by Abigail Batson
For centuries, those who felt that they are disenfranchised have fought to stand up for what they believe in. As society has evolved and adapted to the ever changing world around it, the ways in which people tackle these issues has also evolved. In the past century alone, the rapid rate at which the technology industry has grown has affected the way that people communicate. It then becomes obvious that the way people protest and fight for their rights has shifted as different technologies have been made available. This blog post will go more into detail about the way that newly developed technologies have changed societies approach to tackling civil rights issues.
The Civil Rights Movement
Most people have a working understanding of what the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was about and what occurred. An activist named Barbara Reynolds spoke up about her experience as a Civil Rights activist in a more anecdotal way. She said that the leaders of the old movement were often the heads of the black church; lending an innate sense of respectability to their crusade. People rallied behind these leaders because they knew them well and if they did not know them, they trusted them because of their roles are preachers. The same cannot be said for any current social movements unless they are religiously motivated (Reynolds, 2015).
Satell and Popovic (2017) outline what it takes to be a successful social movement for an artivle in the Harvard Business Review. The article notes that the Civil Rights Movement hinged on the idea of the powerless banding together about the powerful and protesting. Protesting is seen as important for creating transformational change in the long run. However, they make an important point to note that leaders of movements need to make an affirmative case for their goals instead of demonizing the other side (Satell & Popovic, 2017). The leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were very good at motivating people under the principles of peace and unity, which they did by making impactful speeches to the masses.
Black Lives Matter
The current ongoing civil rights movement is heavily based upon recurrent racial tensions due to policing, immigration laws, and other serious issues. While many non-black Americans hold beliefs that race is no longer a defining factor in American society, research proves different. Quillian, Pager, Midtboen, and Hexel (2017) recently wrote in the Harvard Business Review about a study they did to analyze trends in discrimination. They took data that they could gather from experiments performed from 1990 and onward in order to compare potential differences for discrimination in the hiring process. The results of their study state that black Americans have faced the same amount of hiring discrimination since 1990. When this outcome is applied to other facets of daily life one can see how subtle forms of racism still thrive.
The Black Lives Matter movement was created in direct opposition to overt forms of racism that the black American community faces. The movement began after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the Trayvon Martin murder case back in 2013. The phrase was first used in a Facebook post expressing pain and anguish in light of the news. Soon, a hashtag was added to the phrase that resonated with so many and they movement began. The creators of this movement came from a solely collaborative effort (Craven, 2015).
Alicia Garza is the woman who coined the titular phrase of the movement in her post. At this same point in time, Opal Tometi was inspired by the acquittal to build a movement in order to attempt to prevent something like this from ever happening again. However, Patrisse Cullors was the first person to add a hashtag to the phrase and begin posting it on social media. Tometi contacted the others and mandated that the movement needed its own platforms in order to thrive. They utilized their social media presences online to spread the hashtag and attempt to get other people to rally behind the cause (Craven, 2015).
The Role of ICTs
Taking into consideration how reliant today’s society is on technology, social movements would gain no traction without utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs). Communication technologies each come with their own affordances which allows leaders within a movement to choose which technology they think is the best for their needs. With a website such as Facebook, it is possible to create groups where people with similar ideologies or interests can gather and share their ideas. Facebook also offers an “events” function where people can create and share events with all manner of audiences. On the other hand, Twitter is known for using hashtags to connect and rally people from all over thr globe with common ideas. These hashtags and Facebook groups offer a sense of community and a platform for activists to work with.
The use of ICTs, such as Twitter and Facebook, to facilitate the agendas of social movements has increased drastically over the past decade. The organization and communication within movements themselves has changed as a result. With the use of current ICTs organizations tend to be more horizontal, as opposed to hierarchical; movements are thriving with more small sects maintaining the power instead of one major governing body (Morador & Vasquez, 2016). Black Lives Matter utilizes this manner of operation by using the hashtag as a way to unite many separate efforts. The lack of a centralized leader allows localized power structures to head the efforts and focus on the issues that are more prevalent in their own areas (Day, 2012).
The Benefits
ICTs afford leaders of movements the ability to reach more people and improve inclusivity within the movements. Through them it is possible to build a dialogue between people regardless of time or even distance. Twitter provides a very public, highly interactive platform for movements which encourages conversation, whether in support of or against an idea. Both Twitter and Facebook posts have the ability to be shared through the platform itself or even other means, such as text messaging or email. This means that the public nature of the posts has the ability to be shared to anyone at any time; instead of just being limited based on when the information was disseminated (Morador & Vasquez, 2016).
New social movements also benefit from the more expressive nature of current ICTs compared to other modes of communication. The fact that ICTs allow users to connect with real people, in any location, in real time cannot be beat. The exchange of ideas and emotions is simultaneous; all the more powerful coming from the voices of normal people. While movements may rely on a few figureheads to get things started, the followers are the ones that shoulder the brunt of the work. ICTs allow these followers to connect amongst each other and foster bonds at a faster rate than ever before.
Current information and communication technologies have changed the way that social movements are lead and carried out. While leadership has majorly decentralized, that is not necessarily a negative adaptation. Decentralized leadership allows there to be smaller, localized groups who are able to initiate their own campaigns for change within their neighborhoods. The ease of access to information and the rate at which it spreads around the internet is another bonus. With current ICTs social movements are gaining traction among more people than before and fostering closer bonds of camaraderie. It has now become easier than ever to join an activist as a follower and try to enact change.
References
Craven, J. (2015, September 30). Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Reflects On The Origins Of The Movement. Huffpost. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-lives-matter-opal-tometi_us_560c1c59e4b0768127003227
Day, E. (2015, July 19). #BlackLivesMatter: the birth of a new civil rights movement. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/19/blacklivesmatter-birth-civil-rights-movement
Howie, J. (Photographer). (2012, September 1). Instagram and other Social Media Apps [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonahowie/7910370882
Morador, F .F. & Vásquez, J. C. (2016). New Social Movements, the Use of ICTs, and Their Social Impact. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 71, 398-412. https://login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=116368270&site=ehost-live
Satell, G. & Popovic, S. (2017, January 27). How Protests Become Successful Social Movements. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/01/how-protests-become-successful-social-movements?referral=03758&cm_vc=rr_item_page.top_right
Quillian, L., Pager, D., Midtboen, A. H., & Hexel, O. (2017, October 11). Hiring Discrimination Against Black Americans Hasn’t Declined in 25 Years. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/10/hiring-discrimination-against-black-americans-hasnt-declined-in-25-years
Rabin, J. (Photographer). (1965, March 15). Selma to Montgomery March [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatespecial/8476283206
Reynolds, B. (2015, August 24). I Was a Civil Rights Activist in the 1960s. But it’s Hard for Me to Get Behind Black Lives Matter. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/24/i-was-a-civil-rights-activist-in-the-1960s-but-its-hard-for-me-to-get-behind-black-lives-matter/
Silvercloud, J. (Photographer). (2015, November 10). Demilitarize the Police, Black Lives Matter [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnysilvercloud/28476745294
The Evolution of Social Movements 
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