Social Media for Social Justice Organizing

Introduction

Media can be a powerful tool for any type of community and political organizing. In each era, the appropriate media will change depending on current technological tools and customs, whether it is the postcards and newsletters of the Suffragettes, or the digital social media of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for #NoDAPL.

Why Media?

As theorists of cultural studies, art, and media have long discussed, media can be a powerful tool for communication.

For organizing purposes, media can be deployed for the following purposes:

• community building
• raising awareness
• education
• to control the narrative, or to counter dominant narratives
• to mobilize communities

Things to Consider

• Do you have a cohesive message? Does the community know what you stand for? Is your mission and activity reliable?
• Do you have identifiable and legible iconography, symbols, language? (i.e. branding?)
• Do you have a coordinated multi-pronged campaign? Does it all lead back to a single source of information?
• Is your content continuously up-to-date?
• Are you using media ethically? Are you being sensitive and respectful to the beliefs, customs, data of your community?

Tools for the 21st Century

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Websites
  • Whittier.Domains
• Petition sites
  • Change.org
  • iPetitions.com
  • Moveon.org
  • Whitehouse.gov
  • Avaaz.org
• Wikipedia
• Press Releases