How Social Media Has Changed Activism

                This post is a summary of two articles and a report. The first article is a summary of the book with the title of, "How Change Happens." http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785392.001.0001/acprof-9780198785392-chapter-12. The second with the incomplete title above was published at http://heatherkallevig.com/how-social-media-has-changed-activism-a-look-at-the-benefits-of-online-collective-activism/ . The third summary is the report and was published in 2010 at https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wpcontent/uploads/issues/2010/04/pdf/progressive_social_movements.pdf

                 Citizen activism is considered as any individual action with social consequences. This type of activity has grown exponentially across the developing world, and is driven by several factors: rapid increases in literacy, access to education, a greater openness to political activity. Urbanization too has played a role, for cities are vividly political places, with demanding in housing, schools, clinics, water and sanitation. Technology is also a factor, which expand possibilities of networking among large groups. I have come across extraordinary citizen activists over the last thirty years. They do so for a number of reasons: to improve their neighbourhood, in response to their sense of what is right and wrong, or because working together in a common cause is fulfilling. Citizen activism certainly includes political activism, but it can be much more. Active citizens provide vital feedback to state decision makers, exert pressure for reform, or solve their problems themselves. bypassing state systems altogether. The organizations people form, known in development jargon as civil society organizations (CSO), they help citizens nourish the stock of trust and co-operation on which all societies depend. Of course, citizens' groups can also reinforce discrimination, fear, and mistrust, called 'uncivil society' by some, their activities can sometimes spill over violence, as in the case of religious or racist pogroms, football hooligans, or paramilitary organizations. Since the 1980s, activists have become prominent in the global media for leading protest movements that have ousted dozens of authoritarian regimes across Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. They have removed dictators and most recently brought down oppressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Lybia. Many autocrats must live in fear that one dat tear gas from the protest outside will invade the comfort of the presidential palace, as thousand of citizens gather outside to demand justice. While other factors contribute to political transitions, boycotts, mass protest, blockades, strikes, and other civil disobedience by cohesive non-violent civic coalitions have proven vital. Most day-to-day efforts of citizens' associations are more mundane than the overthrow of governments, but they are equally important to how change happens. Factory workers, state employees, and small-scale farmers around the world have long realized that getting organized will give them the bargaining power they need to exact a better deal out of markets. Trade unions, producer associations, cooperatives, small business associations, can win fairer wages, prices, or working conditions for their members. Many of them take up lobbying for state regulation or other measures to limit the excessive but hidden power of vested interests. Civil society can help the state become more effective, and states can in turn promote citizen activism by addressing the different kinds of power. State can also promote public education on rights and discriminatory norms and values, or laws that guarantee equitable access to assets and opportunities, not to mention preventing violence and other forms of intimidation. The state can also help build the capacity of interest and identity based organizations and create an enabling environment for excluded groups to organize. Affirmative action for the political representation of disadvantage groups, as well as initiatives and reforms that promote transparency and accountability, can strengthening citizens' ability to take action. Many states see civil society's activists as a double-edged sword: useful when it delivers service and promote jobs and growth, but threatening when it seeks a more fundamental redistribution of power. Active citizens are the unsung heroes of how change happens, putting the people in democracy, holding governments to account, making states and markets work better, and ocassionally erupting into our TV screens to drive tyrants and thieves away from power. Like the other systems discussed in this book, civil society is complex. By immersing ourselves in its highways and byways, nourishing a curiosity for its endless energy, and innovation, we activists will find not only inspiration but the knowledge we need to better support change.

                  Today, thanks to the Internet and ICTs, NGOs are discovering new techniques and opportunities for voicing their cause. These new tech are transforming ways people interact and share information. Social media tech are the new platform for online activism. NGOs can effectively use these platforms to reach vast numbers of people using comments, sharing posts, e-mail, etc. Information sharing that used to take work for all involved, from the creators to the receivers, is now as easy as the click of a mouse and a few words. Activism on the tech level is faster and easier than ever before, allowing more people to get involved, and increasing the spread of ideas to a rapidity never before witnessed. The recent Icebucket Challenge by the ALS association is a great example. Videos, pictures, stories and events can be used to rapidly gain the attention of millions. Social media can also be used to raise awareness and gain support. According to Stacy Grau in her book,"Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations," Water.org uses social media to raise awareness, raise funds, and enable participation by allowing interested parties to follow a project from start to finish. This encourages interest, donation and participation. Little do people knows this organization was co-founded by Matt Damon. 

                     A rich history of social movements shaped progressive thought throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Historian Sidney Milkis characterizes the accomplishements of the original Progressive Era as "momentous reconstruction of politics," a description that equally applies to the numerous social movements that aimed to better align political and social order with its ideals of liberty, equality, and opportunity for all. Progressivism as a reform tradition has always focused its moral energy against societal injustice, corruption, and inequality. The activists and leaders of these movements believed deeply in the empowerment of the less privileged in society, the primacy of democracy, and the notion that government should safeguard the common good from unchecked individual and commercial greed. They challenged governments to eliminate its own legal injustices and also harnessed the force of government as a vital tool for advancing human freedom. Central to all progressive movements is the belief that the people do not have to wait for change from the top down, that people themselves can be catalysts for change from the bottom up. Many activists came from middle class or working class backgrounds and possessed the courage and skill, risking great personal danger and sacrifice. Nonviolent themselves, many of these activists faced ridicule, violence, and other hardship in their efforts to push their fellow citizens towards more enlightened positions in line with the country's stated values. Mainstream political parties often ignore activists who engaged in public education and took to the streets to demand justice and political equality. Through direct action campaigns they asked other citizens to join their cause as a matter of conscience and duty to their fellow human beings. As Martin Luther King famously stated in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable net-work of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Progressive leaders themselves learned from the activism of social movements. The collective efforts of these movements eventually helped to turn progressivism itself into a stronger vehicle for human equality, social tolerance, and political rights for all people. The relationship between social movements and progressivism is ultimately one of shared learning and activism in pursuit of common values. The successful development of progressivism in its beginning years depend upon several factors. It required new ideas and philosophical perspectives to challenge the status quo and provide an intellectual foundation for a new form of politics that harnessed government action for the benefit of the many. It required leaders in local and national government to carry these ideas forwards and build coalitions necessary to turn the ideas into concrete policies that culminated in transformative legislation realignment. It required outside visionaries and activists to raise the alarm about injustice and to offer solutions to these problems. The challenges we face today may be more complicated and global in perspective, but the foundational questions for our actions remain. Do we believe that government plays a vital role in promoting human freedom and opportunity or do we think people should be left alone without protection or support? Should markets and corporations be free to do as they please or do they require effective management and regulations to maximize both private and public gains? Are all of our people deserving of individual rights, life opportunities, and personal dignity or do we accept inequalities and differences as inevitable? Do we have obligations to one another and to shared purpose within our society or should we focus on our own well-being and let others do the same? These principles will continue to guide progressives for the generations to come.