Social Movements: Mass-media versus Social Media

Social media is more than Slacktivism. Social movements, such as The Twitter Revolutions, (see Arab Spring, Tunisia, Moldova) are solid proofs that the capability of everyday people to circulate information and opinion online, in real time, can mobilize public opinion, and even overthrow political regimes. Hence, social media are extremely powerful, especially because they bring something new on the scene of protest : the peer-to-peer communication. This is perhaps the most important aspect about social movements -- choosing to protest on social media, people bypass the doubtful interests of mass-media, owned and controlled by a few people.

Accordingly, I do not agree with Robert Putnam, cited by Christensen (2011) when he argues that “citizens are becoming ‘lonely bowlers’ who no longer interact socially, and as a consequence no longer willing to take part in political matters “ (para. 8). He then argues that “the media — particularly TV but also the Internet — have helped decrease stocks of social capital, and thereby also the willingness among citizens to engage in political activities” (Putnam, cited by Christensen, 2011 para. 8). He is wrong. Twitter Revolutions indicate the contrary. Furthermore, as mentioned, it is a big difference between social media and mass-media due to the peer-to-peer communication brought by the latter; moreover, if before one may have been a ‘lonely bowler’ watching TV, now he can easily find like-minded people on social media, and set up a Twitter Revolution.

By the same token, it is not relevant that studies have found that“[o]n Twitter, political talk is highly partisan, where users’ clusters are characterized by homogeneous views and are linked to information sources” (Wihbey, 2013). It is not relevant because political talk is not supposed to be objective. It never was. It is supposed to bring forward debates based on ideas that will eventually improve the community’s life as a whole.

References

Christensen, H. (2011). Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means?. First Monday, 16(2). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3336/2767

Wihbey, J. (2013). Pew Research: Twitter reaction to events often at odds with overall public opinion. Journalist's Resource. Retrieved 9 March 2015, from http://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/digital-democracy/pew-research-twitter-reaction-events-odds-overall-public-opinion#sthash.ws7YuaIG.dpuf