Role of Social Media in Social Movements

Role of Social Media in Social Movements
The rapid technological advancements have played a major role in shaping today’s society, especially in terms of communication and information sharing. Technological developments have contributed to the emergence of social media, whose use has grown rapidly over the last decade (Anderson et al., 2018). Currently, many people across the globe including in the United States are using a wide range of social networking sites to get news and information. As a result, social media has become a key avenue for public discourse on various issues as people engage in civic-related discussions and activities. For many people, social media allows them to obtain more secure and reliable information or knowledge on various issues including civic-related issues (Balci & Golcu, 2013). By providing avenues for people to get more secure and reliable information and enhancing communication, social media has played a critical role in recent social movements. 
Social Media and Civic-related Activities
Balci & Golcu (2013) state that rapid technological developments in recent years have enabled people to experience major transformations in ways of communication and information sharing in daily and social life. The developments in communication technologies have contributed to the emergence of new communication networks that allow people to obtain more secure and reliable information. Social media is a new communication network that has emerged from the development of communication technologies and become a critical part of daily communication. Social media has provided an avenue through which approximately 30% of the global population is connected (Clark, 2012). The rate of growth in social media use is expected to increase to more than 60% in the next decade. 
The increased growth in the use of social media is attributable to its ability to allow people to engage in public discussion and civic-related activities. As people increasingly turn to social media to get news and information, they use these platforms to engage in political debate and discussions (Anderson et al., 2018). In some instances, social media becomes a place for people to engage in civic-related activities. Social media users can easily engage in civic-related activities as messages shared on these platforms spread quickly. 
Role of Social Media in Recent Social Movements
Cammaerts (2015) define a social movement as a social process through which members collectively articulate their interests, express their critiques and grievances, and recommend solutions to address the identified problems. During this process, the collective actors in a social movement engage in a series of collective actions that are geared toward resolving the identified problems or issues. Social movements have some characteristics including conflictual and clearly identified opponents, dense informal networks, and focus on sharing collective identities (Cammaerts, 2015). Modern social movements suffer gradual transformation and have similar features even when they are organized in different contexts and scenarios (Soares & Joia, 2015). Most of the contemporary social movements comprise young people who are mobilized to action through various channels of communication, particularly social media. 
Recent social movements have been affected by information and communication technology, which affects all aspects of the modern world. Information and communication technologies have affected both developed and developing countries across the globe. These technologies have affected recent social movements through communication revolution (Lopes, 2014). Due to the communication revolution brought by these technologies, social movements are currently organized in different forms and different levels with the aim of transforming societies where they emerge. A critical component of the communication revolution brought by information and communication technologies is social media. Social media has increasingly played an essential role in and impacted recent social media. The role of social media in recent social movements is as follows:
Increased Communication Between Collective Actors
collective actors in these movements. According to Lopes (2014), one of the fascinating ability of social media is enabling ordinary citizens to connect, communicate, and organize themselves at low costs. Cammaerts (2015) opines that social media represents a convergence of communication formats that enable people to stay connected. Activists and protest movements use social media to promote their ideologies by sharing information and encouraging communication and action from others. For example, the emergence of the “Me Too” movement was based on the use of social media to increase communication between collective actors. Activists encouraged people to share their experiences as a means of raising awareness regarding sexual harassment and assault. Collective actors in this movement used social media to increase communication in order to raise awareness on sexual harassment and assault and promote action to address this problem. 
As part of increasing communication, collective actors adopt “slacktivism” to circulate information and resources (Granillo, 2016). As evident in the examples of the “Me Too” and Black Lives Matter movements, people circulate information and resources through shares, likes, and retweets. In the Black Lives Matter movement, a core group and a periphery group used social media to circulate information regarding systemic racism and unfair targeting of African Americans by law enforcement officers. The core group was actors who actively protested and spread the message on the streets while the periphery group was low-commitment participants. The core group and periphery group in this movement leveraged the power of social media to communicate by circulating common information. In addition to protesting and sharing the message on the streets, the core group also circulated information on social media. While the periphery group did not actively protest and share information on the streets, they used social media to share and echo the message. As a result, social media became an avenue for facilitating increased communication between the different actors involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. In the “Me Too” movement, social media was used as a platform to share sexual harassment and assault experiences as a means of raising awareness on this issue.
Balci & Golcu (2013) suggest that social media aided recent social movements by enhancing instant communication between members. In addition, content shared on social media spread quickly and promote collective action among members of a social movement. Kidd & McIntosh (2016) contend that there is a strong link between social media and social movements. Given the example of recent social movements, social media helps social movements by promoting rapid and instant communication between actors.
Coordination of Activities
The other role of social media in recent social movements is coordinating activities between the different actors. Social media has dramatically simplified organizing and coordinating large groups (Ovide, 2020). Organizing online has emerged as a new way to not only raise awareness on issues facing the citizenry, but also coordinate activities between actors involved in a social movement. The communication tools in social networking sites have made it easier for ordinary citizens to engage and mobilize through coordination, collaboration, and expressing their opinions and demands (Elshahed, 2020). According to Ruf (2020), social media has shaped recent social movements by making it possible to horizontally and democratically run these movements. 
The power of social media in mobilizing actors and coordinating activities is evident in different examples of recent social movements. For example, in the Tunisian uprising, social media was used as a tool to mobilize people and coordinate activities that culminated in the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 (Breuer, 2012). Social media promoted coordination of activities between these actors by allowing the digital elite to create personal networks and dodge the national media blackout. Through this, actors effectively shared information outside mainstream media. Actors also used social media to report the magnitude of protest events and create a national collective identity that facilitated and supported protest actions that transcended socio-economic and geographical disparities. During the Arab Uprisings, social media was used by activists to mobilize, organize, and coordinate activities (Hempel, 2016). Social media played an integral part in the Arab Uprisings by facilitating the creation of networks that were crucial in coordinating actions (Brown, Guskin & Mitchell, 2012). Social media helped to coordinate activities during the uprisings by promoting circulation of information that increased expectations for the success of democracy in North Africa and the Middle East (O’Donnell, 2011). 
In conclusion, contemporary society has experienced significant changes in communication and information sharing due to developments in information and communication technologies. These technologies have contributed to the emergence of social media, which continues to affect all aspects of the modern world including social movements. Social media has played an important role in recent social movements like Arab Uprisings, “Me Too”, and Black Lives Matter. The role of social media in these recent social movements involved promoting increased communication between collective actors and coordinating activities.
References
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