...University – Continuing Studies Author Note This assignment was prepared for Academic Writing and Critical Thinking, PAAP3858-A, taught by Jessica Michalofsky Academic Writing and Critical Thinking – September 29, 2014 Assignment 4a - Draft Final Paper The almost omnipresent Internet transforms our lives, connecting us to family, friends, and the world in ways inconceivable only a few years ago. Through social media, we actively participate in creating, editing, and consuming a never-ending stream of data. Private corporations and protagonists of political or social change all vie to reach and engage highly targeted audiences. Can a social media campaign be an effective tool, helping recruit people to volunteer and become physical participants in lobbying for change? Two camps have emerged, with one side proclaiming that the new world of Internet activism transforms and extends activism in ways previously unthinkable, and the other camp insisting that Internet activism entices a new but widely disengaged audience that can be motivated to a lukewarm show of hands but not to real committed participation as seen in more traditional forms of activism. This debate is widely known as the 'activism vs. slacktivism' debate. However, it is rather short-sighted to approach this very complex subject matter with a plain black and white approach when every single byte offers 256 shades of grey to explore. Gladwell (2010) argued for the slacktivism camp, stating that the strength of...
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...Name Professor Course Date Internet Activism and Vigilante Justice Vigilante behavior is that which matches the behavior of vigilantes. According to (Earl, Jennifer and Katrina 34)), vigilante justice discusses the actions of a group of people or of an individual who claim to be enforcing the law, but they lack the legal capacity of enforcing the law. Vigilante justice also discusses a general state of anarchy whereby a competing crowd claims to be enforcing the law in a particular area (Khosla 107). A vigilante is an organization or a civilian that acts in a capacity of enforcing the law without the legal approval or perhaps in the pursuit of self-proclaimed justice (LaRocca 67).Other words for vigilante justice are extrajudicial punishment and frontier justice that typically exists in societies that lack law and order. Internet activism, on the other hand, is the use of e-communication devices and technologies that include social media platforms such Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Whatsapp, podcasts and YouTube (Hill 15). The use of these e-communication technologies enhances fast communication whereby the intended information reaches a wider audience in just a matter of time. The primary purposes of e-technologies are lobbying, community building and organizing support groups or activists. An analysis of the New York Times reveals that it published an article on internet activism and vigilante justice on January 20, 2014. The article released in New York Times on 2014...
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...On September 17th, 2011, New York City’s Wall Street financial district became home to the first Occupy Protest. That morning several thousand people gathered in the streets of New York City. Upwards of 100 people set up camp later in the evening in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, owned by Brookfield Office Properties (van Gelder). The Occupy Protesters were opposed to the expansive wealth gap between the nation’s wealthiest 1% and the remaining 99% of lower to middle class citizens. Before long, protesters began calling themselves “the 99%”. What began as a barely organized endeavor quickly became a global media sensation. In next to no time at all, Occupy Protests began taking place not only in other cities in the United States, such as Boston and Chicago, but all over the world. Protesters emerged in Asia, Latin America, and Europe, all united under the opposition of big banks, corporate greed and economic inequality (Stelloh). In the weeks following the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, protesters slept in sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park, constructed greywater systems, started a meal service operated by volunteers, and utilized the bathroom facilities of nearby businesses. Some members of the protest opened their homes to fellow demonstrators for the purpose of taking care of their personal hygiene needs. On October 6th, 2011, Brookfield Office Properties stated that sanitation was becoming a major concern and one week later Mayor Bloomberg and...
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...doesn’t outright use the term slacktivism, he postulates that social media creates weak ties between people and therefore will only be effective if they don’t ask too much of people. Gladwell holds up the activism of the Civil Rights movement as the only model to follow. He cites the life and death dangers that the Civil Rights activists faced and uses that to prove that since online activists don’t face death or assaults, then they are not real activists. However, I think media, to a certain degree, prevent events like murders and assaults of activists. The media create accountability. If a protester were to be killed the story would spread like wildfire. Even if the authorities in that area don’t want to investigate what happened to the activists due to their own beliefs, public pressure from outside would force their hand. Although the argument could be made that even with outside pressure, they don’t always cave in. While the authorities in Ferguson did bring the case of Michael Brown to the grand jury, they did not indict. However without the media pressure it may have not even made it that far. Without the “Black Lives Matter” social media campaign, there may not have been international protests protesting the verdict. Gladwell comments that successful social media activism campaigns are those that don’t ask too much of people, but the one he sites is about donating bone marrow. He admits that it isn’t a trivial matter, but since it doesn’t involve financial or personal risk...
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...Introduction Since the rise of Internet in early 1990s the world’s networked population has grown from the low millions to the low billions. Over the same period, social media has become a fact of life for civil society worldwide. Regular citizens, companies, activists, NGO’s, software providers and last but not least government and politics use social media as a new form of communication (Foreignaffairs, 2011). One of the most famous politicians who started to use the power of social media in his political campaigns was Barack Obama. The key differenc of Obama’s campaign strategy in contrast to his competitors was that Obama used social media to communicate and organize individuals by using social media. By using technologies such as computers, cell phones, web sites and many more he reached the goal of every politicians to connect his followers, delivered them with interesting news as well as to build up a strong community. Nevertheless not only Obama tooke advantage of the undeniable power of Social Media and its technologies. Over the past years our society realized it’s power, and there might only be few companies left in the western world that are not represented on at least one Social Media Platform (Obama Buch). But maybe one of the most important topics when we’re talking about Social Media is the reachability of Mass and therefore the political Mass Movements that keep emerging from Social Media Platforms. We might only think about the Occupy Movement, Arab Spring...
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...5) How can Pepsi and Coke confront the issues of water use in the manufacture of their products? How can they defuse further boycotts or demonstrations against their products? How effective are activist groups like the one that launched the campaign in California? Should Coke address the group directly or just let the furor subside? Pepsi and Coke should have responded faster to the concerns of the general public. The companies formed committees within India and the United States to work on legal and public relations issues. They commissioned their own laboratories to conduct tests and waited until the results came through before commenting in detail. Their approaches backfired. Their reluctance to give details fanned consumer suspicion. If the companies acted faster to the situation when it first came to light, the could have spared a lot of grief. Pepsi and Coke can defuse further boycotts by speaking directly to the cause of the boycott/demonstration or by allowing demonstrators to investigate their product themselves. The activists groups have proven to be very effective in their efforts. Fear campaigns (like the ones assembled in California) can do a great deal of damage to the brand. They are even more effective when the people targeted are not in the country being referred to as in this case (America/India). They are unable to use their own judgement to dismiss the campaign. Moreover, Coke should address the group directly in order to sort out any misunderstandings as...
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...| Israelis mark anti-McDonald's dayProtesters rally across nation to mark international anti-McDonald's day; activists claim fast food chain harms environment, exploits workers and tortures animalsOrna Yefet Published: | 10.16.05, 15:54 / Israel Business | | share | Activists throughout Israel demonstrated Sunday afternoon to mark international anti-McDonald's day, by staging protests, presentations and other activities across the country. This annual demonstration, which has taken place for the past 20 years, aims to protest the fast food chain's destruction of the environment, exploitation of workers, and the torture and killing of animals, activists say. The activists say the protests will focus on the destructive influence of consumer culture and corporate control over our lives. Protest against MacDonald's (Photo: Courtesy of Indimedia Israel ) | The organization for the liberation of animals in Israel (ALI) and the coalition against McDonald's have partnered together to form a unified front to fight the for the common cause. Activities against the corporation already began Friday in Tel Aviv, where activists resorted to street theater to protest. They also presented a gallery of photos showing cruelty to animals, harm to the environment, and issues pertaining to workers' rights. Free T-shirts and vegan food were also handed out and stands were constructed to supply information and pamphlets. Later, protesters led a rally past the fast food branches in the center...
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...Extremist Anti-Abortion Group 1 Gandhi is reported to have said, “there are many causes that I would die for yet there is not a single cause that I would kill for”. Ghandi's words have the ring of a distant past when the ideals of social and political activism maintained a common sense. Today, terrorists around the world are willing to kill and die for causes that seem unclear and often contradictory. This new method of violence reflects the politics of the anti-abortionist movement that is willing to kill to save lives or willing to die to become enshrined as a martyr. Terrorism is defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as "...a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States, or of any state, to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives" ("Terrorism 2000/2001"). The violent faction of the anti-abortion movement certainly fits this description. It is a form of war that is being waged against the domestic social structure with wide ranging implications. The violent anti-abortion groups are a contradiction of values and the extremist motivations behind them make it a dangerous and terrorizing movement. Literature Review Understanding the motivation behind the anti-abortion terrorism is an important step in curtailing the violence. The movement is an oxymoron where killing takes place to save lives. The...
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...28 February 201 In the recent months, the country of Ukraine has been experiencing an intense state of political unrest, the first in many years. The decision of the Ukrainian president to deny political ties to the European Union stirred a lot of controversy within Ukraine. The controversy inevitably divided the country into two groups, those who are pro democratic and support ties to the European Union, and those who support the already deep-rooted political ties with Russia, which is the government and its forces. The conflict intensified as months passed, and violence between the two groups became an issue. By analyzing this current event, the psychological elements of situational attribution, conflict, and deinviduation, can be applied to both sides of the situation in Ukraine to justify their actions and behavior. The conflict in Ukraine arose when the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, denied a trade pact offered by the European Union. As a result of the action taken by the president, pro democrats who urged the ties to the EU protested in Independence Square of Kiev, while authorities attempted to suppress them. As the conflict intensified with no solution being brought to the table, aggressive pro democrat protests resulted in a clash with authorities in independence square on February 19th . Surrounding buildings were set on fire, rocks were thrown at riot police, and activists were being shot dead. The fighting between the mostly masked activists and...
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...Case Study: Disney’s America Theme Park 1. From a government relations perspective, key issues that Eisner must consider include the following: a. Support and opposition for the project was bipartisan. Debate among the House, Senate, and Governor largely focused on financial matters, including how budget resources were to be allocated for road construction. b. Opposition focused mainly on Disney’s choice of the Manassas site, and not the issue of whether the theme-park should come to Virginia. Responding to Disney and Allen’s projections of job creation, opponents argued that employment was already low in northern Virginia relative to the rest of the state. c. Activists with different reasons for opposing Disney’s America united behind the single, common cause of fighting suburban sprawl. The defeat of a developer’s plans to construct a shopping mall in the 1980s was testament to their grassroots capabilities. d. The Piedmont Environmental Council spearheaded efforts to protect the site from development. e. The Manassas Battlefield Park had long been a point of controversy involving those who wish to preserve its historic integrity. Preservationists in the 1980s were already successful in preventing the development of a similar Marriott Co. theme-park near Manassas. f. Vocal opponents included prominent historians, namely David McCullough (a Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and narrator of a public television series on the Civil...
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...The grassroots activism is not a group of people who are on places looking for violence, grassroots activist is crowd of people fighting for something to be truly believed by them reaching out to establish a change. A grass root activist is one who sets out their minds to make a change as betterment for one’s self or others being affected by the same problem. Grassroots activism contributed to changes in public policy and influenced the success of the civil rights movement after World War II by creating a national view of the racial division in the south, starting boycotts and protest in favor of desegregation and creating equality, and having forming programs to help involve African Americans in the U.S government. The Civil Rights Movement...
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...Review of SEAN MILLS’ "The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal" "The following people are to be released from their captors. In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec. In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement…” (Die Hard) There is no doubt that Sean Mills would have felt a flash of amusement at this mention of the (incorrectly identified) FLQ, uttered by super-villain Hans Gruber in his list of demands, in 1988's Die Hard, lumped together with other such revolutionary entities. Indeed, in The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal, Sean Mills attempts to argue that revolutionary trends and theories in various regions of the world made their way across the globe, bypassing borders and mutually influencing the areas that they managed to reach. More specifically, his intention is to analyze this notion with respects to the situation in Montreal during the 1960's and early 1970's. He does so after outlining three purposes which his work aims to address. Firstly, Mills states his desire to bring about an alternative way of observing Montreal's "political upheavals" during the aforementioned time period, whereby events on an international scale are taken into account. Secondly, he wishes to make clear the ways in which the ideas of various groups and movements were inter-linked and influenced...
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...finding God in all things. This pursuit began in similitude to a famous poem by Khalil Gibran of a seeker’s quest for God “In the ancient days, when the first quiver of speech came to my lips, I ascended the holy mountain and spoke unto God, saying, ‘Master, I am thy slave. Thy hidden will is my law and I shall obey thee for ever more.’ But God made no answer, and like a mighty tempest passed away.” I also struggled in finding God in my life, it was difficult to see past the grime of poverty and suffering. The answer came in helping those in greater need than me. The scale and impact didn’t matter as much as a passion for humanitarianism. Goodness in action rather than in thought and began what would become a lifelong passion for community activism. I worked with refugees and displaced persons, volunteering for a government agency to provide them with daily necessities. After immigrating to America I found my calling in a local nonprofit organization whose mission statement reads “to help women in need regain their strength emotionally and financially for a stronger family”. The organization was a means for me to help others who had gone through the same emotional, financial, and cultural problems as they attempted to shape their lives in America. It wrought an inner peace and self-satisfaction in helping shape brighter lives with women I could strongly identify with. This inner peace led to an inner realization of God, only by the power of action inspired by an Islamic tradition...
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...Art activism is the practice of vigorous action as a means of creating political or personal goals by use of art. The type of activists practicing now varies greatly, from street artists to conceptual sculptors. Regardless of the medium, everyone has a common purpose for his or her work—attempting to create awareness and change. Embracing the creative nature of humans, artists send messages using visual content; forcing viewers to not only look but also feel the passion within them. The movement of advocacy is considered a phenomenon throughout the 21st century—demonstrating that your voice can be heard around the world if you shout loud enough. Conditional to the period in history, the description for art activism has been constantly evolving. Art activists first gained attention in the early 20’s when World War I began. Notable painters and sculptors from around the world came together to protest against the bourgeois ideologies they believed led to war. Referred to now as the Dadaist Movement, artists organized public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art and literary journals to protest the 'reason' and 'logic' of their conservative capitalist society. Marcel Duchamp—a popular multi-media artist, initiated one of the more infamous stories of his time when he submitted a store bought urinal, Fountain, to a annual high-society exhibition for the Society of Independent Artists. Because all artists were commissioned by the society, there was no jury for the...
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...Jenna Mentus Andrew Calis English 102, Section 61 Short Write 3 Control is the key, to take the victory! This is often heard at high school and middle school sporting events, a cheer chanted by the cheerleaders. This cheer though, is often true when it comes to American politics. Through out the years, we hear of congressmen, supreme court judges, and governors resigning from office. Then we are faced with the question, why? Could it be because they really do want to spend more time with family and enjoy life? Political experts, like Dan Schnur, seem to think not. Instead, Schnur suggests in “The Problem With the Middle Ground” that former politicians, such as Bart Stupak, are too much of “moderates” for government. Schnur’s argument is that once either party gets the vote of moderates and obtains power, the use of moderates is no longer needed. Schnur’s use of pathos in his article is much underlying. It isn’t until the end of his article we feel anything. He ends with, “That’s why Senator Arlen Spector is now a Democrat, why Senator Evan Bayh is not running for re-election, and why Bart Stupak is about to become a former member of Congress.” He provides us with the many examples of moderates who are either no longer needed, or have had to change their views completely. Each of these men stood firmly for causes, favored and rejected by both parties. Once either party gained control, they had no use for the moderates. The pressure from Congress and social groups cause...
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