Social Media As an Agent for Change

Over the last year protest against government corruption have broke out all over the country of Brazil. Social media strategist, Lauren Moberst describes this movement as a social media fueled revolution (Moberst, 2013). Citizens are using it to get information out, establish demonstrations and strike awareness. They feel as if the public media has misrepresented them as extremist with no cause and so they are using tools such as memes, gifs, and videos to accurately depict the reality. Memes are describe by Knobel & Lankshear as viral marketing utilized to encourage social phenomena (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). These are posted to sites such as Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and YouTube. The videos posted give a strong idea to the mass of citizens that these messages are reaching. Some videos have literally thousands of people in the streets dissenting the current administration. One representation even shows Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg pictured on Instagram with a snipit for change. This really proves how far reaching the hand of social media is. For people to rise even if not in direct connection with the country is a great statement. As you can see in the stats below Brazil is becoming a very amplified in social media use.

 A demonstrator holds a Brazilian national flag during a protest in downtown Rio de Janeiro  Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images

References

Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2007). Online memes, affinities, and cultural production. A new literacies sampler (pp. 199-227). New York: P. Lang. Retrieved from 
http://literacyandtech.pbworks.com/f/Text.pdf#page=11  

Moberst, L. (2013). Social Media Engages the World in the #ChangeBrazil Movement. Retrieved from http://dashburst.com/change-brazil-protests-social-media/

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