Mediated Digital Activism: A Critical Assessment of Opportunities, Promises and Problems of Social Media Uses in Contemporary Grassroots Movements

Abstract

The rapid development and widespread and increasing use of Social Networking sites is arguably one the most significant developments in contemporary human communication over the past two decades. Indeed, perhaps comparable only to development of mobile communication technologies, social networking may well be one of the most important and visible forms of human interaction since the invention of the Internet. In this paper, we examine and highlight the enormous potential of these fairly recent technological developments and highlight opportunities they present to humankind as platforms for democratic and participatory communication and governance-especially in grassroots social movements activism. While doing so, we use cases to show the important potential and actual contributions that social media hold out and represent for democratic communication. The paper also casts a critical look at the potential risks and examines proven and theoretical shortcomings and challenges that these new advances in human communication may pose or represent for society, and identify cybercrime, cyber bullying, their effects on human physical and emotional health, their impact on productivity and other workplace complications, and potential societal disorder and dysfunction of certain social norms among the list of concerns that we suggest require further reflection and redress. The paper concludes by depicting social media as a potentially useful tool from which much social and societal capital can be derived; but also draws attention to their many problematic aspects that make them seem like doubleedged swordwith enormous opportunities and benefits on the one hand, and risks and threats, on the other, depending primarily on the uses to which they are put. Global, regional and national initiatives should be taken to maximize the benefits of social media while minimizing, or at least containing the threats through incorporation of independent but limited guidelines and regulations that would safeguard people's freedoms and rights while protecting users from abuses and adverse effects often inherent in new developments.

Social media usage and activism by non-western budding PR professionals during crisis communication

“…The opportunities of social media usage during crisis situations include but are not limited to, facilitation of democratic and participatory communication; cost effectiveness; widespread access to more people, non-dominance by special elites or interests, and the provision they make for dialogic (two-way) as opposed to monologic (one-way) communication. One of the main argument in this paper is that social media are particularly well suited for two-way symmetrical communication which we also contend is dialogic, participatory and democratic than traditional media; features which social media activists would find beneficial and rewarding for their causes (Opiyo and Kuruç, 2016). Dejan Vercic, states that "there can be no doubt that public relations entered the twenty-first century as one of the governing institutions of our postmodern society.…”

“…The dominant discourse in contemporary public relations asserts that social media are effective tools for communication during crisis situations (Coombs, 2014;Valentini, 2015;Waters et al, 2010;Cindy et al, 2016); yet unethical usage of social media may also pose special challenges to PR practitioners. As suggested by Opiyo and Kuruç (2016), "how the media are managed can hurt or help you in a crisis" (p. 14); thus, the need to (re)consider ethical implications of social media use in times of controversies or conflict times is imperative. This further calls for the need to have better social media literacy, public relations literacy and critical skills to enable users to differentiate credible information from those designed to mislead.…”