Do It! People power, the media and social change
Meg Kissack
WVoN co-editor and campaigns co-ordinator
It really is an exciting time to be an activist.
With the increasing popularity of social networking sites, we now have the power to change lives and policies from the comfort of our own homes.
To be honest, I used to find Twitter and Facebook a source of huge irritation. I didn’t care what my friends had eaten for breakfast and didn’t see the need for people to ‘check in’ wherever they went.
But over the last year, I have begun to see just how much impact both sites can (and do) have.
Whether you use it for contacting people in your networks/community groups or to arrange a march, Facebook seems to have become the first stop for organising large events, and has become a brilliant tool for social change.
Goodness knows what we – the WVoN editors – would do without it!
As for Twitter, my twitter feed keeps me updated with different campaigns, organizations and petitions. I find so many interesting articles to read and stumble upon so many interesting people and groups.
People power has always worked, and it’s fair to say that the social media revolution has given millions of people the boost they need to take control and stand up to be heard.
The News of the World scandal was largely publicised through Twitter, as thousands of people took to social networking to express their anger.
The events in Egypt and Tunisia spread through Twitter, with people tweeting live events where national news coverage was not available.
A female activist in Cairo tweeted: “We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.”
This is not to undermine the work millions of people on the ground who push for social change, but social media is definitely a contributing factor to raising public awareness and social change.
Here at WVoN, we are excited to introduce ‘Do It!’ the brand new campaigning section of our website. We will be promoting lots of brilliant campaigns, petitions and suggested actions for you to get involved in.
We will rotate different actions every fortnight and keep you posted with the results of the featured campaigns.
There are so many campaigns and petitions around and we would love you to e-mail any suggestions for ‘Do It’ to us.
If you do know any petitions, campaigns or actions that we are not covering, please e-mail us, at either:
meg.kissack@womensviewsonnews.org or
sarah.cheverton@womensviewsonnews.org
Don’t forget to tweet the campaigns and upload them to your Facebook page. The revolution has started, and we’re all part of it.