Describe the role of social media in the
“Umbrella Movement” at Hong Kong. Drawing on the work of scholars who have
written on the role of social media in pro-democracy movement, and your own
experience discuss the importance of social media to Hong Kong Occupy.
There is a pro-democracy movement happening
in Hong Kong at 2014. The briefly information about the movement is, it started
on 28th of September in 2014 after a student strike. The protesters
occupy an area in the Central Government Offices at Admiralty. After the
polices arrest the student leaders and used the pepper spray for disperse the
protesters, more than 10 thousand people came out for supporting the protested
and occupied the main roads in Admiralty. After that, the movement became
larger and more people participated, such as occupied Mong Kong and Causeway Bay.
The movement could be developing very soon like this. I think the Facebook had
a very important role on it. I would like to introduce my points on its functions
which help the movement and giving some real examples in my article.
First of all, some of Facebook pages giving
the newest information to the protesters, which can help to gather them to organizing
the movement. For example, some of the Facebook pages such as SocRec had a 24
hours Live show of the movement. The protesters could know the situation about
the different occupied areas clearly. For example, the anti-occupy people was surround
and using violence to the protesters in Mong Kong on 3rd October in
2014. The other protesters could know it immediately. So, they could decide
where they go for support or what materials they should bring for help. There
are other examples about the role of Facebook in the other movements over the
world. First one is about the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the role of Facebook
is very important in this movement. “Social media sites such as Facebook and
twitter have been central organizing locations for spreading information about
Occupy Wall Street,” Caren said. “While the focus of Occupy Wall Street is on
mobilizing individuals’ offline, online activities greatly facilitate these
efforts. Facebook has become a recruiting tool for bringing in new supporters
and getting people to events.”[1]
Another one is about Egypt’s Revolutionary Fire, the leader of this revolution,
Ghonim also mentioned the important of Facebook. “If you want
to liberate a country, give them the internet,” Ghonim said he credited
Facebook and its young founder Mark Zuckerberg as an inspiration. “This
revolution started on Facebook,” Ghonim told CNN. “I want to meet Mark
Zuckerberg some day and thank him personally.”[2]
So, that means the Facebook have a very important role on every movement nowadays.
It is because of its social network and the speed of spread the newest
information. These are the causes to encourage people organizing the movement. Also,
the social networking can gather the protesters who are actually strangers in
the real world. 
Secondly, the Facebook pages can provide another
sight of view to the people. During the movement, it is not difficult to find
that the major Medias were providing an unfair sight of view to the movement.
For example, the TVB, which is the largest TV channel in Hong Kong. Its new
report were partial to the Government, such as its will only reported the
interviewees who said the occupy movement affect their daily life and business
but no any positive opinions. Also, it was always mention the police using over-violence
to the protesters casually. So, the social media like Facebook could provide another
sight of view to the public. Maybe the Facebook pages’ owners did not have too many
political and commercial considerations. They could report the movement exactly.
It is very important that people can have complete information and news about
the movement. It can provide more chances to the public to know the truth.
Thirdly, the Facebook pages can make a
record of the movement. It can make sure the truth of the movement will be kept.
There are some evidences showed that, the information and news of the movement be
changed during the following days. For example, the new report of TVB showed,
seven policemen were using violence to a man who was under arrested already.
The caption of the new report was “the policemen is fighting and beating to the
man”. However, the caption was deleted after a few hours later. Seem that
somebodies were doing something to prevent the information which harm for the
government or polices being public. Hopefully, the original video was been kept
by the digital media. People can still watching it on Youtube[3]
or Facebook. It is very important for the movement that the social media backed
up the photos and videos of the movement. It is because there must be more data
or evidences to make a record for the movement, which can prevent the movement,
will be slandered in the future.
Fourthly, the social media can let the
movement published in the international world. It will be concerned and
supported by the world too. There are many Facebook pages which written in
different languages, which publishing the news about the movement in Hong Kong.
One of them is organized by the translate student in Lingnan. Its name called “LU
Boycotting Classes and Occupy Central Translated Info”, which translated the
news and the information about the movement in English and published in Facebook.
It showed the important role of the social media in the movement. Nowadays, the
internet linked the whole world together. The information and the news can be
spread very fast through the internet. It can easily got attention from the
people all over the world.
Fifthly, the Facebook has a strong
connected with other digital medias, which can make the functions on the
movement became stronger. For example, the Facebook can share the video links
on youtube. Also, the other Medias build up a fan pages on Facebook too. Moreover,
the Facebook can gather protesters create a group of other social Medias like Whatsapp,
Telegram, Firechat for action team. So, the Facebook could be a “Headquarter”
of the social Medias through the movement. Most of the people in Hong Kong have
a Facebook account, and it is quite user-friendly. So, it is a easiest way for
the people to have connection with all the information by other social Medias
or digital Medias through Facebook. It is an important role in the movement
because it could collect all the information and evidences from different
social Medias and spread to all the people.
However, the social Medias like Facebook
also have some disadvantages to the movement. I would like to mention three of
them with my own experiences.
First one is, the social media also help
the anti-occupy people’s actions. It is because the people who are anti-occupy
still can use Facebook. They can gather together and organizing an action
through Facebook too. Also, the anti-occupy people could easily got the
situation of the protesters. Then, they could design an action to disturb the
movement. For example, the “Blue ribbon”, which means the people who anti-occupy.
They also have a fan page on Facebook. They shared the situation of the movement
and organized an attack in Mong Kong on 3rd October in 2014. So, the
social media also help the anti-occupy people to gather and organize action. It
is a disadvantage for the movement.
Second one is, the information of the
protesters will be public. It is because the social media like Facebook is a
social network. Protesters might show their personal information such as photos
while them using Facebook to participate the movement. There is an example
which is my own experience; one of a classmate in my secondary school shared an
anti-police’s violence state in her Facebook. One of another classmate who is anti-occupy
capture the state and shared to the “Blue ribbon” page with the personal
information of the protester. Then, let the “Blue ribbon” Personal attacks the
protester. Through this example, the social media is easily revealing the
protesters’ personal information. It is a strong attack to the movement because
it might deterrent the protesters participate in the movement.
The third one is, the speed of spread
information in social media is too fast, there would be some fake spread
message. For example, there were some fake spread messages like the protesters
were using weapons to attack the police. Or there was very dangerous in the
occupied area which stops people to go. This kind of fake information might deterrent
the protesters participate in the movement too. Also, it would slander the
image of the movement.
In conclusion, the social Medias like Facebook have a very important role in the movement. It could spread the information and situation over the world. Also, it could keep a record of the truth in the movement. It is better than people have lake of the information. Also, it is a cause to encourage the movement move forward as soon as possible.
[1] Sociologist Tracks Social Media’s Role in Occupy Wall Street
Movement
website:
http://sociology.unc.edu/features/sociologist-tracks-social-media2019s-role-in-occupy-wall-street-movement
[2] Social Media Sparked, Accelerated Egypt’s Revolutionary Fire
http://www.wired.com/2011/02/egypts-revolutionary-fire
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA_XezhPh5k
No comments:
Post a Comment