Activism consists of intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism is usually in support of, or in opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument (See lecture 16). Digital Activism can be potentially positive or negative for a brand. Digital Activism can be defined as “the practice of using digital technology for political and social change” (Mary Joyce, Meta-Activism Project).
The first thing I am going to look at defining digital activism better as I don't know about you. but the term confused me slightly at first. The following model aided me in understanding the emergence of digital activism (See article here).
I'll just give you a quick explanation of the model: Though there are many sub-categories digital activism can emerge from three groups - doers, builders and thinkers. The size of the bubble represents the relative size of the group, with doers being the largest. Areas of overlap refer to multiple roles: a person who is both a builder and doer, a thinker and builder. Doers is the largest and potentially most complex group, who create digital activism through their practices such as strategies failed. blog posts. tweets and uploaded videos. "It is through them that the infrastructure of the builders is tested (in the case of activist platforms) or appropriated (in the case of commercial ones) and the ideas of the thinkers are applied. It is from their actions that thinkers create theories and interpretations about what digital activism means" (See article here). Builders create the infrastructure that allows digital activism to take place such as platforms, software, organisations and injections of money. Next comes the thinkers who are the smallest group yet potentially the most critical in defining what digital activism is. They act as the filter through which the tactics of digital activism are analysed, shared etc and digital activism practice would never move forward, always acting on past methods without them. Digital activism is said to move forward easiest when all levels of analysis are interlinked and closely integrated with practice. Social networking has made it extremely easy for members of the general public to become involved with digital activism. With the click of a mouse, they can permeate the doer category.
This leads me on to concept that theorists are calling 'Clicktivism' that, in their opinion, is destroying activism. This is the "obsession with tracking clicks" (See article here).
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"The end result is the degradation of activism into a series of petition drives that capitalise on current events. Political engagement becomes a matter of clicking a few links. In promoting the illusion that surfing the web can change the world, clicktivism is to activism as McDonalds is to a slow-cooked meal. It may look like food, but the life-giving nutrients are long gone." (White, 2010).
Tim Hwang has an interesting insight into the world of online activism; "I want to argue that where digital activism is concerned, an understanding of web culture is absolutely key to effectively operating online" (See article here). He believes that activism relies on engaging "the underlying forces of communication and culture at work in a particular media or space". The thing I found most genuinely interesting whilst reading around the subject of digital activism was in 'Digital Activism Decoded' and the chapter 'Digital Transforms Activism: A Web Ecology Perspective' by Tim Hwang. It speaks of the Web Ecology Project formed in Boston in 2008. They are an emerging research group who want to approach the challenge of gaining a better understanding of cyberspace by embracing a serious study of the underlying social forces that are at the root of both cultural fads and more serious activism against established authorities.
This gave me new insight into the topic - I would have thought social media would make work easier for activists to spread their opinions online; however, it is in fact the opposite, making it harder for activists to get the proper information to the right people one the spotlight of attention is on them. This means that activists need to find a way to sift through information as well as raise awareness. The web can be a flurry of reposting, commenting and spamming where actionable content often becomes increasingly obscured referred to by Hwang as 'memetic entropy'. "In an era of social platforms that are tightly networked, the bar to merely getting a message out from a circle of activists into the public sphere is much lower". So although at first the subject seemed straight forward, I feel I have actually learnt the most from this topic than any other so far. And I will leave you with what I think is a huge problem that needs to be overcome on popular social platforms: "the period between when a conversation becomes widespread or trending and the point at which it becomes "polluted" with a high amount of noise in the form of spam and tangential conversation is rapidly shrinking".
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