“TWEETING THEIR WAY TO FREEDOM” Lesson

Getting Ready to Read Quickwrite: “Social media includes the various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily via the internet to share information and resources.” What are some forms of social media? Which ones do you use and how? Your answer must be a paragraph.

Introducing Key Concepts Repressive Adjective (esp. of a social or political system) Inhibiting or restraining (keeping under control) the freedom of a person or group of people.

Semantic Map How do repressive governments hold down their people?

Additional Context

Marking the Text 1. Number the paragraphs. 2. Circle key terms or essential words. 3. Underline the author’s claims.

Reading Task Brad Stone and Noam Cohen discuss social media and freedom in their article “Tweeting Their Way to Freedom.” While reading their article, circle terms related to social media and technology and underline the main claim that states what social media is doing for people around the world.

¶ 1 “When thousands took to the streets to protest the disputed presidential election in June” ¶ 3 “ as the Web and cellphones have expanded their reach to most corners of the world” ¶ 9 “ The video—which has been viewed on YouTube hundreds of thousands of times, in addition to reaching millions more after it was broadcast on TV—helped galvanize support for the demonstrators” ¶ 13 “ China employs tens of thousands of Internet censors to monitor Web postings” ¶ 15 “ China is not the police state that its leaders sometimes would like it to be; the Communist Party's monopoly on information is crumbling, and its monopoly on power will follow” Context Clues Use the words surrounding these words to determine their definition. Or use your knowledge of similar looking words to help you find the meaning.

Quickwrite: If Stone and Cohen make the argument that social media is helping people challenge their repressive governments, what would people against them say? In other words, what claims could be made to support the claim that social media is not helping people challenge their repressive government? Explain.