The Role of Digital Media in Social Activism

           In this blog, I am going to write my personal view point on the topic – the role of digital media in social movement by using my first-hand experience. Based on the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign and the Umbrella Revolution, I am going to talk about digital media important to the movement.

           To begin with the background of the event, the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign, also known as 922 Class Boycott, is a student strike organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism. It aims to protest the PRC Standing Committee of the National People's Congress's restriction on nomination system of the election of the Chief Executive in the 2016 and 2017 Hong Kong Political Reform. The campaign was participated in by university students from 22 to 26 September and also by secondary school students on 26 September. The student movement evolved into occupying several important streets and districts of Hong Kong, known as Umbrella Revolution or Occupy Central.

           On 22^nd October (922), it started with week-long class boycott. Many university teachers and university students across Hong Kong wearing white shirts and yellow ribbons gathered at the University Mall (百萬大道). I was one of them. Before the boycott, I nearly got all information which related to the strike from the Students Association of Lingnan University’s facebook group. I could see lots of opinions voiced out in Facebook, Twitter and especially in my Whatsapp groups. My friends and classmates would urge me to stand out and voice out my idea.

 

Photos from SCMP

'9.22 University Class Boycott at CUHK' from youngpost

            At that day, I have interviewed several students about their reasons of joining the class boycott. They had a same purpose – ‘we don’t want to remain silent! Though our power is small, still want to take our fight to the doors of the Hong Kong government.’ Of course, this was the same reason of why I stand out and participated in the strike!

Interviewees’ photo

             Between 23^rd and 25^th October, I hadn’t joined the campaign helding at Tamar Park in Admiralty. However, I still updated the information from Instagram, Facebook and daily News reports. Some of my friends would report their situation and express their thoughts via Whatsapp. So I could get those information quickly without any district barriers. 


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            I think the role of digital media is really important in Umbrella Movement. The movement has already lasted for two months. Digital media is a tool that helps spreading information and gathering people.

 

           Nowadays,smart phone is so popular and common. If we want o share thing, just simply type a few words with a photo attached. People just need to 'like' your facebook or other social media, then they can read the information on it. So everyone can be reporter in the protest. Through accessing to social media, people can ask their friends to join the movement.  Since there are no constraints to receive information any time any where, a large group of protesters can be gathered in a short period. 

 

               There are lots of groups which related to Umbrella Revolution/Occupy Central are created. Some volunteers would be responsible for updating the actual situation of the protest and let people know what is happening now via facebook groups. Sometimes, we may be encouraged  by the source people shared on social media. So apart from spreading information and updating news, it also a tool to inspire and record this protest as part of the Hong Kong history.




          Social media is the best channel to spreading messages and information. However, since it is too convenient for everybody to access, fake information is easy to create and soon spread over the community. For example, one party can use social media to slander its opponent by only creating a post on facebook. However, it is difficult to figure out who spreads the first hand source, as information goes to quick and out of control.






              Bias and self-censorship are existed in the media's interpretation towards the protest. It is impossible for every media to be neutral and objective, but at least it should not be too subjective and not report the true. For example, there was an example: TVB put self-censorship on police beating protesters, which aroused the anger of protesters and condemned by many journalists.  Several police officers are shown in the video dragging a protester to a dark corner and proceeding to beat him. The video commentary accordingly contained phrases like "pulled into a dark corner" as well as "pushed and kicked." But none of these words were used that morning by TVB news who reported the incident, and only later in the afternoon did the descriptions change to "the police may have used violence. Originally, the media should be report the fact to the public, but this time, TVB news begun to censor itself.

Video: The original version of the news report from TVB news

             In conclusion, digital media plays a unique role in social movement. It helps updating information of the event and keeping people to engage in it. However, it cannot ensure the realness of the information which appear on social media. Also, there is censorship of some media. Therefore, when receiving a piece of information from social media, we should distinct its credibility and reliability.


Photos from: The Internet and screenshot from my facebook