Advocating Through Social Media

The advent of social media has further contributed to the changing landscape of advocacy and modern social movements. Through its usage, augmentations to strategies related to public issues, relationship and alliance building, collaboration, and uniting as a support group are easier than ever to achieve and further involve regarding specific issues. Social media also has the widest possible outreach of people imaginable, which in turn has helped to promote the differing types of advocacy by promoting more meaningful conversations between groups, reinforcing relationships and building alliances among advocates, and giving encouragement towards speaking up for what they believe in.

As activism and the way we enact upon it has evolved over time, it has also given rise to groups and people who have freely been able to express themselves, and what they believe in, in ways that they might not have been able to otherwise. Take for example when Edward Snowden blew the whistle on a National Security Agency surveillance program collecting and storing the private metadata of American citizens in 2015. This news in turn gave life to activism groups protesting what the government was doing, as well as making the public more aware of what has been going on for decades. Opportunities for these groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union or Anonymous may not have happened otherwise had it not been for Snowden or the advent of advocating through social media.