The Role of the Social Media on the 2011 London Riots - Essay Example

?The Role of the Social Media on the London Riots Introduction In recent years, the social media has become a significant addition to the political, social, cultural, and economic relations and functions of most people and most countries of the world. The social media has become a major contributor to the way corporations are running their businesses with its use of Twitter and Facebook in promoting its products and detecting trends among user preferences and reviews. The social media has also become an easy and convenient way for family and friends to communicate with each other. In the political scene, it has become a launching pad for political discussion, criticism, analysis, and a public forum for a redress of grievances. In recent years, since the dawn of the Arab Spring, it has also become a means of informing the public about political issues and of rallying the public towards collective action. This was very much apparent in 2011 when various riots and demonstrations were organized, spurred on, and won with the primary help of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The so-called Facebook Revolution was seen in Egypt when various demonstrations against the ruling government were staged by the general population with the help of Facebook. This was also seen in London in 2011 from August 6-11 when various events led to various demonstrations in the British capital. During the riots and demonstrations, many of those participating did not cover their faces, even posing for pictures while they made off with stolen goods and posting them in the social networking sites (BBC, 2011). There are different theories which would help explain the impact of the social media on the 2011 London riots. One of these theories includes the social movement theory which indicates a useful foundation in understanding the movement of individuals with the end goal of managing collective actions and problems relating to individual movement participation (Dewey, et.al., 2012). This theory presents a context upon which the role of the social media can be further understood. Political struggles can manifest in different incarnations, including protest, collective action and contention (Tilly, 2011). Protests express shared ideals which are often observed in street politics. For collective action, this occurs where a specific group shares interests and acts based on such interests. Finally, contention includes making claims with parties also making demands affecting collective interests. The social movement theory argues that communities having strong network ties are more likely to go through collective actions as compared with those having weak ties. Strong social ties in networks often enable initial calls for participation in social movements, and later they ease the way towards participation as they decrease issues in mobilization. McAdam and Paulsen (1993) also argue that strong social ties help recruit individuals, as well as serve as effective communication tools in spreading messages for social movements across networks. To a large extent, just as the social media was used to draw in more participants, the social media also became a tool by which these rioters were apprehended for their illegal actions. The utility of the social media worked both ways (Denef, et.al., 2013). Cases of looting and vandalism were actually resolved by the police by looking through Flickr and Facebook, looking through galleries of pictures in order to identify perpetrators. Most of the riots were also organized and triggered through Twitter. At some point, Twitter was described as a tool for promoting gang violence (Williams, 2011). However, evidence also indicates that the riots were inspired by postings based on daily news from the media (Williams, 2011). Based on these circumstances, it would be logical to conclude that the social media has had a major role in the outcome of the 2011 London riots. The impact here refers to how the social media has helped in spreading word-of-mouth, impacting on the largest number of people in the shortest possible time (Fuchs, 2012). Whether or not such impact is negative or positive is based on various perspectives and factors. In order to understand the impact of social media under these political circumstances, this study shall now venture to discuss. Specifically, it shall consider: Whether or not the social media helped advance the causes advocated by the rioters, or Whether or not it helped the government more in controlling or managing the riots and demonstrations. And how effective the social media is in transmitting useful information to the public for use in managing political and social relations between rioters and the controlling agencies of the state. Review of related literature Various studies have been carried out on the role of the social media on riots and demonstrations. Social media has essentially impacted on the current communication processes in the current century, causing the rise of the social phenomenon which is considered as the mediated crowd (Baker, 2012). With the use of the Web 2.0, public users have now been able to develop and secure exchanges in the internet through blogging, media sharing, posting, tagging, and wikis through websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. Through Facebook, social networking rose to massive use, and through Twitter, social networking became highly mobile and speedy. Alongside the major mass production of smart phones, tablets, and digital cameras, these innovations allowed for fast mediated exchanges (Cohen, 2012). It is crucial to understand under these conditions that online relations and communication are recent developments. Even where the World Wide Web has been in existence longer, its use has only been limited to specific individuals and audiences (Macnamara, 2010). With the introduction of the virtual geographies, the social media has made major contributions to online relations via the mediated crowd who has been mobilised through their phones and their wireless internet accessibility. The mediated crowd includes different actions which take place in the virtual setting, not the traditional environment which is mostly limited to physical and geographical relations within a shared space (Baker, 2012). The digitalized social life has led to a public space being more open and dynamic as public life is based on various mediated communication elements, with the general public drawing in their status from the different virtual elements. Such domains are not mutually exclusive as the mediated crowd is allowed to move from the digital public environment into the geographic space, or sometimes be within two spheres at the same time through the social media (Briggs, 2012). The notion of ‘occupying’ something still refers to a political protest which indicates how the mediated crowd is not outside the regular elements of communication (Baker, 2012). In general, although the media communication elements function as detached elements which remove social relations from the limits of time and space, the new social phenomenon arranges the spatial limits, not taking over actual space and time. Based on this perspective, the idea of the mediated crowd is differentiated from the general crowd through its use of media technologies to support and maintain collective processes (Baker, 2012). The visibility of the mediated space refers to the fact that not only would the crowd be expanded to cover a bigger community, mediated processes have changed the scale and extent of mass mobilization through the social networks allowing instant messaging to members across varied spatial boundaries. In the study by Jurgenson (2012), the authors discussed that the increase of mobile phones and social networking websites would likely be historically associated with the expanding era of dissent which is impacting the world. The Arab Spring, the London riots, and Occupy movements including other protests are included gatherings of highly connected individuals within the physical space. And these conditions have now become the new trend or the new normal (Jurgenson, 2012). The main function of technology is to secure and maintain such atmosphere, mostly as a means to link the user to the internet. This study also highlights the fact that using the physicality as well as the digitality of the internet can also help mobilize people. The technique for the augmented revolution is very much specific. Those who took part in the Occupy protests learned what to do and what not to do during the Egyptian riots (Jurgenson, 2012). The Egyptian revolution was largely spurred on by Facebook and Twitter as they used these websites in order to disseminate information. The UK riots and the cleanup activities which followed also had went through similar trends (Jurgenson, 2012). In the study by Baker (2012), comments on the riots significantly indicate the differences in relation to political discussions revolutionizing the traditional debates on social inequities. Although the riots also match other riots in the earlier history of Britain, it is pointed out that the unrest was very much enhanced with the introduction of the social media into the mix, calling for a more specific understanding of the mediated crowd. New social media seems to have played a major role in managing riots through smart phones which served as the main resource in organizing the riots with Twitter displaying regular updates on the riots, including false and credible updates (Baker, 2012). In the study by Tonkin, et.al., (2012), the authors discussed how the extensive commentary via Twitter during the London riots in August 2011 has triggered the question on whether the tweets posted by social media users may have worsened the unrest. Tonkin and colleagues (2012) assessed 600,000 tweets and retweets from the riots in order to establish whether Twitter was utilised as an organizing or rallying tool to support and trigger unlawful collective actions. The results indicate that the irrelevant tweets soon lost meaning and the Twitter users eventually retweeted postings to express their support in more legitimate commentaries. The Tweets posted by popular individuals were also more likely reposted. In terms of the London riots, there is not much evidence which would indicate that Twitter was applied as a tool of supporting unlawful activities, although it was a valuable source of information as well as the fastest way of spreading word to the general public (Tonkin, et.al., 2012). In the study by Glasgow and Fink (2013), the authors set out to discuss how the social media can be a powerful medium in sharing data and organizing activities during crisis and other extreme incidents. The authors used Twitter data from the 2011 London riots, assessing emergent social networks which had a direct impact on the response to the crisis. They also constructed social networks from the tweets. The study identified the communications relevant to the riot communications (Glasgow and Fink, 2013). Social networks based on quoting and talking to indicates tools for sufficient insights. In general, the above studies highlight the fact that the social media played a significant role in the London riots, mostly to direct operations among rioters and also to serve as guide for the police authorities in catching perpetrators of unlawful acts in London. Based on these studies, the role of the social media in this case is supported by the concepts laid out by the social movement theory where the collective actions of individuals with strong social ties with each other also influence their actions and behaviour. This study shall be different from these other studies as it will specifically seek to determine the specific impact or role of the social media to the cause being advocated by the rioters including its impact on the authorities policing the rioters. This study shall also identify the efficacy of the social media as a tool in the transmittal of accurate information to the general public. Gaps in the studies cited above relate to limited discussions on the link between the social media and the actual success of the riots on the part of the demonstrators. This study shall seek to fill in such gaps. Part II: Research Design and Methodology Riots are not a novelty in England as the country has gone through numerous incidents of social civil unrest throughout its history. What made the 2011 riots different from the earlier demonstrations was the fact that the involvement of the media and the social media was very much extensive (Baker, 2012). The exchange of information was quick and extensive to the point where geographical space practically did not matter in the communication line. The volume and the speed of information exchange represented millions of data in a matter of a few short seconds. As was already mentioned in the literature review, the mediated crowd has a major role to play in the riots and demonstrations (Joseph, 2012). It is a crowd which includes a collective action occurring in the virtual space. It is the scale and speed of such mediated crowd which has been the biggest development relating to these riots (Baker, 2012). The English riots, including the one in Tottenham actually unfolded in real time and space, however its development across different parts of London and England was assisted greatly by the social media. Under these conditions, the social media developed to recruit the rioters by allowing an opportunity for the internet users to relate and connect with other users using the social media (Atton, 2003). Still, as the social media can assist in explaining the speed of the development of the riots across England, the social media cannot however explain issues in attempts to organize riots using social networking sites in other areas of England (Baker, 2012). As indicated in other ways, although the social media impacted on the form and impact of the riots, these were not the initial cause for the civil unrest. In the end, a mobile phone does not cause the riots, and being on Facebook or Twitter does not make a user more likely to join in the riots (Cottle, 2011). In effect, attributing credit or blame to technology is very much limited. Riots have been seen at different intervals in Britain even long before such innovations have been seen, and the new social media supports social networking in different boundaries, facilitating, but not being the cause of the riotous actions (Baker, 2012). The mediated crowd rises from the common emotional link among users. The emotional climate rises from the pervasive emotional in society, which is also related to the social structures and political elements present in society (de Rivera, 1992). Emotional moods refer more to the temporary elements impacting on actions. The two may not always be specifically identified in terms of the assessment of the recent riots. For instance, while the initial unrest was a reflection of the emotional mood relating to anger against the police for the shooting of Mark Duggan, to indicate the unrest as an emotional climate also refers to the much more specific structural conditions where inequality and politics are found, including racial discrimination, poverty, and welfare downgrades (Houghton, et.al., 2011). In applying these concepts to the unrest in England, it is obvious that the reflexivity function is an important element for the mediated crowd. Although political unrest came about due to the common emotional climate, evidence also indicates that the general injustice viewed and perceived using the social media and its related technologies allowed for a more collective consciousness and heightened confidence in acting and reacting (Baker, 2012). In this case, a common object became central to the general consciousness of the events surrounding the riots with the shooting of Mark Duggan which then triggered the riots. With the blending of the subjective viewer and the objective target, the idea of that which is being represented is also serving as a representation of oneself assists in securing confidence within numbers and also turning into the justification for the reactions. With the complex systems of planning, the mediated crowd emerged (Houghton, et.al., 2011). Under such setting, individuals felt empowered acting in groups as they realized they shared perspectives with other members of society. Research Design and Methodology The research design chosen for this study is the ethnographic case study research. This is a qualitative design seeking to evaluate cultural and social phenomena. The field study indicates the knowledge as well as the process of meaning within the lives of covered respondents or groups (Agar, 1996). Ethnography covers empirical data on human sciences and cultures as based on biological and socio-cultural elements of anthropology, also emerging as popular in social sciences including history and spirituality. The general ethnography is based on holistic processes and therefore would have a brief coverage which covers an assessment of the climate and habitat (LeCompte and Schensul, 2010). This is the best technique of research to be used in this study because it helps observe the world and the perspective of the subject matter, including records of observed practices, indicating relations and concepts which do not cover casual discussions (Agar, 1996). Ethnographic case studies usually focus on the specific social context for the data being sought, including the varying application of data. As the goal of this study is to secure research questions and hypothesis, the case study would therefore be exploratory (White, et.al., 2009). As such, this type of research can also be used with other types of study or research. For example, specific areas of study can be selected based on the demographic data from the respondents. Different locations would ideally be covered with the links between the users and their physical settings as well as activities evaluated to determine context and essential data (White, et.al., 2009). Participant observation and unstructured interview can be included in the data gathering process in order to secure preliminary observations as well as to indicate relationships (White, et.al., 2009). Ethnographic research is meant to cover social meanings of informants within naturally occurring conditions. The aim here is to gather data in such a way that researchers apply some of their own bias in terms of data (Angrosino, 2007). Different elements of data collection may be used to support a link which would support a personal picture of the informants and their larger group. In this case, the interview process will be applied (Gubrium and Holstein, 2009). Interviews would be taped and later transcribed, ensuring that the interview would proceed smoothly even without note-taking. The data gathered shall be studied for more specific evaluation later. Document assessment would also be used in order to secure insight into the topic at hand. In order to secure the transparency of the data collection as well as the interpretation, researchers managing ethnographies often seek to be more reflexive (Angrosino, 2007). Reflexivity relates to the researcher’s goal in terms of fulfilling the researcher’s part in the general impact and results of the study. Even with other attempts at reflexivity, no researcher can actually be neutral; this has then indicated a possible basis for evaluating ethnography. In general, the researcher here would consider the community, considering the informed respondents who are aware of the community activities (Gubrium and Holstein, 2009). Such respondents are often asked to determine other respondents who would also represent the community. This process is useful in determining cultural elements relating to the topic being evaluated (Murchison, 2010). Ethnography considers mostly close and personal experience. It highlights participation and is valuable in the area of social research. Content analysis will also be applied in order to evaluate the communication relayed from respondents to the researcher. This analysis studies human communication, including data gathered from books, from interviews, including the news and other public data. In its application in this study, the content analysis would cover who says what, to whom, why, to what extent, and with what effect (Laswell, 1948). From the data gathered from respondents, the analysis shall include the summary of the data, their qualitative assessment in relation to objectivity, reliability, validity, generalizability, and replicability (Neuendorf, 2002). In carrying out this research, there would be 30 respondents chosen for this study. Most of these respondents would come from the group of individuals in the London area who have shared, posted, and been involved in posting information about the London 2011 riots. A letter shall be sent to them asking for their consent as respondents in this study. They shall be informed of their anonymity as respondents, and the fact that they can withdraw anytime. Their consent shall automatically allow for a scheduling of an interview with the researcher. The questions to be asked shall include semi-structured questions which shall seek to discover the role of the social media in their participation in the London riots. The questions shall include queries on how the tweets from social media users affected their opinion about the riots. The schedule to be set shall be based on the convenience of the respondent, at a place of his choosing. Both genders shall be considered equally for this study. The interview process would provide a more personal contact with the respondent, allowing for clarity in questions, even follow-up questions where necessary. After the 30 interviews are held, the answers shall then be collated and themes shall be drawn from the answers. The themes shall be related to the previous questions raised by this research. It shall also relate to the trends already observed in the literature review. After such data would be gathered, additional analysis and correlations would be determined. Practical Considerations for research design In the collection of the data set, only respondents who are still in the London area would be included as respondents. Some of those who actively tweeted during the riots may no longer be in the London area and may be more difficult to track down. Therefore, only those who are still in the London area would be included as respondents. Data to be gathered from these respondents would include what they tweeted, how they felt when they read the forwarded messages from other social media users, whether it influenced their opinion about the riots or about the police authorities, and how they knew that the information they were reading was accurate or inaccurate. In order to protect the ethics of this research, the informed consent of the respondents shall be gained. Their confidentiality shall also be assured at all times, with no other individual knowing the identity of these respondents. 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