Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Social Media Movements

Two current examples of the power of social media...

If you have been following the situation with the cruise ship which capsized off the Italian coast, you know the ship’s captain reportedly abandoned ship in the middle of the evacuation. When angrily ordered by a Coast Guard official to return to his ship, the captain refused. The official who issued the profanity-laced order has become somewhat of a folk hero in Italy, and his order (Get back on board, for …’s sake) has become a catch phrase. It’s showing up on T-shirts and has even inspired its own hashtag and Facebook groups. Shows you how quickly something like this can go viral.  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/01/italys-latest-fashion-statement-get-back-on-board-for-s-sake/ ….

There’s also the organized effort on the part of Wikipedia and other sites to protest the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation by going “dark” today. These sites oppose the legislation because it could require Internet sites to police users from posting copyrighted material or risk being shut down. Thanks to the organized "blackout" ordinary Internet users are being made aware of this controversial legislation who might not otherwise pay any attention. http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/01/18/145386996/washington-fight-over-online-piracy-in-limelight-due-to-blackout?sc=fb&cc=fp.

John Silcox

1 comment:

  1. The SOPA/PIPA conversation is a good one. It speaks to how the Internet is much more than just a tool; it's something that stands on its own and has specific values attached to it.

    This is also parallel to many of the issues in hacktivism/hacking. The dispute is over the internet itself and how it is governed.

    Fun stuff! Keep reading and thinking!!

    Aaron

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