Social Action And New Media: On Becoming a Smart Mob

Social Action and New Media:On Becoming a Smart Mob

Richard SmythUU Church of HaverhillSocial Action Youth Conference Workshop3 March 2007

Outline

I. What Inspired This PresentationII. A Short History of TechnologyIII. Doing Democracy

the four roles of social activism the eight stages of social movements

Goals

To find ways to help you use digital literacies as citizenship skills

Recognize technology as a prosthesis augmenting human mental and social capabilities

To learn effective and ineffective roles that social activists can play in social movements

To learn the eight stages of social movements

I. Inspiration

--Howard Rheingold. “The Pedagogy of Civic Participation.” Lecture delivered in Second Life (www.secondlife.com)

Inspiration

my avatar,Abaris Brautigan,listening tothe HowardRheingoldlecture in Second Life

The full presentation is available here: http://www.nmc.org/campus/Rheingold_Presentation

Inspiration

“Learning to use participatory media to learn and speak and organize about issues might well be the most important citizenship skill that digital natives need to learn if they are going to maintain or revive democratic governance.”

Inspiration

“I think we have an opportunity today to make use of the natural enthusiasm of today’s young digital natives (for cultural production as well as consumption) to help them learn to use the media production and distribution technologies now available to them as a way to develop a public voice about issues they care about.”

Inspiration

“This population is both self-guided and in need of guidance. Although a willingness to learn new media by point & click exploration might come naturally to today’s student cohort, there’s nothing innate about knowing how to apply their skills to the processes of democracy.”

Inspiration

“Education that recognizes the full impact of networked publics and digital media must adopt a whole new way of looking at learning and teaching, not just add another set of skills to the curriculum. I’m not at all sure how to get there, I don’t pretend to be an expert on that, I don’t know exactly how to evaluate efforts to create such a curriculum and measure their impacts, or whether schooling as we know it is even the place to start building the necessary institutions.”

Small Group Discussion

Answer the following questions in small groups of 3-4: What new technologies do you use?

myspace.com or facebook.com youtube.com or livevideo.com secondlife.com or there.com del.icio.us or digg.com rss feeds and blogs/vlogs? others not mentioned here?

How do you use these technologies?

Networked Participation:Wisdom of Crowds or Stupidity of Masses?

Presentation at Emerson College on 2/28/07. Quotes on thefollowing three slides from http://ideant.typepad.com/shows/fp4.html

Publics vs. Masses

The first defining characteristic of a public sphere is a balance between the ability to produce and consume ideas. According to Mills, in a public, "as many people express opinions as receive them."

In a mass, "far fewer people express opinions than receive them; for the community of publics becomes an abstract collection of individuals who receive impressions from the mass media" (Mills, 1956, pp. 303-304; my emphasis).

Publics vs. Masses

Advocates of the power of sociable web media argue that these media give more people the opportunity to become producers of information, not mere consumers, thus leveling the balance between those who produce and consume opinions.

Take for instance WikiNews, a wiki where anyone can contribute to the production of news. No longer is the production and dissemination of information about what's happening in the world the exclusive domain of big media.

Publics vs. Masses

But how many people are involved in WikiNews as compared to the number of people writing about their favorite celebrities or products?…

The new power to produce will be co-opted by the old desire to consume. Consider the concept of 'contests' in YouTube. Basically, companies offer money for user-produced contribu-tions that are advertisements for their products.

Critiques of Participatory Culture

“We need to develop the will power to turn off the computer”

--Trebor Scholz

“We end up surrending agency to technology instead of delegating it”

--Ulises A. Mejias

Presentation at Emerson College on 2/28/07.http://institute.emerson.edu/floatingpoints/2007/

II. A Short History of Technology

Inventions

lphaetic

Literacy1100 B.C.E.

Printing Press1447 C.E.

1901

1927

1984The Indexcirca 1600

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dig

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1990s

Three Eras of Communications

Orality f2f communication (storytellers) memories/history stored in stories

Literacy (alphabetic and print) memory stored in books, libraries

Electracy (“secondary orality”) memory stored electronically/digitally “Pixels are the movable type of the future”

(Stafford 288).

Technology as Prosthesis

Think of communications technologies as augmenting functions of the human mindbrain: memory reason emotion social networking

Technology as Amplification

“The knowledge and technologies that triggered the jump from clan to tribe to nation to market to network all shared one characteristic: They each amplified the way individual humans think and communicate, and magnified their ability to share what they know.”

(Rheingold, Smart Mobs 181)

Smart Mobs: Nonviolent Political Swarming

November 30, 1999 demonstrators protesting WTO meeting used

“swarming” tactics, mobile phones, websites, laptops to win “Battle of Seattle”

January 20, 2001 President Estrada of Philippines loses power to

a smart mob Tens of thousands gathered within an hour of

first text message volleys (Rheingold, Smart Mobs 157-58).

www.smartmobs.com for many more examples

Activity

Write about an issue or issues that you care about. (10 mins)

Share your thoughts in small groups (10-15 mins)

Large group discussion (10-15 mins)

III. Doing Democracy with Technology

Wired and Activated? Now what?

I. Four Roles of Social ActivismA. CitizenB. RebelC. ReformerD. Change Agent

(Moyer 28-29)

Four Roles: Citizen

Effective promotes positive American values,

principles, and symbols normal citizen grounded in center of society

Ineffective naïve citizen: believes “official policies” super-patriot: automatic obedience to

powerholders

Four Roles: Rebel

Effective nonviolent direct action and attitude actions have strategy and tactics empowered, exciting, courageous

Ineffective authoritarian anti-authoritarian anti-American, anti-authority strident, arrogant, egocentric: self-needs

before movement needs

Four Roles: Reformer

Effective uses official mainstream system and

institutions uses variety of means (lobbying, lawsuits,

rallies, candidates) watchdogs successes

Ineffective patriarchal model of organizational structure organizational maintenance over movement

needs

Four Roles: Change Agent

Effective educates/involves majority of citizens and

whole society on issue promotes strategies and tactics for waging

long-term social movement creates/supports grassroots activism and orgs

for long-term

Ineffective too utopian: visions of perfectionist

alternatives isolated from practical action tunnel-vision: advocates single issue ignores personal issues and needs of activists

Eight Stages of Social Movements

I. Normal TimesA. critical social problem exists that violates

widely held valuesB. public unaware of problem and supports

powerholders

II. Prove Failure of Official InstitutionsA. use official channels (courts, government

offices, hearings) to prove they don’t workB. become experts; do research


III. Ripening ConditionsA. recognition of problem/victim growsB. more active local groupsC. 20-30% of public opposes powerholder

policies

IV. Take OffA. trigger eventB. dramatic nonviolent actions/campaignsC. problem put on social agendaD. 40 % of public opposes current policies


V. Perception of FailureA. see goals unachievedB. see powerholders unchangedC. despair, hopelessness, burnoutD. emergence of negative rebel

VI. Majority Public OpinionA. majority oppose present conditionsB. re-trigger events happen/re-enact stage 4C. involve mainstream citizens/institutions


VII. SuccessA. large majority oppose current policiesB. powerholders make only minimal reforms

while movement demands social changeC. new laws and policies

VIII. Continuing the StruggleA. extend successes (e.g. even stronger civil

rights laws)B. oppose attempts at backlashC. recognize/celebrate successes so far

The Two Percent Rule

“There’s a myth in this country, and it separates us from our strength. The myth is: to win, you have to have the majority actively with you. The winner is the one who gets more than fifty percent of the vote…”

(Prokosch 261)


“This is not how social change happens. During the 1960s, most Americans never sat in at lunch counters or marched against the Vietnam War. But the civil rights and antiwar movements abolished legal segregation and stopped U.S. military intervention overseas for fifteen years...


“Social scientists say that successful movements tend to have about two percent of the population active and a majority passive supporters.

“Who are the two percent? Determined people like you…”

(Prokosch 264)

Resources

Prokosch, Mike. “Building a New Group.” The Global Activist’s Manual: Local Ways to Change the World. Eds. Mike Prokosch and Laura Raymond. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002. 255-264.

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2002.

Rheingold, Howard. “The Pedagogy of Civic Participation.” Lecture 21 October 2006. Second Life New Media Campus 5. Available <http://media.nmc.org/sl/audio/rheingold-oct-21-2006.mp3>.