Friday, March 6, 2015
The Egyptian Revolution
What is a social justice movement without passion? What is a social justice movement without perceived in justice? Nothing. In order for a civil rights movement or some other form of social justice movement to occur, two things need to happen. First, a perceived injustice needs to take place meaning people need a reason to fight for something. Are they fighting for gender equality? Free speech? Are they protesting minimum? The reason to fight can also be due to government control. Next, people need to be emotional engaged and invested in the fight. Content people do not start rallies. Content people do not start revolutions. They have no reason too. Social movements are very much emotionally driven like the 25 January Revolution. In today's modern society, social media has the power to play a vital role in rallies. On page 54 of the reading, the author discusses how one of the "most prominent initiatives was the network create around the Facebook group "we are Khaled Said". This Facebook group brought attention to police brutality (one of the many injustices the protesters in Egypt were fighting about) in Egypt. Khaled was beaten to death by police in June 2010 after he distributed a video exposing police corruption. The use of social media in this case united over thousands of Egyptians and foreigners from across the world to stand up for justice together. Although the history and inspiration to start a rally or protest comes from pre-social media days, the use of social media today not only helps brings attention to the situation, but they inspire others (as mentioned earlier) to be involved. Social media has become a platform for people to speak out. The following examples are just a few examples of how the presence of social media advanced these campaigns by bringing national attention to them. Even if the outcome at the end was not desirable, it still illustrates how power social networks can be to unite people and raise awareness in social justice movements/campaigns.
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What I found really interesting about your blog post is the pictures that you used. Two of them include celebrities (Justin Timberlake and Michelle Obama) using images on social media probably posted through Facebook and Twitter. The chapter we read talked about how online movements are generally leaderless for the most part, but I think this idea of the celebrity or the famous person people look up to could be considered a leadership role. They have the most followers (more listeners) who are more dedicated since society has already placed celebrities on a pedestal. If famous people can influence people to become insanely thin, do drugs, believe in certain things, etc. they should be in a position of power to help bring about change.You second qualification for a civil rights movement to occur was that people needed to be emotionally engaged and invested in the “fight”. I think celebrities help with this by drawing attention to it as something important that people should care about. “Hey I’m rich and famous and if you care about this it will make you cool like me”. In your celebrity pictures is the phrase they are holding up more impactful or simply their face/presence in the photo?
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