Social Media is the Latest Instrument for Social Change - Research Paper Example

Social Media – The Latest Instrument for Social Change Social Media is the new platform of communication and social interaction among the masses. It fits amazingly well into our fast-paced lifestyle and complements our digital world with a refreshing environment and opportunity to have meaningful interactions with people and be part of discussions on big or small issues affecting a group, a society, a community, a nation or even the globe. Twitter for instance shot to fame in the last decade powered by its ability to cross boundaries and reach out to the millions of internet users online at the same time and spreading messages like wildfire. The technology of exponential propagation of messages through its neural-network style of user network made it so much special Recently Twitter has seen strategic uses by politicians, film makers, actors, musicians, social activists, environmentalists and philanthropists. In the last election campaign twitter was used as a tool for brand promotion and messages to the masses by Senator John Kerry and presidential candidate Barrack Obama. Tweets were sent out publicly to people about their views on the election progress, projected outcome and personal insights. Face book on the other hand has seen increased usage by public users with the intention of taking a stand against political issues plaguing their regions, state or country. Face book has also been used in spreading awareness on many global issues like: domestic violence, child trafficking, eve teasing, molestation and other outcomes of corrupt systems. Recently it has also been used to criticise government inaction in many countries, biased judiciary, wrongful use of powers by police and law enforcement agencies. Social Media used as a tool by Social Entrepreneurs to bring about change in the society especially focusing in areas like education , finding homes for destitute children, providing life skills to orphans and socially crippled individuals and families and women empowerment in the lesser privileged economic class. Social Revolution: One of the major successes of the social Entrepreneur organisation, War Child was the Twitter-based  “Be a Hero program”. (Fernandes 2009) “War Child has jumped into the social media scene with both feet” (Fernandes 2009). Twitter was a tangible way to give form to their social efforts infront of the global audience. It was that one big presence that they were lacking and twitter was one big leap that matters and which was just a few clicks ahead. The founder of War child Samantha Nutt, despite being a technophobe, at the end of the 60 minutes session finally asked how to set up the twitter account so that her organisation’s efforts, campaigns, news and new initiatives could reach out to the millions of people in different geographies. This is the success that social media platforms like twitter bring to organised efforts. Its free, it’s effective and it doesn’t involve legal bonds, contractual agreements and other legal and financial issues.  Epic Change, a Social Welfare Organisation was able to generate 10,000 USD in a few hours and help rebuild schools for the youth in a village in Tanzania. A country like Tanzania secluded from the world and cut off from all advanced nations could receive aid and human support within hours of the issue being posted on twitter. “Networks like Twitter and Face book allow them to connect with communities and facilitate giving in a more efficient manner.” (The Hopkins Report 2012) The earth quake in Japan, famine in Somalia, academic crisis faced by the youth in Tanzania and destruction in South East Asia by natural calamities received immediate aid and assistance from neighbouring countries and other economic powers from around the globe through quick campaigns conducted and fund raising initiatives carried out via the Twitter platform.” In times of disasters like the recent Japan and New Zealand Earthquakes, people have used twitter to bring the latest from the ground and to effectively coordinate relief/help efforts through use of hash tags.” (Chaudhary 2012) Political Revolution: Political revolutions too have been brought about with the help of Twitter. “Thousand protesters took to the streets in Moldova in the spring of 2009 to protest against their country’s Communist government. The action was dubbed the Twitter Revolution, because of the means by which the demonstrators had been brought together.” What used to happen over days months and years now happen by the hour and within days” Mass support is generated, mass signature campaigns are conducted, nations are shaken and movements are organised. Such is the power of social media replacing the age old “word-of-mouth”, conventional door to door and locality to locality campaign. Without the need of being present physically, a campaign can be mobilised across countries and its effects spread all across. Recently in India, face book played the role of spreading awareness of Political situation. The youth of the country is largely detached from the political scenario, busy with their lives and busy serving their roles and posts in organisation, earning money and living a family life. Facebook was instrumental in making aware the Indian audience about the developments in the parliament, history of many politicians and presenting a unbiased and clear picture of the many politicians vested with responsibilities. Facebook was the mode of communication which brought out facts and truths in the public through one source followed by propagation like wild fire from person to person until politicians were stripped off their veil and exposed in front of the entire country. Highhandedness of police was also exposed by Face book when two girls were arrested from their homes in the state of Maharashtra in India after they irresponsibly commented on a the demise of a Hindu hardliner party patriarch. The arrests of the girls received stiff criticism from both internet users subscribed to face book over this social platform as well as other people in the government watching the incidents unfold form the sidelines. Relief and Contribution to societies in Crisis. “Twitter is like a modern Roman forum-a place to meet, interact and spread ideas.  Hash tags like #social good, #cause, #volunteer, and #4change allow Twitter users to "tag" their ideas and find like-minded users” (Gordon 2011) The truth is that people like good ideas. The synthesis of good ideas, technology and the power of the masses is what we are witnessing in the 21st century, facilitated through social networking websites like Twitter and Face book Earlier websites like My Space used to rule the social networking arena, but the emergence of Face book and Twitter have taken over the millions of networking website users over the worked due to their appeal, user friendly controls, ease of access and the power to spread messages through wall posts, visibility to friend’s friend as well as options like “promote”, groups, tag, like etc. Another example of social media fundraising is the following account wherein millions of dollars were raised to bring relief to a crisis affected region. In the year 2009, after” Victoria's devastating bushfires, social media allowed community members in Flower dale to organize a relief fund” (Gordon 2011).The CEO of Deloitte Digital, Peter Williams having an active profile in Twitter as: @rexster, helped materialise the “social media strategy-resulting in $1.5 million in donations, temporary housing, and the ability for the community to liaise with government and media throughout the rebuilding process” (Gordon 2011). Medical Breakthroughs: Social Media platforms never stop in terms of addressing the diverse areas of human needs and battles. Twitter has helped patients around the globe find blood and organ donors. It has helped families connect with one another to find donors or recipients of organs for the needy. “John Timpane of the Philadelphia Inquirer told Here & Now’s Robin Young that one Minneapolis musician was able to find a kidney on Twitter.” (Here&Now 2012) The person in need of the kidney posted on twitter his need for a healthily functioning kidney. This became a hashtag and soon he was contacted by a donor. It is believed he had a successful kidney transplant and both donor and recipient are healthy. The assistant principal in Upper Marlboro, Maryland uses Twitter to bond and communicate with students He uses it to stop some of the cyber brawls that start on the micro blogging website. (Here&Now 2012) “I use Twitter to discuss what products are or are not vegan. Crowd sourcing ingredient lists and veg restaurants.” (Here&Now 2012) “It’s often been discussed how Twitter allows for a millisecond news cycle and aids in the sourcing of news tips from citizen journalists on the ground. But Twitter is also being used for controlled news and information gathering both by reporters and by projects aiming to affect social change.” (Catone 2008) Conclusion We have see a range of issues from the political , to social ,to clinical, to humanitarian and even financial being catered to , addressed, debated, discussed and propagated through social networking platforms like twitter and Face book. Facebook and Twitter not only limit people within social and political arenas, rather help them find people with employment opportunities, creative ideas and even people who are looking to team up together to start something new Works Cited 1. Shanon Fernandes. “The Power of Twitter for Social Change”. 1 Jul. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/bandwidth/2009/07/01/the-power-of-twitter-for-social-change/ 2. Malcolm Gladwell. “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted?” 4 Oct, 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell 3. The Hopkins Report. “Using Twitter For Social Change”. 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://www.thehopkinsonreport.com/2009/03/episode-49-using-twitter-for-social-change/ 4. Deepa Chaudhary. “Twitter Turns 5: A Powerful Force for Good: # Happy Birthday Twitter”. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://www.dutiee.com/twitter-turns-5-a-powerful-force-for-good-happybirthdaytwitter/ 5. Ruth Mayne, Jim Coe. “Power and Social Change”. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sites/default/files/UploadedFiles/NC586_12b_power_social_change.pdf 6. Amanda Gordon. “Harnessing the Power of Twitter for Good”. 9 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://digitalministry.com/AU/articles/1300/Harnessing+the+power+of+Twitter+for+good/1 7. .“Using Twitter for Social Change or to Find a Kidney”. 4 Jan, 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/01/04/twitter-movement-kidney 8. Josh Catone. “Twitter as a Tool for Social Change”. 21 Oct. 2008 Web. 19 Nov. 2012 Retrieved From: http://www.sitepoint.com/twitter-as-a-tool-for-social-change/ Read More