Re-Interpreting Internet Activism: A Study of Its Relationship with the Nature of State Introduction

During the 2011 Egypt uprising protesters gained support through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to help end poverty and unemployment in which they were experiencing at the time. This major flow of support from across the world helped strengthen the protesters cause and led to an eventual victory in Egypt (Brym 2014).

Ryan Sorge Rachel Thomas Composition 1 4 September 2015 Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted Summary In the essay Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, The author Malcolm Gladwell, explains the pros and cons of how activism has transformed into social media, instead of social activism. Without social media, he explained that protests and large group gatherings can be arranged, without social media, successfully. High-risk activism has "strong-ties", while social media has "weak ties". Using the web has turned into a critical component in which the way people live today.

To begin with, globalization has furthered accessibility(SA1) to other groups and causes in many way. In Ariela Garvett essay “Tweets and Transitions: How the Arab Spring Reaffirms the Internet’s Democratizing Potential” Garvett argues that “as reflected in the recent political upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East, the internet is a potentially egalitarian and boundary-less structure...(174)

Gladwell sends a very strong message about how social media cannot cause a major revolution in society; likewise, Baron is sending across the same message. Revolutions continue even after the internet is shut down. As crowds gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Baron describes how they “continued to grow during the five days that the Mubarak government shut down the internet” (330). The crowds increased in size without the help of social media. Somehow, word got out and people came to support the cause. Also, Baron brings into realization that Americans are too involved in the world of social media. Americans fail to realize all of the news that they are missing because they “can’t seem to survive without the constant stimulus of digital multitasking” (Baron 330). American citizens are too busy tweeting about what they ate for breakfast to worry about the hungry that is going on overseas. They depend on social networking to tell them the news rather that picking up a newspaper and reading about what is going on in their country or maybe even overseas in a different country.

In the essay ‘Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted’ by Malcolm Gladwell, he writes of how the revolutions of today will never amount to those of the past due to the lack of interactions that social media provides. In the article Tweet Like An Egyptian by Kevin Clarke, who writes of the revolution started by Arab women who learned of all the freedoms in the world by interacting on the Internet and wanting the same rights as all of the other women who have freedom in civilized countries around the world.

- “Arab spring,” Egypt, Libya – young people want what we have, to be able to speak about things: Facebook

In his article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, published in the New York Times on October 2010, Malcolm Gladwell looks closely into the notion of social change and the different means to achieve it. He makes a clear distinction between traditional activism, which implies sacrifices and physical devotion, and current activism, based on social networks. The writer considers that “social media can’t provide what social change has always required” (Gladwell, paragraph 1).

Activism using the Internet and other new media is increasingly having an impact in broadening the scope of civic action in support of human rights in East Asia. Select one or two case studies of activism in ONE East Asian country studied in this course. With regard to your chosen case studies, how effective is online activism as a force for social change? How are government authorities responding to the challenge of internet activism?

To build his argument, he ties in similar examples from history that involve either social or political activism. Not only does he connect these examples to the “weak ties” that the platforms of social media are built upon, but he also offers insight to his readers, the general public, and social-networking gurus (Gladwell 551). In his essay, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Gladwell creates a rhetorically effective argument that illustrates why social networking is not an adequate way to conduct social or political activism.

In 1993, citizens still cursed out the web World-Wide-Web and afterward accommodatingly shortened it (W.W.W.) for newcomers. A considerable amount has changed since that year, when it started to first light on activists, agitators, and nerds that organized PCs could be utilized as devices for individual and gathering political activity. The individuals who perceived the power and reach of broad communications had as of now been searching for approaches to talk back to government officials, organizations and others. Access to work area best distributing and picture altering, and in addition the way to disseminate through the web started to be utilized as instruments in a practice that came to be known as "culture jamming," which includes turning around the normal messages and making a resistance. [Culture Jamming] Does post-9/11 America still discover the defiance of net saboteurs? What’s more, hacktivists Romantic? Is it handy today to seek after individual activism and resistance?

In his essay, “Changing the Face(book) of Social Activism”, Mark Pfeifle writes about the role social media has played socially and politically in our world. In his time, Mark Pfeife has served as a top national security advisor, communicator and deputy assistant for George W. Bush. Pfeife has come to the conclusion that social media has redefined social activism - in place, calling it “social slacktivism”. The word “slacktivism” is a conjuring of his views and biases. Pfeife believes this describes the populace as taking action over the internet without doing anything physically to change things. An example that Pfeife brings up is during the presidential election of 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign was promoted all over online, sources like

Catalyzed by the Egyptian-born Wael Ghonim, who in June 2010 created a Facebook page in response to a picture of “28-year-old” Egyptian Khaled Mohamed Said, “who had been beaten to death by the Egyptian police”, young people in Egypt unleashed a social and political revolution against Hosni Mubarak’s repressive regime. Within months of setting up the page, called ‘We Are All Khaled Said’, over 250,000 people followed it. Inspired by Ghonim’s call to action, demonstrators protested against torture and other regime-led human rights abuses, high unemployment, poverty, and corruption, which “led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and the dissolution of the ruling National Democratic Party.” Seeing how Egypt’s masses were able to affect political and social change, young pro-democracy advocates in other Arab countries—including Tunisia, Yemen, and Morocco—were encouraged to followed suit.

Contemporary social movements such as Arab Spring and Kony 2012 use the Internet and social media as potential tools towards change. But why are some more successful than others. This paper argues that when news outlets see the potential for change, they “premediate” (Richard Grusin) its possibilities, and make that change ever more possible in their coverage. On the other hand, extant stories that are more reactionary do not get the same amount of new exposure, and remain static. In other words, our media - not just social media, but news organizations - play a great role in shaping current events. I will compare and contrast the unfolding of the Arab Spring story, and how little changed regarding Kony 2012, as cases in point.

The Internet environment of Hong Kong is different from that in Mainland China in terms of freedom, including freedom of Internet access, freedom of speech and freedom of press. This freedom allows the Internet to play an important role in mobilizing Hong Kong people to engage in socio-political participation and facilitating the formation of civil society. The power of the Internet in influencing public policy was recognized since the movement against the Moral and National Education in 2012. In the review, Umbrella Revolution is used as an example to illustrate the relationship between the Internet and social movements.

The Arab Spring and its aftermath has become one of the most influential events of the twenty-first century. The series of revolutions reshaped several governments within the Middle East by outing long reigning dictators that the people had become progressively frustrated with. The Arab Spring both aligns with and contradicts several previous waves of revolution and is truly a twenty-first century conflict because of the role that modern technology played. Through studying the Arab Spring, political scientists have been given a glimpse into what future revolutions might look like, especially in regards to the expanding role of social media.