Number of Posts: 5
Posts 1 - 5
The limits of instant activism
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 28.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | A new book titled "Twitter and Tear Gas" by Zeynep Tufekci is coming out. It discusses the infuence of social media on protest culture. The author has been present in many recent protest movement: Occupy Wall Street, the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, the Tahrir Square protests, and many more. In her book, she concludes that social media help mobilize many people very quickly, as the anti-Trump marches have shown. However, this ease with which people are mobilized to attend a protest make the ties within the protest community looser making it difficult for the movements to overcome issues later on in the process.
Image Description | Image of the March on Washington in 1963.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text
Germany springs to action over hate speech against migrants
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 6.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, law, politics, social media
Summary | Facebook has recently decided to comply with German law rather than their own corporate policies when it comes to hate language on their platform contributed by users from Germany. Germany is very strict about prohibiting hate language against minorities. Critics say this is a step in the wrong direction towards censorship.
Image Description | Protest crowd holding a canvas.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text
In search of 'lulz,' trolls hijack civic engagement
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Internet culture's sense of humor has become careless. A meme was recently circulated in Pennsyvania that said that one could vote online by just commenting the name of their candidate. Even though this was a joke, it was dangerously close to disenfranchising people of their votes. In the same way some people post anti-semitic or racist/sexist things and then claim to just do it to combat the tyranny of political correctness and not really meaning any harm. Such content however promotes extremism and is harmful - no matter the intentions.
Image Description | Man holding up Hillary Clinton toilet paper.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
Melania Trump and the politics of airbrushing
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Instagram, politics, youth
Summary | The official portrait of the FLOTUS Melania Trump is highly retouched. Her face shows no wrinkles and looks artificial while her hair is perfectly in focus. While retouching is the norm nowadays, this particular portrait is just so obviously photoshopped that people are talking about it. It is really reminiscent of current photographing practices where one always slaps an Instagram filter on an image. This trend is being counteracted by some like Kate Winslet or Alicia Keys but the extensive retouching of images to achieve artificial perfection is accepted by large parts of the public.
Image Description | Portraits of Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, and Laua Bush.
Image Tags | female(s)
Today’s protest signs are sharper, meaner, funnier — and live on long after the rallies
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 2.2.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | Protest signs are becoming increasingly wittier as popular culture and politics converge by politics increasingly becoming entertainment. The protest sign are not only wittier but also live longer thanks to their digital footprint. The funniest/best protest signs are spread online and are seen by thousands of people nowhere near the protest which is why such signs may be remembered for longer.
Image Description | Various protesters with signs.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text
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