Structured Responce 6-Hayley

After reading the articles about Social Media I have come to the conclusion that in today's global society, social media is a helpful, if not necessary tool to have a successful revolution. As stated by Khondker, social media opens free spaces. Previously, only standard media such as television and radio broadcasts were the source of information. If a revolution wanted to be successful, they had to utilize all the free space possible. With the new forms of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, social movements can use these to spread ideas, collaborate effective strategies,and devise meeting times for protests. Also, social media can be an effective source to reach other countries, whose citizens could provide another source of support. Social media is such a part of modern society that it would seem difficult to have an effective social movement without utilizing them.

As seen in the case of Tunisia, a social movement may fail if it cannot effectively use social media. According to Khondker, there were only 28,000 Tunisian members of Facebook, and thus Facebook could not have been effectively used to affect change. There was a significant lack of Tunisian Twitter members as well, thus suggesting that in a modern society, social media is needed to have a successful social movement. In a country where internet access is not widely used, or in the case of extreme online censorship, social media will not be effective, and less advanced ,methods may be  needed.

When I say less advanced, I don't mean more primitive, but I mean the methods used by previous movements such as Iran in 1979, or in Serbia in the Otpor! movement of the late 90s early 00s. Otpor! did not need social media, as they used a well connected social network that existed offline. They used rallies to gain supporters, and had a large campaign where members spread the Otpor! message.

While I understand that some countries do not have wide access to the internet, their social movements will have a more difficult time. However, it is possible for a social movement to be successful without social media, it is just more difficult.