For anyone who has been living under a rock lately, the protests going on across the U.S. have been in essence propelled by social media and the ability of people to organize quickly and easily in various cities.
While the protests against corporate greed at major corporations, banks, Wall Street etc. have not escalated to the violence of some of the protests seeking regime change in a number of countries, they have sparked numerous demonstrations nonetheless.
Much like in the government protests in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere, sites like Twitter and Facebook are playing a major role in stoking the flames.
The Impact of the Message
While some individuals may disregard the digital chatter as just that, make no mistake about it, social networking sites are having an impact in distributing information and helping people to organize and rally support to their causes, be they noble or misguided.
Whether or not the information being put forth by these individuals is worthwhile or not becomes the big question for many people. With so much information to filter through, does the audience eventually tune out or do they take the time to sift through, choosing which social media messages are meaningful and which are not? It is safe to guess that the sheer volume of messages has led some companies to tune out, a decision that may or may not come back to haunt them.
What once may have been thought of us useless chatter is now reverberating nationwide to many companies.
Much like politicians trying to be on the offensive instead of the defensive, many corporations who are under attack in the Occupy protests are using social media to present their sides of the story. In fact, many more businesses are now employing individuals for the direct purpose of reviewing social media and what is being said about the company.
Along with the chatter, photos are proving to be a valuable source of transmitting material in the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and in other U.S. cities. Given the value a photo provides in conveying a message, many protesters are using their cell phones and digital cameras to provide pictures to Tumblr, flickr, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sharing sites.
Are There Negative Ramifications to All This?
Lastly, are some protesters worried about being spotted through pictures or tweets and shares by current or potential employers?
While that seems like a dumb question (why would they be there in the first place if that were the case?) some interviewed in both the print and online media have expressed their concerns.
For them, they are supporting a cause they either believe in or were curious to, but possible negative ramifications for them leave some to want to leave out their full names or faces when being interviewed.
Wherever these protests take the nation is yet to be determined. One thing is for sure; however, social media is and will continue to play a major role in how the news is distributed.
For anyone doubting that, it is time to come out from under that rock.
Photo credit: thegrio.com
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Social media is the perfect tool for crowd communication, there is no one that can stop it and it can arrive to all the world. People can easily share information they consider important this way and no doubt that they will share it.
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Twitter: thinkspin
Great article! In the case of OWS, I think social media is keeping the coverage balanced by correcting the misinformation on the movement being disseminated through the mainstream press.
Corporations are definitely reviewing social media for what is being said about them. I wrote a post a month or two ago about an article in the LA Times concerning companies hiring more workers overseas than in the US. I had mentioned a company in the post and the next day received an email from their corporate communications department.
The email noted that the LA Times article printed incorrect information on the company and quoted recent hiring statistics by the company in the US.
Very interesting indeed.
Twitter: benwaynet
Has social media helped OWS yes.
OWS is not much more than a long flashmob.
I don’t think OWS could have happened without social media.
Best tweet I saw about OWS is ” OWS is what happens when a bunch of kids that got gold stars for nothing grew up and were told they have to work to get what they want”
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I think the point is that they try to make it viral and create an awareness when people get disregarded in this case.
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Back in May this year this movement had already started. It was quite big in Spain, for instance, where people camped in the city centers of most big cities for weeks.
Social media was crucial then to raise awareness on the subject and to get people to join the movement. I remember following all the news via their fanpages on Facebook. For instance, the police, in Barcelona, used unjustified violence against peaceful protesters and those videos became viral in a matter of hours, some of them being shown on some TV channels too.
Without social media, none of this would be possible, not at the scale it is happening right now. In the UK, protests are not as big as they have been in some other EU cities; despite this, the movement is growing every day, and social media has a key role in keeping people informed and spreading the message.
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It is even getting so bad that even England is considering banning twitter and Ping, because it gives people with bad intentions a tool to be more mobile and united.
I personally am not a big fan of these protests, because the message is not clear. And the people are not all there for the same reason. To make matters worse you get the crazies that just love to protest because they are anti-government anyway. They hurt the credibility and value of what this was actually all about.
It is easier to get a lot of people together to protest. But the amount of people just showing up doesn’t help in staying organized and unified.
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