Doug Specht, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Media and Communication, wrote an article for The Conversation about how social media can support environmental movements, but not in the way you might expect.
In the article, Specht wrote: “The role of platforms like Twitter and Facebook in toppling governments might have been overblown, but as the climate crisis gathers pace, social media may find its calling among online activists eager to protect the planet.”
He added: “Two prominent examples are Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion. Neither group centrally organises protests or actions that require the consensus or involvement of the whole group. Instead, each uses social media to invite all interested parties to join the movement on their own terms.”
Discussing common threads, Specht wrote: “Research on anti-fracking movements in Argentina has revealed that activists in the country remain largely disconnected from one another, with little interaction between groups despite shared goals. This failure to reach a nationwide consensus on how to combat the gas industry may seem like a point of weakness, but social media has made it a source of strength.”
In his concluding remarks, he added: “These [social media] platforms can allow local and global movements to grow exponentially – each perhaps with a slightly different agenda, but under umbrellas that make each movement and campaign seem larger than they are, and more difficult to ignore.”
Read the full article on The Conversation’s website.
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