Activism In The Era Of Social Media: Key debates

Dean (2005) puts forward the idea of the fantasy of participation and technology fetishism similarly Zizek’s (1998) reflection on Marxist commodity fetishism fetishizes an object that object must be given a defining quality and endowed with mysterious power, this when applied to technology is governed by ideology structures placed on the object (Dean 2005 Zizek 1998). Social media has its place in the world’s social-economic and political structure, but it is not to say that as a tool and technology it will solve the world of its social, political, and economic inequalities (Zizek 1998). 

The process of an individual liking a post on a Facebook. The user applies their participation with interactive media, but it is the role of the object (Facebook) that is active in liking the post for the user, this can enable the user to still be socially and politically involved and yet unburned by guilt and responsibility the terms slacktivism give rise to this example, they have ‘shown’ their support/participation in engaging with a trend or topic of interest similarly liking the post actualise the showing or reciprocate the emotion in the real world. (Dean 2005 Zizek 1998 Barassi 2015). 

The notion that social media technologies by design enables individuals to rapidly and cost effectively network, organise social movements and events however due to being driven by digital capitalism this places more emphasis on generating revenue through marketing and targeted advertising campaigns. Cambridge Analytica’s ability to target population with marketing material based on their data collection and algorithms, to subtly sway voters to a political cause. Placing users in a state of fractured and fragmented communities whereby users will see and engage with subversive content in line with their own viewpoints and perspectives (Barassi 2015). 

#DresslikeAWoman serves to distinguish Brown et al’s (2017) four psychological processes that are pertinent to social movements to bring to the forefront of current social issues both on and offline. The #movement was a reaction from Trump’s alleged comments that sparked a substantial backlash with women sharing and presenting their own interpretation of a dress code across social media platforms. Brown et al (2017) shows that if the four psychological processes work simultaneously this can more produce impactful movements when organising demonstrations, creating a mass of communal solidarity and as seen in the #DresslikeAWoman.  

The # has become an icon for solidarity, reading through the Twitterverse #DresslikeAWoman likewise in the #Metoo both ideologically define strong examples of intersectionality however the outcome similarly saw predominately white women circulating mass amount of content thus a under representation of minorities (Brown 2017).   

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Barassi, V. 2015. Activism on the Web: Everyday Struggles Against Digital Capitalism. Routledge New Developments in Communication and Society Research Ser. Taylor & Francis Group 

  Brown, M. et al (2017), #SayHerName: a case study of intersectional social media activism, Ethnic and Racial Studies [online], 40 (11), pp. 1831-1846, [Viewed 27th October 2020], Available from: doi-org.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/10.1080/01419870.2017.1334934 

Dean, J. 2005. Communicative capitalism: circulation and the foreclosure of politics. Cultural Politics, pp.51-74. 

Zizek, S., 1998. The Interpassive Subject. [online] Lacan.com. Available at: <https://www.lacan.com/zizek-pompidou.htm> [Accessed 2 November 2020]. 

Fig1. Source: Twitter: #DressLikeAWoman. 2020. [screenshot image]. Available at: https://twitter.com/hashtag/DressLikeAWoman

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