{"id":8032,"date":"2019-04-12T18:29:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T18:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=8032"},"modified":"2019-04-12T18:29:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T18:29:01","slug":"social-media-activism-from-the-streets-to-screens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=8032","title":{"rendered":"Social media activism: From the streets to screens"},"content":{"rendered":"M<\/span>ore social activists are marching away from the traditional sorts of protesting, and turning to social media to make their mark.<\/p>\n

The University of Guelph-Humber\u2019s EMERGE team hosted an event focusing on how social media is used to spread awareness of various movements and holding the justice system accountable. Prominent causes such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter and #AmINext were some of the earliest hashtag movements to make an online change.<\/p>\n

Jamie Vergara, the fourth year media studies student in charge of the event, found that social media is quickly evolving and becoming a place where individuals go to voice their opinions and concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw how social media is no longer a platform just for selfies or memes or tagging people in a funny post. It\u2019s become a platform for people to unite their voices, to create change and to be an activist,\u201d Vergara said.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

Digital activism coordinator at Amnesty International, Daniella Barretto, says social media is making it easy for like-minded activists to further the conversation about the injustices they witness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to find people. Using social media, you can have groups, you can have ways people can find each other and be a lot stronger in creating a response,\u201d said Barretto.<\/p>\n

#AmINext is just one of the many online movements that have gone viral and raised awareness on the ongoing issue of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada.<\/p>\n

Holly Jarrett, the founder of #AmINext officially launched her campaign in September 2014, after her cousin Loretta Saunders was found dead, two weeks after she was reported missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI created the campaign #AmINext out of pure drive from myself and I did not care who listened to it but it needed to be out there,\u201d Jarrett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI copied the ice bucket challenge and I tagged five of my friends in Labrador. And I made a video, and I held a sign and I explained to Prime Minister Harper, very publicly on Facebook, not really realizing the impact it would have,\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Vergara, social media, provides a place for people to have a voice, when the mainstream media leaves them voiceless.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cwith the rise of #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, it\u2019s not just small cities, it\u2019s the entire community coming online because they relate, they understand and they know. In today\u2019s age with the rise of social media, it just goes hand in hand with social justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More social activists are marching away from the traditional sorts of protesting, and turning to social media to make their mark. The University of Guelph-Humber\u2019s EMERGE team hosted an event focusing on how social media is used to spread awareness of various movements and holding the justice system accountable. Prominent causes such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":8023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[174,62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}