is undertaking [Pag04]. Social change could be viewed as actions that are introduced into the current order of events to bring alterations that are in most cases positive to the society. Social change may include instances of changes in nature, social behaviour changes, changes in social relations and changes in social institutions [Jay10]. Direct action is a central aspect that Greenpeace uses to gain the attention from the media as well as from the public. The direct action involves non violent protests which are aimed at getting public attention as well as increasing the media coverage of the acts of the organization. Other forms of direct actions that Greenpeace undertakes include public confrontation and the use of pictures. Public confrontation is a recipe for success in Greenpeace as it allows them to communicate the critical subjects. When public confrontations are made, the actions usually catch the eyes of the media as well as the public thus they can provide a proper flow of information [Lin06]. Just as Wheeler, (2008) puts it, another major importance of public confrontantion is the fact that it increase the public pressure on the opponents that the decision makers. Greenpeace usually focuses on very crucial issues of the environment thus they deal with very influential personnel and influential decisions that need to be made [Whe08]. For Greenpeace to have enough influence on the decisions made, the need to involve the media and the public so that they can help create pressure on the major issues. The use of pictures is another of the strategies that Greenpeace movement uses to directly act and put pressure on the critical factors. Greenpeace uses pictures to prove what actually happened in the different campaigns that it undertakes. Pictures in this case play an important role of communication for Greenpeace as acts as proof of what is actually happening. To increase the public attention for a given campaign, Greenpeace usually posts the pictures in the websites, Facebook, Twitter, and Messaging services for the public to see and have their opinion on the matter [Sar04]. Public education is aimed at creating awareness to the public. Public education basically provides a means through which communication can be done with ease and it involves dialogue with the public. The activities that are usually involved in public education include such activities as developing brochures, stickers, posters and press materials. The use of public education provides Greenpeace with a means through which they can acquire new sponsors because the organization only accepts donations from private individuals who have little interest in the affairs of the organization. Apart from using printed articles to provide the public with information, Greenpeace also provides stands on the streets, protest postcards, surveys and a collection of signatures to market their advertisements. The social media channels of communication have become the major communication channels for Greenpeace. The organization is increasingly using twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+. All these forms of communication and strategies are aimed at reaching a high population of the public with the right information so as to convince them to support Greenpeace and its causes. Theoretical ideas about social change inform campaigns by Greenpeace Greenpeace actively works towards conserving and protecting the environment and ensure that they promote world peace. Among the ways through which Greenpeace achieves its objectives and goals is through campaigns. Among the lead topics that are addressed in the campaigns include climate change, marine reservation, nuclear weapons, sustainable agriculture, deforestation and use of hazardous chemicals. Greenpeace works towards catalyzing the energy revolution to help reduce the threats of climate change such as global warming. The organization has been on the forefront on the issues concerning the conservation of the environment. Issues like global warming and nuclear energy are considered to be among the greatest environmental problems that the world currently faces today [Jam12]. In 1993, Greenpeace developed the first sustainable development scenario which was aimed at the mitigation of climate change. The organization focuses on raising awareness to the public on the negative effects of climate change while at the same time; it focuses on the emission of the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride, methyl bromide, halons and methyl chloroform that destroy the ozone layer and their potential for global warming. The CFCs were invented over 60 years ago when they were found to have many possible applications in the industrial sector. The invention of the CFCs led to the invention of the refrigerators and air conditioners. It was however found out later that the gases were destroying the ozone layer and thus leading to an increased rate of global warming in the world. The ozone layer is a protector of life as it reduces the risk of ultra violet rays entering the atmosphere. The layer has however been becoming thin with every emission of the gasses thus every creature is increasingly being exposed to the rays. While Greenpeace raises awareness to the public on such issues as climate change and usage of nuclear energy, the organization also undertakes to push those in authority to help manage the climate change and reduce the usage of nuclear energy through direct action [Tho141]. Where the organization identifies that there are influential leaders who a gathered together for a given function, to help achieve their objectives, the organization plans for protests. Such direct actions have been experienced in countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand as they attempt to block their mining operations [Lau111]. The organization also works towards the defending of the marine life. Greenpeace have organized protests that seek to challenge the destructive and wasteful fishing activities that are undertaken around the world while also creating a globally accepted network for the marine reserves. Greenpeace works towards creating public awareness on the importance of aquatic life. It has therefore been on the forefront to encourage the public to reduce the fishing activities and only undertake their activities to fish the required world tonnage thus reducing the excess fishing and wastages. The organization has also pushed the governments of different countries to create reserves where no fishing activities are allowed and restrict fishing to be done in a few areas to help manage the aquatic life. Mining activities done in the oceans and seas and the transportation and shipments of coal and petroleum have increasingly been receiving protests from the organization. Greenpeace have blocked the shipment of coal in countries like New Zealand, Australia, Svalbard and United Kingdom. Recently, the organization also organized protests that were aimed at blocking the shell arctic oil mining in Seattle. More than 2000 people gathered around the site where the drilling was to be undertaken and they successfully convinced the president to reconsider the drilling activities. The dependency of the ancient forests by people, animals and other plants is usually high thus Greenpeace usually works hard to ensure the survival and preservation of the remaining world ancient forests. While trees are act as beautification to the environment, they also have some important work they perform to enhance the conservation of the environment. First, many animals depend on the trees as they are a source of their livelihood. The trees provide food to the animals and thus they cannot do without them. The trees also help in conserving the environment as they usually take up carbon dioxide in their processes and provide clean oxygen as the end product of the processes. Other important duties that the tree do include the soil conservation as they ensure that the soil is help together on the ground leaving less room for erosion. Greenpeace has been on the forefront to encourage the conservation of the environment by promoting the conservation of the ancient forests. The organization has encouraged the fencing of the land covered by ancient forest to prevent encroachments from taking place. A memorable activity by the organization happened in 1995 when Greenpeace displayed the trunk of an old tree in an exhibition in Australia and Germany. The old trunk had been taken from a proposed forest reserve in Finland and their main aim was to encourage the conservation of the forest cover. The action received criticism but Greenpeace easily defended itself and argued that the tree had fallen down as the protective forest that grew around the tree had been cut down and cleared. Other campaigns that Greenpeace usually engages in include the disarmament and peace for the world and encouraging the elimination of nuclear weapons, sustainable agriculture and creation of a toxic free future for the world through the adoption and usage of safer chemicals that are less hazardous to the environment [War08]. Impact of the strategies being used for the campaigns Creating public awareness is one of the land moving impacts of the campaigns that are organized by Greenpeace. It is often the case that those with the power to make decisions will most likely make decisions that will only be to their personal benefits. As the saying goes that absolute power corrupts absolutely, it is important for power to be controlled as it is important to have watchdogs to control and influence their decisions with the help of the public. Greenpeace is one of the watchdogs that have been established to foresee that decisions made concerning the environment are usually major decisions and thus should be made with all factors necessary being put into consideration. Where Greenpeace identifies weaknesses in the systems for decisions made, first create public awareness through campaigns so that they may have a following when they protest concerning some the issues [Lau111]. Another impact of the strategies used for the campaigns is that is empowers people. Information is power, and when Greenpeace uses the different strategies to pass information to the public, they become knowledgeable. Rational decisions are thus made which help bring a positive impact on the environment. When people are empowered with the information given by Greenpeace through the different strategies, it is easy for the organization to round people up and help them protest during their campaigns. In the case of the Shell’s Arctic oil rig in Seattle, Greenpeace provided information on the issue through the social media, websites and Smartphone apps and it reached more than 2000 people in a very short period of time. The move by the American government was not supported and it received a lot of criticism as it would be hazardous to the aquatic life. Since Greenpeace passed on proper information using the right means, as many as 2000 people gathered for the protests asking the president to reject the arctic drilling of oil. The activities by Greenpeace have over the years encouraged more organizations to be set up with the aim of achieving different objectives. Greenpeace was initially set up to rally people to protest against the testing on nuclear in Alaska since they viewed the testing to be hazardous to the environment. The organization was later advanced in its courses and it currently works in partnership with other organizations to meet a number of environmental objectives that it has set. The formation of Greenpeace has allowed the formation of many more nongovernmental organizations both locally and internationally in different countries. The organizations act as watchdogs for the public and gather information which they later distribute to the public to create awareness concerning certain issues and then round them up to protest against such issues. Involvement of community members in campaigns Greenpeace usually focuses its efforts towards the conservation of the environment and it uses the community members to back them up during their campaigns and protests. The first step that Greenpeace uses is that it offers public educate to create awareness to the community members so that they can exercise their democratic rights and freedoms. The organization thus provides a platform whereby the citizens and community members can air their views and opinion concerning some important issues in the organization. Similarly, when the Greenpeace plans for protests in the streets, they request the community members to join them so that they can create a positive impact on the issue at hand. There are however, other means through which Greenpeace can have the citizens engage in their campaigns for social change. The collection of signatures may be one of the ways to engage the citizens. The collection of signature would mean that the organization is justified in blocking some issues that are affecting the community. On the issue of climate change, Greenpeace can consider the planting of new tree where they have been cut to ensure that they increase the forest cover and reduce the probable negative impact of climate change. Conclusion In conclusion, Greenpeace has made notable achievements that have helped to improve and manage issues facing the organization like climate change, deforestation and unethical fishing activities. It is however possible for the organization to achieve more on such issues and even advance to manage the emerging issues facing different communities. Greenpeace as a watchdog of the people on matters concerning the environment should consider to increase their activities o a wider scope to help achieve the desired and optimal environmental state. REFERENCES Sea09: , (Sean, 2009), Ann051: , (Ann, 2005), Bes09: , (Bessant & Tidd, 2009), Jul04: , (Julia & Hope, 2004), Bob09: , (Bob & Douglas, 2009), Pag04: , (Page, 2004), Jay10: , (Jay, 2010), Lin06: , (Linda, 2006), Whe08: , (Wheeler, 2008), Sar04: , (Sarah, et al., 2004), Jam12: , (James & Charles, 2012), Tho141: , (Thomas & Christopher, 2014), Lau111: , (Laurie, 2011), War08: , (Warner, et al., 2008), Read More

Today, Greenpeace has expanded in its programme and currently works towards achieving six major objectives. The most important objective for the organization remains to be climate change and how they can work towards reduces the change. Other important objectives include; the protection of the oceans and seas to protect marine life, saving and conservation of ancient forests, work towards achieving disarmament and peace, encourage sustainable agriculture and the reduction of toxic materials in products through the encouraged use of chemicals with little or no toxins.

Greenpeace objectively achieves this through garnering as much media coverage as currently possible so that they can mobilize people to work with them to help address such issues as the environment, unfair fishing, genetic modified organisms and to conserve the ancient forest cover. To ensure that there are systems that are set in place that provide for open dialog between the people who are actively involved in making the decisions and those who are directly affected by the decisions made.

When the people are united in their decisions, it is easier for them to air their views. Greenpeace provides the public with a platform through which they can protest against some of the environmental factors that they consider unethical and work towards socially changing them [Bob09]. Greenpeace current new media campaign strategy for the social change Page, (2004) argues that campaigns are very complicated projects to undertake. They require that the planners should provide a well directed and clear strategy for the campaigns to be successful.

He continues to argue that Greenpeace needs to communicate their strategies to ensure that they are successfully undertaken by the organization. For their campaigns to be successful, Greenpeace uses three major types of strategies namely; direct action, lobbying and public education. Some of new media strategies that organizations have increasingly been using include the use of websites, Facebook, Twitter, and Messaging, Smartphone apps, emails and others. They provide a clear understanding of the type of campaigns that the organization is undertaking [Pag04].

Social change could be viewed as actions that are introduced into the current order of events to bring alterations that are in most cases positive to the society. Social change may include instances of changes in nature, social behaviour changes, changes in social relations and changes in social institutions [Jay10]. Direct action is a central aspect that Greenpeace uses to gain the attention from the media as well as from the public. The direct action involves non violent protests which are aimed at getting public attention as well as increasing the media coverage of the acts of the organization.

Other forms of direct actions that Greenpeace undertakes include public confrontation and the use of pictures. Public confrontation is a recipe for success in Greenpeace as it allows them to communicate the critical subjects. When public confrontations are made, the actions usually catch the eyes of the media as well as the public thus they can provide a proper flow of information [Lin06]. Just as Wheeler, (2008) puts it, another major importance of public confrontantion is the fact that it increase the public pressure on the opponents that the decision makers.

Greenpeace usually focuses on very crucial issues of the environment thus they deal with very influential personnel and influential decisions that need to be made [Whe08]. For Greenpeace to have enough influence on the decisions made, the need to involve the media and the public so that they can help create pressure on the major issues. The use of pictures is another of the strategies that Greenpeace movement uses to directly act and put pressure on the critical factors. Greenpeace uses pictures to prove what actually happened in the different campaigns that it undertakes.

Pictures in this case play an important role of communication for Greenpeace as acts as proof of what is actually happening.

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