Last week's riots in England have left many pondering the role of social media during times of civil unrest. This is not the first time over the past year that this issue has sparked debate.. just think back to the recent riots in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya.
Facebook and Twitter were claimed to have been used to gain support for the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in late 2010/ early 2011, with social media even being deemed by some to be 'a tool for revolution'.
Debate surrounding the importance of social media in these protests ensued, seen through blogs such as the BBC's World Have Your Say Blog: Does social media really help us understand the protests? .
Being particularly newsworthy in the aftermath of the riots in England, we have decided that 'the role of social media in times of civil unrest' is an issue worthy of investigation for our web feature for Online Media.
Although we will investigate the role of social media more broadly by exploring its use in the recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, The London riots will be an intriguing point of focus, considering both the positive and negative ways in which social media was used, and the debate which has emerged.
We will be taking a critical look at how social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry Messenger was used to orchestrate the riots and accelerate the situation, as discussed in this ABC News interview with Social Media Consultant, Tom Tudehope:
Yet we will also explore how it was used positively to raise funds for people whose homes and businesses were damaged, to identify looters and to organise the cleanup effort through twitter:
The riots in Cairo, in January 2011, will be our other point of focus, and our unique approach will be offering a comparison of the use of social media in London and Egypt. Whilst in Egypt, social media was deemed by many to be a 'tool for revolution' given its role in being used by Egypt's youth to overthrow a government, its role in England has been framed quite differently.. a tool for chaos.
2 comments:
It is the fact that the internet social networking tools make communication easier and more efficient, but i wonder why the police was unable to keep track on the technology before those unlawful things happened. One of the limitations of internet is that all the things that you've done are being recorded in the computer. The IP addresses of those participants could have easily be traced and therefore their identities could be found. So what I'm trying to say is that the social networking sites are not actually "safe" or "ignored" as they would think.
"What you do on the internet leaves an indelible mark." -Tom Tudehope
It's a pretty new concept, using social media to organise riots.
Previously, the main moral panics being circulated about social media have focused on the capacity for violations of privacy.
Remember the case that Damien talked about in a previous lecture, where a woman who lost her blackberry on the day of her wedding was able to track down the person who found it and was refusing to return to her?
These are some similar cases that were picked up by the media:
1. Thieves post pictures of stolen ring on facebook, photos are used to arrest them for the theft
http://www.scribbal.com/2011/03/couple-charged-after-posting-picture-of-stolen-ring-on-facebook/
2. Guy steals laptop, uses laptop to record video of himself dancing. Owner of laptop remotely accesses his computer, posts embarrassing video on youtube. Video goes viral. Embarrassed thief turns himself in
http://socialtimes.com/dancing-thief_b42890
I suppose the reason why the London rioters feel comfortable using social media to organise themselves is similar to the reason why they feel safe looting UK streets. They feel safe in numbers, and the mob mentality pushes them into committing brazen acts during a riot, that they would not normally feel comfortable doing on their own in an average-day-to-day scenario.
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