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Media Worlds Essay

MEDIA & GLOBAL POLITICS Culture

Shirky's piece is about the potential for media to change the course of government and politics across the world. He writes of ways that specifically the technology of social media has the power and/or potential for political activism and social change. The 21st century has seen an increase in the frequency and the efficiency of grassroots activism and social movements around the world, due in great part because of the Internet and social media. In fact, the drastic increase in this kind of activity began in the late 20th century:

Since the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, the world's networked population has grown from the low millions to the low billions. Over the same period, social media have become a fact of life for civil society worldwide, involving many actors -- regular citizens, activists, nongovernmental organizations, telecommunications firms, software providers, governments…As the communications landscape gets denser, more complex, and more participatory, the networked population is gaining greater access to information, more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action. (2011,-Page...

With the combinations of social media, mass media, journalism, and digital technology, people are urged to act, but to act with responsibility. Established governments should be aware of the potential for the power to wane because of new methods of activism via social media. All social and political activism is not meant to be a threat to governmental authority, yet their concerns and accomplishments should be taken into serious consideration. Social media has the power to level the playing field between the people and the government.
Morozov, too, is concerned with the potential for social media as a powerful factor in enacting social and political change. While he discusses social media in general, Morozov uses examples where FaceBook is a prominent factor for enabling change to occur on a national scale, citing examples in Europe. He specifically calls upon the generation(s) of Digital Natives to use social media to unify under just and common causes as well as to mobilize their grievances. He goes on to provide examples of the ways Digital Natives have been doing just…

Sources used in this document:
References:

Castells, M. (2009). Communication Power. Oxford University Press. Pp. 299-432.

Morozov, E. (2011). Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Public Affairs: New York. Pp. 1- 32, 179-204.

Shirky, C. (2011). The Political Power of Social Media. Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb2011, 90(1), 28-41.
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