Information and Social Media Social Media: computer mediated systems that allow for wide social interconnections or building of publics through social networking

The History of Social Network Sites

Social Network Sites Social Network Sites are web based services that allow individuals to: Construct a public profile using network platforms. Identify other users that share the same connection. View a variety of list of connections within the interconnected platform.

Technical Features Visible profile that displays list of friends who use the same connection. To join any of the network sites, users often complete series of questions. A profile is generated from the questions.

Usage There are many network sites. They include but not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Skype, Whattsapp, Cyworld, Bebo, Myspace. Facebook is the widely used. Created in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. September 2006 it has subscription base of 100 million users. August 2017 it has subscription base of 2.04 billion users.

Social Media Users in Numbers

Political Participation Times like these are not favourable for traditional forms of political participation: voting and participation in institutions, like the traditional political parties, the trade unions or associations, have declined in most Western countries. There is less commitment to long-term projects. This poses a problem: how to secure social cohesion and democractic decision making processes.

Can social media help to increase political participation? There is a positive relationship between social media use and engagement. But this relationship depends on the way social media is used: it is especially those people who use social media to gain information that are politically engaged while identity and entertainment oriented use does not support engagement

Can social media help to increase political participation? Main motivation for facebook is to socialize and build up reputation amongst peers. This should not warn us not to be too optimistic about Facebook as a tool for political participation. People focus on short-term events based loyalties rather than longer term interest based political affiliation. Most people on internet limit their political participation to support causes that others propose to them, without greater debate on the causes. Internet enhances political activeness of existing participants rather than attracting new participants.

Can social media help to increase political participation? Social media creates new opportunities to get together, exchange information and help each other. But the way we connect with groups on Facebook and build up our networks leads rather to finding people similar to us than to being exposed to a wide variety of opinions. Facebook is less global than expected-access to internet is still distributed very unequally Language is still an important barrier to the global community.

Social Media and Dissent Social media may contribute to dissent but we have also seen the opposite The use of social media by antigovernment activists, combined with highly sophisticated monitoring hardware and software on the part of the authorities, that served to rationalize processes of state surveillance

Can social media help develop politically active communities?

Can social media help develop politically active communities?

Can social media help develop politically active communities?

Can social media help develop politically active communities?

Social media is also an organizational tool, It represents an alternative press, It creates awareness.

Social Media and Political Change in four examples Anti Afd Protest in Germany Anti Trump Protests in USA Tahrir Square Protest in Cairo, Egypt Gezi Park Protest in Istanbul, Turkey

Anti Afd Protest in Germany

Anti Afd Protest in Germany

Anti Afd Protest in Germany Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in central Berlin after exit polls showed that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had become Germany's third-largest political force. Shouting slogans such as "All Berlin hates the AfD!" and ''Nazi pigs!", the demonstrators gathered outside a building in Germany's capital where the anti-immigrant party's leaders were celebrating winning an estimated 13.1 percent of the votes in Sunday's federal poll.

Anti Trump Protests in USA

Anti Trump Protests in USA

Anti Trump Protests in USA Al Jazeraa article: «Thousands of people journeyed from across the US to Washington, DC, to protest on the first day of Trump's presidency, January 20. During the swearing-in, Alsip was among the more than 230 protesters arrested when officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) blocked off a large area and hauled off nearly everyone.  "I am wondering if my 24th birthday next week will be my last as a free person," she says by telephone from Chicago. "I've never in my life had such a painful and stressful experience. There are no words to convey the severity of this." "Our experience in police custody [that day] was totally dehumanising. We were kettled, treated like animals and denied basic human rights and dignity," she recollects. "People were forced to urinate on the streets and denied water and food." kettled: (of the police) confine (a group of demonstrators or protesters) to a small area, as a method of crowd control during a demonstration.

Tahrir Square Protest in Cairo, Egypt

Tahrir Square Protest in Cairo, Egypt

Tahrir Square Protest in Cairo, Egypt On 25 January 2011, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square and protested against President Hosni Mubarak who had been in power for 30 years. During 2011, the term Arab Spring became interchangeable with “Twitter uprising” or “Facebook Revolution” as global media tried to make sense of what was going on.

Tahrir Square Protest in Cairo, Egypt Tahrir Square’s spirit of change was very powerful and infectious. Activists who look back to those days say Facebook and Twitter were just tools to gather people. They were never the driving force of the movement.

Tahrir Square Protest in Cairo, Egypt Can the events of the past five years accurately be described as a “social media revolution”? For Leil Zahra, an activist who stationed herself in Tahrir Square and who worked as a volunteer during the protests, this term is insulting and reductive. Instead, it can be called a “popular uprising” across a subsection of “classes and realities”.

Gezi Park Protest in Istanbul, Turkey

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul

Gezi Park Protests in Istanbul * Date‎: ‎27 May 2013 – 20 August 2013 Started as a small protest against uprooting of several trees and grew into huge anti-government demonstrations. - 7,548,500 actively in person during June in Istanbul alone (unofficial estimate). - Death(s)‎: ‎22 - Arrested‎: ‎at least 4,900. - Social media networks have played a major role in organizing the protests.