What is good and bad about social activism and social media. Diferrent pages for social activism. Political uses. They are everywhere. Democracy will win in spite of killings, hatred – Mahama | General News 2013-09-24. General News of Tuesday, 24 September 2013 Source: Daily Graphic President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the recent killings in Kenya, Mali and Somalia were caused by people who did not believe in the tenets and vision of democracy. He said those people saw democracy, which had the vision of social justice, religious and ethnic tolerance, as a threat. President Mahama made the remarks in his speech at the World Leaders Forum at the Columbia University Monday. President Mahama said the vision of democracy covered access to education, healthcare, housing and sanitary conditions. "When I speak of the vision, I speak of social justice. "As more and more countries on the continent strengthened their democracies through the rule of law—something both Ghana and Kenya recently did with the Supreme Court challenges to the results of our respective elections—the closer we get to the vision, and to the existence of that world in which so many have dared to believe,” he said.
Social media: the new route for justice? Imagine how many more of us there would be if we moved beyond the like button Of late it seems like people have found a new manner of trying to highlight issues. Social media is turning into a tool for social activism and the average Joe is turning into a self-proclaimed social media pundit. The digital realm allows us all to have opinions and express them simultaneously, regardless of how flawed and inaccurate they are.
Whenever injustice takes place in our part of the world, our social media activists take the stage to right all the wrongs. The problem is, while social media doesn’t highlight a lot of issues, it cannot push for a favourable outcome to any of those issues. There seems to be something of a trend going around where each lost person, lost cause and lost ideal has been propped up for display on the social media jungle. Social media cannot do for Pakistan what it did for the Arab Spring, primarily because our people stand divided on almost every issue we can conjure up. Egypt’s artists and activists crowdfund to support projects - Stage & Street - Arts & Culture. Egyptian artists, innovators and social activists are more frequently turning to crowdfunding platforms – portals that allow them to fundraise online for their artistic endeavors. Suffering from a dire lack of state support and limited opportunities for funding, Arab artists are seeking new financial models facilitated by the Internet.
Egyptian artists are now increasingly resorting to posting their projects on crowdfunding platforms, and linking to these pages on social networks, in the hope of raising money for their projects from as many people as possible within a desired timeframe (usually 2 to 6 weeks). Crowdfunding is not an entirely new concept. If we set aside the online element, credit cards, videos and endless posts on social media, it boils down to an inspired individual deciding to take initiative for a project and asking others in their community, and extended community, to support it.
Crowdfunding is popular among small businesses and social development projects. Causes relaunches campaign platform to put the ‘act’ back in ‘activism’ Activism in the 1960s involved thousands of people rallying together for a common cause despite any risks. Online activism is less dramatic, and some might argue less meaningful. And Causes is trying to change this. Causes unveiled a new version of its online campaigning platform today and launched the Supporter Network as a key component. People can now build personal profiles that center around causes they believe in as well as find others with the same beliefs and rally to take collective action. “This is a purpose-driven network that revolves around people’s cause identities, a part of their identity that is very core but underserved online,” said CEO Matt Mahan in an interview at Causes’ office. “The product before was very focused on action-taking, but it was almost like skipping the first steps — what is identity and how do you connect?”
Causes started as a Facebook app in 2007 as a channel for online activism. Now the site attracts 6 million people a month. Afghanistan holds social media summit. Kabul - As internet use in urban centres and amongst youth booms, Afghanistan is set to host its first-ever social media summit, with organizers promoting the websites as democratic tools for engaging citizens and communities in the war-torn country.
Called "Paiwand", which means "connection" in the local Dari language, the event is slated for 22 - 23 September in the capital Kabul. "Paiwand is a grassroots effort... to come together and talk about how social media has been used and how it can be used, especially for social good in Afghanistan," said Eileen Guo, the director of Impassion Afghanistan, which organised the event. "We are trying to support a small but growing community of social media users in Afghanistan. " While the internet penetration is only 3.5%, there are some 18 million mobile phone users in the desperately impoverished country of 27 million.
Transparency In 2012, Afghanistan introduced 3G mobile internet. "This time, everyone has their own social media campaign. China's tragic crackdown on social media activism. By Minxin Pei Chinese Communist Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping FORTUNE -- Social media in China, which has nearly 600 million users, has long been recognized as a political game-changer.
In a country where a one-party regime maintains tight censorship over traditional media, the relative freedom of expression available via Chinese social media, particularly Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), has made it a powerful platform for rallying public opinion. In the past few years, Weibo has been credited for exposing corrupt officials, mobilizing the public against social injustices, and forcing local governments to abandon plans for building hazardous plants in densely populated areas.
The demonstrated potency of China's emerging social media has left many wondering whether the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will continue to tolerate it. MORE: How Tim Cook can save himself (and Apple) Then, on August 25, the Chinese government dropped a real bombshell.