Question:
Select an activist or activist organisation from the list below, describe their agenda and evaluate how their digital and non-digital methods of campaigning contribute to identifiable social change.
During the reading of “The Tipping Point” – How little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Gladwell depicts how to look at social change. “any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread just like viruses do.” (Gladwell 2000, 7) The Black Likes Matter social movement has changed the world politically, having their main focus on racial, justice, police accountability and their larger goal of keeping a man who is sympathetic to white nationalists out of the Oval Office. With the community growing, over 3 million hashtags #BlackLivesMatter used and over 300 thousand followers on multiple social medias they are not stopping. “All may seem like they have nothing in common, but they share a basic, underlying pattern. First, they are clear examples of contagious behaviour”. (Gladwel 2000,7) The Black Lives Matter movement relies on digital methods to help support their cause through social media and attention while also acting on their cause with protests through non-digital methods. insert Thesis Here
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Sociologist define social change as changes that form when human interactions change cultural and social institutions. They can often occur overtime and can result in long-term consequences for society. “Positive social change results in the improvement of human and social conditions and in the betterment of society. Such change can occur at many levels, including individuals, families, communities, organizations, and governments.” (Dunfey 2019 1) A very famous positive social change movement called The Montgomery Bus Boycott from December 5 1995 – 20th December 1996, took place when a Black woman named Rosa Parks was arrested when refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a White man. The movement was a huge success thanks to a key person named Martin Luther King junior. What the Montgomery Bus Boycott wanted to seek from the government was total desegregation on public busses. Martin Luther king led the campaign and through the many speeches he made that year and with it, they successfully achieved their goal and discrimination on public transport towards Blacks was no more.” MLK sits next to Reverend Glenn Smiley of Texas on a Montgomery bus, symbolizing the victory.” (Carson 2005, 14) King was inspired by a man named Gandhi who was born on 2nd of October 1869 because of his well-known status of nonviolence social change. “His prominent role in India’s freedom struggle fetched him the title of Bapu (Father of the Nation.)” Gandhi also received the name “the dater of non-violence” because he raised nonviolence to a level never achieved which created a nonviolent social change.
One of the most important campaigning techniques used by the Black Lives Matter’s movement toady is Digital methods. In a research article called “Scaling Social Movements Through Social Media: The Case of Black Lives Matter by Marcia Mundt, Karen Ros, and Charla M Burnett, their research found social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can help out an activist or activist organisation by providing opportunities for activist groups to broaden their movement impact. “social media creates participation opportunities—such as boosting protest turnout or supporting fundraising campaigns—that broaden mobilization, thus helping scale movement endeavours” (Mundt, Ross, Burnett 2018, 1) Also study shows that the creation of support networking movement expanding, specifically by enabling local BLM groups to collaborate together to amplify and disseminate discourses about police brutality and Black liberation. Black Lives Matter use many different digital campaigning methods that are successful. For example, from 2013-2020 BLM have a huge following on social medias, Facebook with 344 thousand followers, Instagram with 298 thousand followers and Twitter with 327 thousand followers. They have a website that shares important information about what BLM is about and any upcoming news or events. You can also purchase merchandise off the website to help fund their campaign to create a positive social change.
After one of the recent famous protests on 21st July 2018 When 100 BLM protestors interrupted Hilary Clinton at a campaign rally in Atlanta Georgia about discrimination an associate professor of politics named Deva Woodly said “ The movement is growing, it’s influences on American politics is growing,” signifying that the movement through digital and non-digital methods is creating a significance in the USA and could increase effectiveness of their cause via members joining or by pushing their cause further. One famous Protest that occurred was in 2014 when a Black man named Eric Garner was choked to death while being arrest by White police officers. Just days after his death rallies were held in 5 cities looking for Justice. “I believe in justice” Ganer’s daughter said during an interview published in January of 2017. Statistics show that in the last 2,107 days, there have been at least 2,825 protests or demonstrations that have been held across America. Other ways BLM Spread their cause is through books. Many different books have been published, some targeting adults and others targeting children and teens. Some examples of these books are “#BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation”, “The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea”, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” and “The Hate U Give.” These books have been given positive reviews some even becoming movies.
Through evidence collected and studied by Marcia Mundt, Karen Ros and Charla M Burnett, digital methods do have an impact on social change by created opportunities for those who are involved to help support the activist by broadening their movement impact as well as social media creating opportunities such as boosting protest turnout or supporting fundraising campaigns that help scale movement endeavours.
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