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

Twitter fiction. Why do we tweet?

 Bird whisper:

Twitter fiction means addiction.

 Haiku choice in  bird’s voice.

Twitter and Haiku. Two inventions. Why do we need them? Story, nature (birds), strict structure.

Haiku Japanese poems follow a certain organization (three lines, totaling 17 syllables). Twitter: not more than 140 characters. I am just thinking now: tweeting is what the birds do when they feel safe in the forest -they will only stop if they spot a threat! People, on the contrary, will set up a #TwitterRevolution.  Why do we tweet? It is handier for humans, I guess… Twitter has 200 million active users. Among these, some of them are preoccupied with #Twitterfiction. By the way, #twitterfiction has been first mentioned in 2008:

It means:

 I am still looking to see why people use Twitter:

Ruth Page, in her Twitter research says that “finding information from people you never met in the offline world is really attractive” (BBC Radio Leicester Interview, 2011). Andrew Fitzgerald says that it is attractive to use the social media, because Twitter allows “fictional characters [to] engage with the real world” (2013). My opinion is that the engagement is bidirectional: real world is immersed in virtual reality, and vice versa. However, both worlds are realities to me. Another reason: people  use Twitter because “we are still hungry for narrative. New mediums aren’t destroying fiction, they’re allowing us to innovate even more on how we create and consume our stories” (King, 2013). Isn’t it awesome that we can write haiku on Twitter?

Digital haiku tweet cuckoo.

Fictional birdie

Follows a tree.

References:

Andrew Fitzgerald (October 2013).Adventures in Twitter Fiction.Ted Talks. Retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZzmqDMhi0

Rita J. King, (2013).How Twitter is Reshaping the Future of Storytelling.

Retrieved from: http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682122/howtwitterisreshapingthefutureofstorytelling

Page, R. (2011). BBC Radio Leicester Interview with Ruth Page on her Twitter

Research. Retrieved from: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/people/ruthpage