Role Of Internet In A Social Movement: Gezi Protests And Occupy Wall Street

Human beings have always relied on communication to survive. It is important to be able to communicate with others in order to increase your chances of surviving and to improve the conditions you live in. This instinct, which we humans have, has led us through the ages to seek out new and more accessible ways of communicating. Communication changed and we and our societies were shaped by this change. The changes in social structures, communication channels and the way people express themselves and work together forced them to use new tools. Internet revolutionized the way people organise and protest injustices. Internet became a key element in social movements and protests during the past decade. As with all changes in history, the internet changed the foundations of social movements.

Sociology has a great deal to learn from movements and revolutionary events. Societies create movements. Therefore, understanding movements is necessary to understand society. This project focuses on how movements are being started and transformed into revolutions. Manuel Castells’ book “Networks of Outrage and Hope : Social Movements In The Internet Age” explores the new forms of social movements and protests that have occurred and are still occurring around the world. He analyzes the role of the internet in the development of these social movements. In this article, I will explore how social movements were started by the internet and social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc., and how traditional platforms played a role as well. Also, how important the internet is for movements in comparison to public space, the body, and other social spaces. Along with Manuel Castell’s ideas, I plan to consider several others. In the past, social movements have been a catalyst for a variety of protests. The reasons behind the demands of the people were varied. The commonality among all of these social movements and protests was that people fought for their beliefs using any tool they could find. To act and survive, social and politic movements must have a powerful network. It was only possible for protests to be organized and for social movements to exist and act when people were able come together and have a voice. Reaching as many people is crucial to the success of any movement. The more people, the stronger we were. To become one in the fight against injustices by governments, it is necessary to have a strong network of communication and organization skills. Internet was a tool used by many people in their fight for justice. In this section, I will look at how the internet was only one of the social spaces used to reach out to people during Egypt’s revolution.

Gezi Park, the Turkish protests against rising public transportation costs, the Chilean student movement, and other events from history are all examples of revolutions and movements that have a common thread. All of these movements and revolutions share common traits with one another as well as other historical events. The internet has allowed these networks to use the internet for a variety of reasons: economics, government corruption, the fight for equality, etc.

Internet brought a whole new dimension to the movement scene. It allowed for information to be spread more easily than ever, but would it reach enough people? It was possible to create these movements on the internet and have them reach a worldwide audience. However, did the internet turn a movement into a true revolution? Was it sufficient to reach out and educate the whole community? Internet access is available in every home and does it have the trust of all society members?

Egyptian revolution was not solely based on the internet’s power to unite people. The Egyptian revolution is without doubt one of its most important ones. It shows the power of a network that was well organized and how the internet helped bring people together. A student’s vlog was the spark to start the Egyptian protest. It was a vlog that a student shot. This became’something’ with the help from youth movements on Facebook. Those who couldn’t access the internet were later informed on other platforms. The importance of reaching a larger audience was crucial. The Egyptian youth was lucky, because the Friday sermons helped to further their cause. Fridays, which were originally a religious holiday but are now more than this, allowing people to socialize, and gather together, played a crucial role in reaching out to older members of society and letting them know about events. The demonstrations were also able to get more support. This was an important part of building a community. The activists were able to reach a wider audience and talk directly to them. This increased trust and enabled activists to reach a wider audience. TV broadcasts were another powerful platform for the revolution. I believe that the Egyptian revolution gained a voice through the internet, Friday sermons and Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera broadcasted live the events from Egypt to the entire world. It allows protesters from different countries to hear them. Al Jazeera, as a television channel, was very important to the public during the protests.

The majority of people still have a great deal of influence from television. Television is more popular than social media and the internet. I will use another movement to show that the Egyptian Revolution did not benefit from the same kind of media and support. Gezi, the protests which took place during 2013 in Turkey have some characteristics in common. Like the Egyptian Revolution, Gezi started out as a young movement and gained support later from other groups. Both movements effectively used the Internet to communicate to the public and let them know why they are protesting. Both movements used internet to broadcast from the street. This was critical to bringing attention to their protest and showing the world their government’s handling of them. Al Jazeera, the Egyptian media network, was a major factor in the Gezi protests. During those most violent protest days, the major and most influential TV channels didn’t broadcast anything related to the protests. People without immediate internet access, and especially social media, were unaware of a massive protest taking place in the middle of the largest city in their country. They weren’t informed of the vast majority of protests or the brutality by the police.

TRT is the national public broadcaster in Turkey, funded by taxes. It broadcasted an animated penguin film at night, when protests were really hot. This became a symbol of oppressed media throughout the country. The news was broadcasted after the events had spread throughout the country. However, the channel took the side the government and presented the protestors in the way the government desired. Turkish media provided limited news coverage of the protests. Information was tightly controlled by government. It caused a major split in society and the government gained power by portraying the protestors of terrorists. It is important to note that other social platforms like community gatherings or television broadcasts are still influential. It is not true that everyone in the modern world has internet access and relies on it for reliable information. The internet is an important tool for movements that have emerged over the past decade. It provides a platform that allows the movement to exist freely in its own reality. But is this the most significant one?

In this part, I’ll examine the impact of social movements born from the digital age on the control of public spaces and human bodies. Occupy Wall Street (which began as Occupy Movement and spread around the world) is an excellent example of how to combine both the public space and internet to achieve success. Occupywallstreet was a movement started online and continued growing during protests. Social media was awash with content related to the topic and there was a high level of online interaction. The social media platform helped to bring the topic to light and give it a voice. It was started by a hashtag. The movement was started by the hashtag #occupywallstreet, which literally meant to occupy Wall Street.

The movement grew online for several months before it was finally manifested in a public demonstration. The demonstrations of occupying walls street (and other places in the world as the movement spread) were meant to show that those spaces, which had already been occupied, belonged originally to the occupiers. The movement itself had many goals, but the occupations in the parks and streets of Wall Street was important both strategically as well as symbolically. Manuel Castells explores these events in “Networks of Outrage and Hope” by focusing on how they used the internet to create a powerful platform for their movement. David Harvey’s book on the importance public space has for movements will be used to challenge the notion that the internet is the best space socially for movements. Castells draws attention to the way the movement began and developed digitally. The movement also relied on the Internet in many other aspects.

David Harvey writes in “The Party of Wall Street Meeting its Nemesis” that public space is important. In his blog post “The Party of Wall Street Meets its Nemesis”, David Harvey argues the importance of public space by writing:… the tactics used by Occupy Wall Street are to take a central public space, such as a park or a square, close to where many levers for power are centered, and convert it into a political commons, a place for open discussion and debate over what that power is doing, as well as how best oppose its reach… It shows us that the collective power of bodies in public space can still be effective when all other means of access is blocked, the body in a a a a a a a a a occupying occupying occupying a occupying a occupying occupying a occupying the occupying the occupied, the occupying, the a Castells says that internet networks were the key to the Occupy success. Castells says, “Internet-based social networks mobilized a sufficient amount of support to enable people to come to public space to protest, and to territorialize it”.

The “… sites and Facebook groups were created to help organize the movement as well as to give it a public voice.” The movement’s clarity and goals were also aided by this creation, according to him. Both the public space and internet played a major role in the growth of the movements. However, one could argue that taking control over the public space has a greater impact on the governments because it creates an irrefutable disruption to everyday life. In this day and age, it’s inevitable that movements will use social media (if the platforms are accessible).

We need to examine the ways in which the internet can be detrimental to social movements. The internet provides us with instant access to people and information from around the world. It also allows us support a street protest or movement from a place that we choose, which is typically a warm and safe environment. Many theorists claim that the reality of our internet-age devalues movements and has negative effects. Jeroen Van Aelst and Peter Van Aelst, authors of “Internet and Social Movement Action Repertoires”, a journal published in Information, Communication & Society, raise awareness about this internet reality, also called ‘keyboard-activism’. They assert that “…may lead to a lack of real action that requires a high level of commitment. It is possible that people are not motivated to do higher thresholds of activism because they feel more comfortable pursuing social and politics change by simply clicking a few buttons and watching ads. These online versions…might damage policy impact for civil society.” The Internet is easier to use and reach people, but support from millions of internet users is not as valuable as support from thousands of street activists. Paolo Gerbaudo in his book Tweets and Streets Social Media and Contemporary Activism criticizes how activists use Twitter to engage in emotional discussions with sympathizers and maintain a diffused feeling of solidarity. But only a few actually joined, which is testament to how difficult it can be to turn sympathy into real participation.

It is difficult to separate internet and social movements in the current time. However, I still tried to make use of other platforms for the movements mentioned in my essay. It was important to have a larger audience and be more stable. The ability to reach people in public places and make the world aware of what was happening via television made a revolution possible. The Egyptian Revolution showed us that this is crucial for a protest to become a real revolution. The goals of other movements that were not able to create these opportunities could not be achieved. There is no doubt that a group can be organized and grow through the internet, and the use of the internet for an occupation is one way to do this. However, the occupation is what makes a group successful. The occupation of public spaces has a greater impact on governments, and forces them to take action. The major shifts in how people started and grew a movement also raised questions and led to debates on the use the internet for social or political causes. The internet’s accessibility allowed people to express their support and to do so in an online space rather than a public one, which diminished the value of that support. On the Internet, millions were present but thousands of people were in the streets. The streets are where revolutions happen. You can start a revolution on your keyboard, but is it enough to complete it?