Media Activism

Social media activism is primarily used to raise awareness, draw attention to change any law or policy and make people participate in fundraising. The umbrella term used for Clicktivism is internet activism which has taken various forms, such as hashtag activism or slacktivism (Lecture 11, Media Activism). To depict real-life experiences, I am a part of the social media activists for #BlackLivesMatters. In a vast digital library, these are tactics to draw people’s attention to certain issues that need public indulgence. These are usually published through various YouTube channels, web pages, blogs, social media pages, and e-mail newsletters. In the digital era, all these means are equally prevalent as all these platforms intend to draw participants equally.

Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/11/activism-in-the-social-media-age/

On the other hand, as stated in lecture 11, Media Activism, there are also decision-making groups or lobbies that adopt the platform of E-petition, E-campaigns, writing to election officials, and calling officials out on social media. There have been various examples of social media movements involving people actively involved. For example, the #MeToo movement attracted a massive amount of audience. Along with this, the most popular was the #BlackLivesMatter campaign, which attracted a lot of celebrities. This makes people positively connect with each other. My engagement with media activism allowed me to understand it is a part of grassroots coverage to brings out the voices of the people that need to be highlighted. This also brings forth many inexpensive spaces for participating in any revolutionary action. Hence, it helps to enhance, simplify, and reach people through the strategies for activism. At the same time, it also involves unnecessary participation that turns down the value of social media activism. This can vividly increase the chances of toxic activism. This toxic activism sometimes also creates violence among people. This includes the Peter Weinberg incident, where he was accused of assaulting a kid and being racist. In my opinion, due to these instances, the value of the most essential matters has declined. A section of people nowadays tends to ignore all kinds of activism and predict it to be unnecessary. Hence, it may lead to less participation from people, which will result in overlooking the issues that are truly serious. In this aspect, it is recommended to maintain the standard and select issues that genuinely need attention.