Digital Activism and Beyond

 

 

I choose to do my video on digital activism and offer an insight into slacktivism, with a secondary focus on the infinite opportunities that the online world has opened up. I am interested in the social movement trends that sweep across the digital plane and to what extent they have been successful, and how much is owed to those actions that take mere seconds but are done by millions worldwide. In saying that though, the real inspiration for my video was The Disability March their unique and innovative concept.

The Creative Commons material I used benefited my video. I used a crowd shot of an unknown protest to open my video, instantly the viewer knows the topic. The music I used was Creative Commons and is not a strong song but it brings in something upbeat and calm in the background. All images that were used were also Creative Commons and I felt that showing images of the Womens March while discussing The Disability March cemented that the online blog really was part of the march, and that all of the individuals who participated online did so just as much as those who could physically attend. All other content was made by me, I filmed the video of myself and used that, I felt that seeing me speak would be the best way to validate what I was saying. I filmed my video outside as it gave some interest to the background but was very neutral and did not distract from myself or my speech.

I was very unsure of how to include my scholarly references in a natural way when speaking to the camera. I ended up using them mostly to define terms where it was crucial that the audience had a proper comprehension of in order to get the most from my video. In my video I simply embeded the quote in my speech and acknowledged who said it and where.

My video making process was relatively hassle free, I had used the weekly challenges to familiarise myself with everything.The only difficulties I had were due to extreme heat on my dedicated filming day, and propping my phone in a safe and stable location that could be sustained for several hours. To combat the heat I set up under the shade of a tree and filmed in the afternoon once the forecasted daily high had passed. In terms of the camera situation, I purchased a cheap small tripod to hold my phone steady and had this stacked on top of household belongings. It wasn’t very professional but it gave me a steady and consistent picture. Although I had few issues take me off guard I have come out of this project having learned a lot. I have built my confidence in a medium that was brand new to me and that I was previously very nervous of. I now feel comfortable using Creative Commons material in a real world way and am in awe of the range of content that is available for use in an ethical way, there are so many options it took hours to find one that was just right.  The big take home for me has been the confidence to try new things and use trial and error in a real world way, to go into something blindly and see what works and what doesn’t. It really has been a highly rewarding assignment for me.

 

Broader class participation- see Tiffit tally

References/Credits

Scholarly
Carty, V 01-27-2015, Social Movements and New Technology, Westview Press pp. 7

Christensen, H 2012, ‘Simply Slacktivism? Internet participation in Finland’, in eJournal of eDemocracy & Open Government VOL4, ISS1, Danube-University Krems pp.1

Tilly, C, Wood, L, 2016, Social Movements 1768-2012, Taylor and Francis Group, London pp. 14

Music
Inspiring Ambient – nemmusic.net (CC BY-ND 3.0)

Opening Footage
May Day March!  By Jason Eppink flikr (CC2.0)

Images
Image one: L1003212-Edit By Guido van Nispen Flickr (CC2.0)
Image two: L1003091-Edit By Guido van Nispen Flickr (CC2.0)
Image three: L1003062-Edit By Guido van Nispen Flickr (CC2.0)
Image four: L1003183-Edit By Guido van Nispen Flickr (CC2.0)
Image five: Womens March 15 By Richard Ha Flickr (CC2.0)
Image six: We Wont Give Up By Richard Ha Flickr (CC2.0)
Image seven: L1003124-Edit By Guido van Nispen Flickr (CC2.0)
Image eight: L1003135-Edit  By Guido van Nispen Flickr (CC2.0)
Image nine: Nasty Women By Lenny Lloyd da Silva Flicker (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image ten: Womens March Boston 2017 By Amanda Flicker (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image eleven:Womens March Boston 2017 By Amanda Flicker (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image twelve: Womens March Boston 2017 By Amanda Flicker (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image thirteen: Womens March New Orleans 2017 By Antrel Williams
Image fourteen:Too Early  By Lenny Lloyd da Silva Flicker (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image fifteen: We are the noisy !!! By Lenny Lloyd da Silva Flicker (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Image sixteen:Womens March Los Angeles, CA 2017 By [DV8] David Patrick Valera Flickr (CC2.0)
Image seventeen: Anti Trump Womens March London Womens March January 21 2017 (8) By David Holt Flickr (CC2.0)
Image eighteen: March 6 By Richard Ha Flickr (CC2.0)
Image nineteen: Anti Trump Womens March London Womens March January 21 2017 (30) By David Holt Flickr (CC2.0)

LGBT Activism In the Digital Age

 

It is hard to make concrete claims about the impact that digital media will have on the LGBT rights movement as both the movement and digital media will constantly be changing and progressing. But there are several points of discussion that will make or break the effectiveness of using digital media to advance the LGBT rights movement.

Public Domain Image by  Sebastian Doori, accessed Jan 12 2017

The online world has a huge opportunity to create communities. These communities can encourage individuals to stand up for their own rights during everyday activities and protest against the small acts of discrimination and hate speech that LGBT people encounter. Having an online community of like minded people all working towards a single goal has the ability to give each and every single member a sense support and the confidence required to speak up for themselves.

The online community can help individuals accept that they deserve respect despite what misinformation outsiders may perpetuate, and helps to create a solid support network that some may have difficulty finding in their local community. These communities can also play an important part in helping individuals accept who they are, and show these people, that in this world, where this is very little positive LGBT representation, they can be happy. These communities also show LGBT people as complex humans where sexuality is not the most prominent feature of their personality.

It is also important to note that online content very rarely gets ‘stumbled upon’ by accident. There is such a vast amount of information online that usually it has to be searched for in order to be found. So logically, it is usually individuals who are already somewhat actively engaged in the LGBT rights movement offline that join activist movements online. In some ways this is beneficial as it means that the members of online groups are engaged and active in the movement, however it also means that it can be difficult to get outside attention and grow activist communities. 

Some people question as to whether a digital media presence alone can create awareness and evoke progression in LGBT rights or is it simply the development of a groundwork that can then be used strategically to spread reliable information and from there, result in social changes. This is always going to be a highly debatable question. We have seen LGBT rights become a trending topic and there is no doubt that having people place pride flag water marks over their Facebook profile pictures has amped up the visibility of LGBT supporters and given the rights movement a substantial boost in momentum. But months after these watermarks disappeared, there is still little real world preogression.

However, engagement with the LGBT digital activist movement is a huge deciding factor in the effectiveness of moving activism online. In order to create lasting change it is important that individuals challenge the bigoted views that they may hold and are educated on LGBT facts and the challenges that these people face. This can be done through sharing sources of information and content of high quality that aims to engage audiences and leads to an open discussion in the comments. It is only through correcting people’s beliefs in a way that causes them to change how they go about their own everyday lives that will result in real world benefits for LGBT people.

Avoiding slactivism is key if digital media is to make a meaningful difference in the LGBT rights movement and in the lives of LGBT people.

There is no doubt that digital activism can be used as a highly valuable tool to create lasting change in the LGBT rights movement. But like all tools, it must be used appropriately and strategically to have a real world impact on what is at core, peoples lives.