“The political power of social media

Gladwell, M., (2010). “Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted.” – gladwell_why the revolution will not be tweeted (2010).pdfPreview the document
Shirky, C., (2011). “The political power of social media.” – Shirky_politial power of social media (2011).pdfPreview the document
Mejias, U., (2011). “The Twitter Revolution must die.” – mejias_twitter_revolution.pdfPreview the document
These documents are some of the materials produced in an academic debate over the political impact of the use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. To clarify some of what’s going on, it’s useful to read the articles in order, which is listed above. Gladwell’s original article from The New Yorker was responding to ideas Shirky had popularized in his book Here Comes Everybody.

Gladwell’s article received a lot of attention at the time because it pushed back against a techno-utopian orthodoxy that more communication technologies available means more opportunities for democratic practices to grow and potentially flourish. Clearly the events of the last two years have complicated this conclusion to some degree. That being said, this debate is among the first high profile attempts to grapple with the effects of “hashtag activism” through social media on human activity.

Please answer the following three questions (300-400 words in total is plenty) and submit your responses in a .docx or .pdf file to the Canvas dropbox before class meets

Please also bring a paper copy of your answers to your Instructional Assistant session where it will be discussed and collected. Missing either hand-in will result in losing points for this assignment.

Questions
1. Gladwell discusses the concept of strong ties and weak ties in human society. Provide a quick definition of what is meant by these concepts and what’s Gladwell’s point about strong ties and social or political change?

2. Shirky responds to Gladwell’s article by argues that it misses a point about authoritarian reactions to collective action organized through social media. What is some of the evidence Shirky presents regarding censorship efforts?

3. Meijias refutes the decision of the authors (especially Shirky) to frame the discussion in terms of the technologies used by the political activists. How would Meijias prefer these actions be understood and what argument does he present for where the real challenge for activists lies?