kearly":knilh2l5 said:
HawkAroundTheClock":knilh2l5 said:
And Kearly, I love your work and perspective, but if you think this is the first time that Twitter outrage has led to real-world activism, you aren't following anyone from Ferguson or Gaza.
I'm guessing we would disagree pretty strongly on those two issues. But not here.
The twitter outrage machine proved useful in getting rid of the Clippers owner though. I hated the hypocritical 'thought police' logic behind the outrage, but when I learned about Sterling's past history I came to feel that justice was served. Ultimately, the final result was good, even if the way it happened was somewhat warped. The outrage machine played an instrumental role in that.
Exactly. And the point is, what actually happens often differs greatly from the story of the mainstream media and those who have a vested (read: monetary) interest. The confusion in this NFL-Ravens-Rice scenario is a perfect example.
We are seeing traditional power structures challenged by video evidence and everyday people sharing information. Traditional power holders are running scared – in various cases, either trying to deny video evidence exists or going to great lengths to deny its admissibility.
The impact of Twitter today mirrors what TV was in the mid 1950s. The civil rights movement in Tennessee and Alabama did not have national support until images of people being berated with firehoses and bitten by dogs were sent out to the world.
Then in the '60s, televised images of what was actually going on in Vietnam were shown to everyday people. The pictures varied greatly from the official reports. People became outraged. They demanded change. Since then, traditional power structures have taken over TV. Fake reality brings in more advertising dollars than bloody, corrupt reality.
Twitter allows for transfer of information from person-to-person and person-to-world, while sidestepping the filtration process of government and corporate interests. Tweets still warrant fact-checking but the impact is that citizens, who otherwise would not know the severity of unsettling events, can suddenly realize the seriousness of the issue and the need for change. Seeing Ray Rice knock out his fiancee is much more meaningful than all the sound bites and blurbs from Ravens officials or Roger Goodell's office, both of whom skewed the story to maximize their benefit.
Our world is in flux. The immediacy and breadth of access to information means that anyone can be a citizen journalist. We're still new at this. Anyone can shed light on events of the world, especially the evils, which seek to exist in darkness.
This is why net neutrality is a HUGE issue right now. Control of information is at our fingertips, and the bigwigs want to keep it at arms' length. The same way the NFL would rather you not see Ray Rice beat a woman unconscious.
