MDA20009 Blog

INDIGINOUS/ABORIGINAL ACTIVISM In the past decade, social media platforms and its increased growth of users has led to an array of different types of engagement, one of which is digital activism and protest. Digital activism is the growing interest and expansion of utilising digital technologies, of internet enabled devices to fight for social and political change (Sivitanides et al. 2011). According to Professor Bronwyn Carlson, social media technologies and activism have positively affected the Indigenous community in Australia. It has decreased isolation and increased the health and wellbeing of the community and culture (Skelly, 2022). In Australia, the utilisation of social media is very important to Indigenous people as most social and political movements depend on social media as a means of efficient and effective communication (Carlson & Frazer 2016). “Social media technologies bridge distance, time, and nation-states to mobilise Indigenous peoples to build coalitions acros...

  POLITICS & CIVIC CULTURES According to Dr. Dennis Muller, anyone with an internet connection and the skill to use it can become a publisher - platforms such as: print, television and radio are no longer exclusive to merely the established media (Trounson, 2022)   Pew Research Centre, a “nonpartisan fact tank”, published a survey in May 2019 covering data collated from the publics of 11 countries covering the positive and negative impact of social media in politics.   The 11- country median is as follows: 44% say that the increased use of internet and social media has had a positive impact on politics. While 28% believe that the impact has been negative (Smith et al. 2022).     According to this survey, the public have “dual views” about the impact of social media and the internet on politics - publics are increasingly informed yet as gullible; inclusive yet just as divided (Smith et al. 2022). Let’s delve right in and explore some expert perspectives shall...