A Student's Perspective

Ellcessor builds on Jenkin’s theory, applying it to social movements. She argues that that to solve the world’s biggest issues, one must utilise the web and its technologies of communication, transparency and collective intelligence.

These theories are showcased through multiple online communities including that of the social community Black Lives Matter. In fact their very website reads:

#BlackLivesMatter is an online forum intended to build connections between Black people and our allies to fight anti-Black racism, to spark dialogue among Black people, and to facilitate the types of connections necessary to encourage social action and engagement.”

This one sentence happens to exemplify Jenkin’s four features and Elcessor’s argument and thus participatory culture as a whole. Examples of BLM collaboration include the following artworks:

As Diani writes, contemporary social movements and their success are due to the culture, technologies, infrastructure and national boundaries of their era. BLM current era involves such technologies as search engines like YouTube and Google.

YouTube as an online media vehicle is very powerful. It is the second largest search engine, the third largest social media network and it facilitates amateur work, educational videos, entertainment and more (Mushroom Networks). As a result, BLM allows for those involved in the movement to create their own videos and upload them to YouTube to share their message and bring about activism. The theory of moral panic is at play here as BLM attempts to spread the apparent issue which they are hoping to remove. As Burgess and Green state, “moral panics are further amplified by the utopian hyperbole about ‘Web 2.0’ and the democratization of cultural production.” YouTube revolves around Web 2.0 and so provides a network whereby BLM can amplify their message.

The following is a YouTube video created by multiple BLM members for the sole purpose of spreading their message and bringing about change.

Yet this works 2 ways. Though videos are uploaded for BLM, many are uploaded to argue against and convey the other side of the movement.

Thus YouTube is rather democratic as it portrays all sides including BLM, the social groups targeted by BLM and those against it.

Google, the largest search engine, is argued by Carr to be making its users more stupid and argued by Turkle to be making its users less communicative. Yet, in terms of the BLM movement, it is doing the exact opposite. It allows for great communication of its members as users can locate the social networks of BLM through Google. Users can also discover forums and information related to the group through the search engine and so it widely benefits BLM.

Google and YouTube facilitate the participatory culture which has been so necessary to BLM in gaining a voice and subsequently support.

Social campaigns are grown and molded by the culture and technology of their specific age. Civil rights activist would use traditional media to reach the masses, showcase their movement and hopefully bring about a change in society. Martin Luther King for instance utilized the television to broadcast his message and ideals.

Today’s social movement scene is created and spread in an entirely different, and in my belief, more effective method.

The BlackLivesMatter movement was first conceived in 2013 following the shooting of Trayvon Martin. The means to which it started? A single hashtag on Twitter. It has since grown into one of the greatest social media movements which at first was solely created and driven by the spread of thoughts through social media. Hence this movement and its success is entirely the result of the postmodern age and the technology it provides (e.g. Web 2.0).

As Cullors-Brignac, a leader of the BLM movement states, "because of social media we reach people in the smallest corners of America… there is a network and a hashtag to gather around.

Mckesson also builds on this emphasizing that “the tools that we have to organize and to resist are fundamentally different than anything that’s existed before in black struggle.”

BLM found a means to building the campaign through the medium of social media. The benefits of this medium include the rapid spread of information, the ability to bring about a participatory culture for the cause and the means to exponentially increasing the campaign’s audience. The postmodern age also allows for Transmedia Storytelling. This concept revolves around depicting a story across multiple media formats. BLM succeeded heavily in this as their ideal was started in Twitter, spread throughout social media and participation and collaboration was achieved with petitions being made and strikes being organized online.

Benkler depicts this rapid escalation by conveying that relatively small communities online can reach regional and often international ones through such means. Poster builds on this stating that such virtual communities allow for intense experiences that build identity in the user and furthers the cause to more audiences.

This very interaction brought about by the postmodern age is entirely decentralized. As Cullors-Brignac states, “you can't kill the movement by killing the leader because there are many. But decentralization does not mean disorganization.” BLM has managed to create an incredible participatory culture around a single ideal through Transmedia Storytelling.

In fact this was so successful that the movement appeared in a Law & Order episode, a Scandal episode, a documentary called Bars4Justice and even a Macklemore song called White Privilege.

It is clear just how great a campaign can become through the use of technology in the postmodern age.

Joseph Badaan