Harlow (2011), "Social media and social movements: Facebook and an online Guatemalan justice movement that moved

offline"

Presentation by Juan IRACHE DUESCA

May 10, 2009. Guatemalan lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg was shot dead During his funeral, the following video went viral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_ODpxMA10

“Justicia Rodrigo Rosenberg” engaged 28,000 friends in 3 days (Fieser

2009)

Online petition against the president collected 5,000 signatures in a week

Castells (2001), “networked social movement”

Based on cultural values (justice)

Loose and semi-spontaneous coalition relying on Internet technologies (Facebook)

A locally based movement aiming globally (it caused demonstrations in the United States and Europe)

Castells (2001), “social change”

Usually triggered by dramatic events or crises

Harlow's point of view (2012, p. 228)

Facebook comments and links asked for offline activism

The online campaign “has evolved into a more general pro-justice and anti-violence movement” (values)

“the Internet has the capacity for actually creating – not just enhancing – political activism”

Anthony and Thomas (2010, p. 1284)

“[t]hrough blogs, video-sharing and other forms of participatory publishing, citizens have the potential to set the agenda themselves”

UN investigation

concluded that the lawyer organised his own murder while being depressed over personal problems

Carlos Castresana (head of the UN commission):

“Rosenberg “decided to sacrifice his life in exchange for a change in the country” (Carroll, 2012)

Youtube comments (2012)

http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=mC_ODpxMA10

Did Rodrigo Rosenberg use the power of social media to frame President Álvaro Colom?

Other controversial examples

Blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus”

— Was written by a man in Scotland

— Did it raise awarenes about homophobia in Syria? (Goad, 2011)

“KONY2012” documentary

— The NGO behind it was not using most of its budget on cooperation

— Did it reactivate debate around wars in Africa? (Wasserman, 2012)

Joseph (2012, p. 172)

”Social media can be used to communicate misinformation as readily as it can be used to convey reliable information”

Therefore,

Can deceiving stories have a positive effect setting social topics (and values) in the agenda?

Or, do their disappointing outcomes desensitise the population towards subsequent injustices?

Joseph (2012, p. 173)

“the unmasking of a sock puppet thoroughly discredits any ideas from that source”

Cohen (1963, p. 13)

Press “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about”

This advertising case study suggests that Cohen's point of view about press can

be applied to social media too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw3zNNO5gX0http://vimeo.com/47890552

References

Antony, Mary Grace and Thomas, Ryan J. 2010, ‘This is citizen journalism at its finest’: YouTube and the public sphere in the Oscar Grant shooting incident, Washington State University, USA, http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/8/1280.full.pdf [accessed 08/09/2012].

Carroll, Rory 2010 'Lawyer in YouTube murder plot video hired his own assassins – UN', The Guardian, 13 January, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/13/guatemala-lawyer-youtube-suicide-conspiracy [accessed 08/09/2012].

Castells, Manuel 2001, The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cohen, Bernard C. 1963, The Press and Foreign Policy, Princeton, N.J., USA.Elections Meter 1995, Imágenes Álvaro Colom, http://es.electionsmeter.com/encuestas/alvaro-colom#PollMenu [accessed

17/09/2012].Fieser, E 2009, 'A murder prompts demonstrations', Global Post, 16 May,

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/090515/murder-prompts-demonstrations?page=full [accessed 08/09/2012].

Goad, Jim 2011, 'Just Another Fairytale Lesbian Blogger From Damascus' Taki's Magazine, 12 Junehttp://takimag.com/article/just_another_fairytale_lesbian_blogger_from_damascus/print#axzz25gWki94u [accessed 08/09/2012].

Harlow, Sumer 2011, Social media and social movements: Facebook and an online Guatemalan justice movement that moved offline, The University of Texas at Austin, USA, http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/08/04/1461444811410408.full.pdf+html [accessed 08/09/2012].

jmogarrio 2009, The Unspeakable Murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg (English subtitles), Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_ODpxMA10 [accessed 08/09/2012].

Joseph, Sarah 2012, Social Media, Political Change, and Human Rights, Monash University, http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol35/iss1/3 [accessed 08/09/2012].

Latin American Herald Tribune. Friend of Attorney Slain in Guatemala Feels Threatened, Seeks Protection, http://laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=23558&ArticleId=335531 [accessed 17/09/2012].

LeoBurnettWorldwide 2011, Save the Troy Library "Adventures In Reverse Psychology", Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw3zNNO5gX0 [accessed 08/09/2012].

MIR – M P 2009, И Rodrigo Rosenberg case... "Somos Guatemala, queremos Justicia", Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/25810892@N04/3540036793/ [accessed 17/09/2012].

Wasserman, Todd 2012 '‘KONY 2012 Tops 100 Million Views, Becomes the Most Viral Video in History [STUDY]', Mashable, ′12 March http://mashable.com/2012/03/12/kony-most-viral/ [accessed 08/09/2012].

Discussion

Try to remember a news story or information that turned out to be untrue. Think,

for example, of emails that you were supposed to forward.

Share that story with your classmates and see if they heard about it and —

especially— if they knew it was not true.

Tweet a link to that story and/or say which effect you think the Internet has on truth

and myths. Is it positive or negative?

Juan IRACHE DUESCA