The picture/gif above generally gives you an idea of what an activism looks like. Activism takes place when you feel so enraged over an issue or behavior that does not quite match with the principles, ethics, moral or value you believe in and you decided to protest and bring this issue to a bigger place. A bunch of people who feel the same with you will join the protest to make the world witness and actually do something right about it.

The social technologies nowadays have actually brought activism to different forms compare to the old fashion walk on street with posters or cardboards.

One most noticeable and common protest on social media is the #Hashtag activism.

#Hashtag activism

Hashtag activism is a term coined by media outlets which refers to the use of Twitter’s hashtags for online activism. The term can also be used to refer to the act of demonstrating support for a cause through a like, share, retweet and etcetera, on any social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter (Mbabazi 2018).

Alternatively, the term is used to refer to the use of hashtags on multiple social media platforms to plan marches and protests, share stories, connect communities, and ultimately, drive social change.

Here is how it looks like when hashtag activism is being used for #ASLIceBucketChallenge.

(Picture: #ASLIceBucketChallenge)

The Facebook or Twitter newsfeed everywhere were filled with people having ice and water poured over their heads, even the celebrities. My favorite “Ironman” also took part in this ice bucket challenge hashtag activism and called upon my another favorite “Thor” to complete this challenge.

#ASLIceBucketChallenge was the first of the viral charity challenge hashtags, raising money and awareness for the ALS Association, and it set a precedent that many have tried to match in the years since. The ALS Association has received more than $41.8 million from more than 739,000 new donors between July 29 and August 21 2014 (Hales & Calderwood 2017).  

This event was also my first engagement with digital activism by shooting an ice bucket challenge video with my friends and uploaded it online to show my our support for the group. We were proud to help in this donation and contribution to bring light to those in needs. 

Personally, now I think activism and protest has been more powerful than before due to the tech of social that allows more people in this world to hear the voices. With the helps of social technologies, activism and protest can be more creative and inspiring that spark the light in people to take actions against certain issue. The sounds can be spread further, and the light can grow into a flame.

References

Mbabazi 2018, ‘Hashtag activism: Powerful or pointless?’, URL: <https://www.newtimes.co.rw/society/hashtag-activism-powerful-or-pointless>.

In 2019 and 2020, not only have we heard lots of tragic news among celebrities and athletes, but also especially in 2020, the most devastating issue everyone encounters is the Covid-19 pandemic which has totally disrupted our daily lives and now we all start practicing the new normality which consists of 3 elements, 1-metre distance, put on face masks and wash hand frequently after back home from outdoor. However, if we broaden out horizon in terms of global news, we probably realize that some nations are suffering not only just purely pandemic thing, but also some ongoing protests against the government. For instance, In Hong Kong the protest still persists although has it been quelled temporarily due to the fear among Hong Kongers over the upcoming Chinese Security Law which is mandated typically for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since Hong Kongers are concerned about the high possible of the restriction of freedom of speech towards them. Likewise, in the US, lots protests are going on over the issue of police brutality, especially the incident of George Floyd who was dead due to suffocation while his neck was being knelt on by one of the police officers although the public attempted to stop this tragic but it proved futile. This tragic has sparked anger among the Black community and soon, a series of protests took place across the nation. In this topic, we will look into how digital activism works in reflecting upon the rampant issue. 

Digital Activism towards long hour working culture among Japanese workers

This drama entitled “ Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu “, which means I Will Not Work Overtime, Period! in English. It was released in 2019 and soon had drawn international attention for its criticisms of Japanese corporate life. The story plot revolves around the lead female role as an office worker, whom she decides that she will never work overtime, and regularly leaves work at the official end of the day. Since then, she has conflict with other employees, who usually stay at work until much later. Besides that, long-hour working culture has traumatized her ever since she was young when her father whose corporate life meant that he did not spend time with his family. Her bosses at the company, who see her refusal to work overtime as a lack of commitment to the company and its clients. Her situation is complicated by the arrival of an ex-boyfriend who joins the company. She gradually convinces her fellow workers to go home on time in order to save their health and relationships, but ends up breaking her original commitment, which results in her hospitalization and the demise of her own relationship with her fiancé. In overall, this drama has highlighted how long-hour working culture affects the health and family relationship of workers as they tend to have little time to spend with their family which end up suffering an inharmonious household. In some cases, we have heard news about Japanese office workers died due to fatigue and the increased divorce case in Japan is getting more common as husband never spends time with family after busying with tons of workloads. 

According to Brasor (2019),  The most common complaint from white-collar employees at Japanese companies is about the meaning of “quitting time.” The feeling is that even if a worker has finished their tasks for the day, it is considered bad form to leave the office before their colleagues or supervisors do. There are, of course, no established rules that dictate such conduct, and it can be perceived as a custom but even after three decades of debate over the question of unnecessary overtime and lost productivity in the Japanese workplace, there is still great hesitancy on the part of employees to go home “on time.”

Furthermore, a survey conducted by Japanese government showed that around one quarter of Japanese companies require employees to work more than 80 hours of overtime a month. Sarcastically, those extra hours are often unpaid. Japanese workers on average didn’t use 10 of their paid vacation days, and 63 percent of Japanese respondents felt guilty for taking paid leave.

As mentioned earlier, long-hour working culture has caused workers died due to fatigue. Taking a real-life case as an example, an employee of Japan’s largest advertising firm, Dentsu, jumped to her death in 2015. The cause was said to have been depression caused by overwork. The case generated widespread attention and renewed calls to change the long working hours and illegal unpaid overtime highly common in Japan. The aftermath of this issue has pressurized Dentsu’s CEO to resign over the controversy and the company was fined for violating labor standards as she had been reportedly forced to work 100 hours of overtime a month. After the death, Dentsu made changes within the company, including turning off lights in the office at 10 p.m. in an effort to force employees to leave (Saiidi 2018).

In conclusion, this drama portrays the long-hour working culture in Japanese society that has been rooted ever since. As we all know that, drama is the mirror of a society. Often we agree up to a point that dramas actually are delivering a message to the viewer about current society. As soon as the drama has been released, it has drawn the attention of Japanese government about the well-being of workplace and since then, lots of debate have been carried out in the parliament with an aim of enacting a law which can protect the employee’s well-being and revise the structure of traditional companies workforce as majority of traditional companies have a mindset is that employees should be always available at work and employees should be ashamed of applying holidays. Although work-life balance in Japan has yet to be achieved, but who knows in the future?

Reference list:

Brasor, P 2019,  TBS drama misses an opportunity to shine a light on genuine workplace issues, The Japan Times, viewed 13 October 2020,

<

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/18/national/media-national/tbs-drama-misses-opportunity-shine-light-genuine-workplace-issues/

>.

Saiidi, U 2018,  Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. It’s trying to change, CNBC, viewed 13 October 2020,

All these acts of getting rights for a certain topic or so called taboos needs to happen to make a change. Usually people will not even talk about them if no one is making these things a big thing to change the minds of the government or the world. Over the years there are hundreds of protests and activism going on. Some may be smaller or bigger than others, but that doesn't make it any less important.

One of the bigger activism is LGBT pride. It is a pride to the promote self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people hence the name of the movement as a social group. June is officially named the month of LGBT pride. It started during the 1960s but still faces problems with the social norms. People are bullied and disrespected just because they transitioned or like the same gender. Even if a person is not in that community, that does not mean you cannot support them. Even if people do not support them, they should not call them disrespectful names and put their hands on these people. 

Some countries still do not support this movement but at least the people can call this community their home and be supported by them all the time. Social media helped this movement a lot as it spreads the news fast and get supported by other communities even thought they are strangers.

All these successful protests are thanks to social media. It provides a platform to communicate with people in different communities and to give their support, but it also allows people to cyber bully as it is simple to do so. There are some actions taken by both the social media and netizens to reduce these negative acts. Netizens usually shares these profile and call them out for cyber bullying and the social media management will block these users and might have punishment for their wrong doings. It helps spread information fast and to inform people of a situation or topic that is happening and make a change. There are always negative and positives to using social media for activism and protests but conflict cannot be avoided as everyone has different opinions and can easily share what they thing on social media platforms.

References

Garfield, L 2018, ‘June is LGBT pride month-here;s everything you need to know’, business insider Malaysia, viewed 24 April 2020, <https://www.businessinsider.my/pride-lgbt-month-definition-gay-history-parade-celebrations-2018-6?r=US&IR=T>.

The Early Days...

Life was tough during 14th century England. Workers were forced to work with a minimum wage while some had to work without pay due to the feudalism. Adding insult to injury, taxes were raised in order to fund the war with France. Subsequently, people were starting to realise the importance of freedom; they want equal rights. It escalated to an open rebellion when the people of Essex refused to pay their taxes. Local leaders contacted countryside communities through letters, they rallied and marched to London (Bbc.com 2019). The revolution was ultimately a failure; however, The Peasant’s Revolt was an early example of an organised protest among the common folk.

21st Century

Centuries later, London was occupied by protestors yet again. During the 2011 London Riots, the city was in flames, buildings looted and destroyed. It was the largest post-world-war era disorder in UK’s history (Vice 2016). The protest was triggered by the shooting of Mark Duggan, disadvantaged communities took this opportunity to protest the unequal treatment of the police specifically over the excessive use of stop and search (Vice 2016). Unlike in ancient times, the method of communication had significantly evolved with the aid of technology. Nowadays, protestors and activists seek technology solutions that are straightforward and reachable (Sigal and Biddle 2015). As social media has become a crucial part of life, it was used as the medium to organise the London Riots. 

According to Sigal and Biddle (2015), story-elements bring people to protest or start a movement together. The movement started when netizens gathered on a Facebook page to mourn the death of Duggan (Halliday 2011). The initial sadness subsequently transforms into anger, thus triggering the riots. To prevent more chaos, Facebook and Twitter were closely monitored by the authorities, they were ready to react. As the main social media platforms were under governance, protestors pivoted to another platform (Youmans and York 2012). BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) became the designated platform for protestors to deploy or rally people. It was a better alternative as BlackBerry phones were common among teens, it’s a free text messenger and most importantly it is UNTRACEABLE. BlackBerry refused to shut down its services (MailOnline 2011); but agreed to enable police to track and arrest users who spread ‘fake news’ (Halliday 2011). Law enforcement was heavy and they ultimately put an end to the riots.

Double-Edged Sword

Without a doubt, social media is important if one is to become an activist. The power of social media as a tool to rally the people can no longer be denied. Nonetheless, it is unsafe. Fundamentally, a social media platform is not designed as a tool to organise movements and protests. Social media’s core purpose is to connect people and gain revenue, it is a business-oriented service (Youmans and York 2012). Hence, they comply with government requests in order to keep their services intact. Moreover, there is no solid proof that social media companies will not ‘sell-out’ to tyrants or despotic regimes to undermine their consumer base. Therefore, activists have to proceed with caution when wielding the influence of social media.

References:

Bbc.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/z2c2pv4/revision/1 [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Halliday, J. (2011). London riots: BlackBerry to help police probe Messenger looting 'role'. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-blackberry-messenger-looting [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Halliday, J. (2011). London riots: how BlackBerry Messenger played a key role. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Mail Online. (2011). 'It's unbelievable BlackBerry Messenger hasn't been shut down': Mayor's aide calls for ban on riot 'tool'. [online] Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023924/London-riots-2011-BlackBerry-Messenger-shut-unbelievable.html [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Sigal, I. and Biddle, E. (2015). FCJMESH-007 Our Enduring Confusion About the Power of Digital Tools in Protest. The Fibreculture Journal, (26), pp.290-296.

Vice. (2016). What the 2011 Summer Riots Were Really About. [online] Available at: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/kwkbde/england-riots-2011-five-years-later-analysis [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Activism is an action that is for a soul purpose which goes beyond the rules and regulations in a basic society. The actions magnitude depends on its medium whether is on radio, social media or rallies. There are various reasons for such event to occur such as equal human rights, opposition defending their stand, global warming or world peace. Activism has played a major role in an ordinary human life for instance, putting an end to slavery, equal rights for the women, labour rights and racism (Martin, 2007). However, a proverb goes by “the same knife that is used to cut apple could be used to kill someone”. In our scenario activism could be utilized to solve major world issues or to start one such attacking the minorities or promoting war.

If we look at the history of activism it has been there since the beginning of time throughout the political system and is continuously being ignored by those who can make any significant change. Activists themselves are not fighting for power but to make a social impact in their society. The same activists that came out in the streets throwing stones at the army, in return receiving rubber bullets is now behind the screens and attacking them utilizing social media platforms. The protests are now happening on a different medium which government are trying to control by blocking and assigning certain punishments if any comments made. The question that comes to mind now is why do activists do what they do and how are the governments trying to shut them in today’s world?

One of the most common metaphors of activism is public protest such as rally, march or public gatherings. According to Sharp (2005), there are three types of stages which takes place, first stage is speeches full of anger and hate, banners, slogans as these methods are basic human rights and or not considered to be illegal. The second stage is nonviolent action, disobeying social customs, boycotting government products and the third stage is like stage two however, violent actions takes place, sabotaging government owned properties such as banks, attacking the government bodies etc.

Today’s youth doesn’t want to get down on the streets but prefer to sit behind their screens and fight for the rights in their safe playground. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are being utilized to create social movement but translating these movements into actual policy change is quite difficult (Malchick, 2019). For instance, it took Martin Luther King and his colleagues a decade to spread their message and build strong connections. Nevertheless, in today’s world all you must do is start with something catchy with the correct hashtags to spread your message. For example, the hashtag “BlackLivesMatter” is five years old today but had a major impact on how Americans view social media’s impact. It has set a benchmark for the society to raise their voice for anything that is not acceptable and share that message until big shot notices it and is keen to make changes.

References:

Anderson, M. (2018). Activism in the Social Media Age. [online] Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/11/activism-in-the-social-media-age/ [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].

Malchik, A. (2019). The Problem with Social-Media Protests. [online] Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/05/in-person-protests-stronger-online-activism-a-walking-life/578905/ [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].

Martin, B. (2007). Activism, social and political. [online] Bmartin.cc. Available at: https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/07Anderson.html [Accessed 28 Nov. 2019].

Third post, getting somewhere and slowly getting to know Tumblr!!

Freedom of speech on a global level, has become one of the most influential affordances social media is able to offer.

Social media platform has a colossal role, in how protests and activism conflicts turn out. This can be from the fast past spread of the situation but also the vast exposure to so many users, that forces them to pay attention and potentially go on to moved, at a global level. With Facebook becoming a recruitment platform and Twitter a means of internal coordination within the activist community (Gerbaudo 2012, p. 4).

The Arab Springs of 2010, it’s thought that various social media platforms that are used have helped the group organise, and share their protest, with people from the countries affected but also the world. Even “political leaders have pointed to or blamed social media for driving the uprisings in the Arab region” (Sigal et al. 2015).

It is clear that social media has become a tool for “citizen journalism” (Gerbaudo 2012, p.3), and become a key part of our society. Giving anyone that has access to the internet the ability to spread, share and comment on so many and any social and political events.

In comes ‘Slacktivism’, or actively taking part in social media – through likes, shares, and retweets – you believe you are making a difference with no actual effort. The term is highlighted with issues and social media by trying to help whilst actually doing nothing. This follows with ‘Clicktivism’ which is considered the use of digital media to facilitate social change. It isn’t exactly the support or promotion of a cause online, but more the use of digital media for facilitating social change activism.

Looking into the future of activism, I think the best input with social media will be to contribute to activists and their causes. Sigal and Biddle (2015, p. 8) look at the group Global Voices, and how they stated that protests will occur wherever networks of individuals are able to be organised.

References:

Lafi Youmans, W & York, J 2012 ‘Social Media and Activists Toolkit’, Journal of Communication, pp 315-329

Sigal, I, and Biddle, E 2011 ‘Our Enduring Confusion About the Power of Digital Tools in Protest’, Fibreculture Journal, 26