Whoever Controls the Media Controls the Mind
Analysis of Media Campaigns
#SaveNetNeutrality
The internet has always been a safe haven for free speech and desire, a place where anyone can be whoever or do whatever they want within reason and be left to their own devices.
Personal use aside however, the internet is also a place where one can gain access to multiple news sources and information they possibly wouldn't see through mainstream media, it all depends on your opinion of the government of course but whether they pull strings behind the curtain or not is irrelevant as of now, what is relevant however is that access to information and people devoid of government and company influence is under serious threat due to the FCC's chairman Ajit Pai new plan of action.
Before I get into the campaigns that sparked in favour of Net Neutrality, I must first explain what it is; Net Neutrality is the internet’s guiding principle: It preserves our right to communicate freely online.
Net Neutrality means an internet that enables and protects free speech. It means that ISPs should provide us with open networks - and shouldn’t block or discriminate against any applications or content that ride over those networks. Just as your phone company shouldn’t decide who you call and what you say on that call, your ISP shouldn’t interfere with the content you view or post online.Without Net Neutrality, cable and phone companies could carve the internet into fast and slow lanes. An ISP could slow down its competitors’ content or block political opinions it disagreed with. ISPs could charge extra fees to the few content companies that could afford to pay for preferential treatment - relegating everyone else to a slower tier of service. This would destroy the open internet.
The internet without Net Neutrality isn’t really the internet. Unlike the open internet that has paved the way for so much innovation and given a platform to people who have historically been shut out, it would become a closed-down network where the governments and corporations call the shots and decide which websites, content or applications succeed.
This would have an enormous impact. Third parties would be able to block websites or content they don’t like or applications that compete with their own offerings.
The consequences would be particularly devastating for marginalized communities media outlets have misrepresented or failed to serve. People of colour, the LGBTQ community, indigenous peoples and religious minorities in the United States rely on the open internet to organize, access economic and educational opportunities, and fight back against systemic discrimination.
Without Net Neutrality, how would activists be able to fight oppression?
If Net Neutrality is overthrown in the United States of America, it will not be long before the rest of the world follows suit and we lose the internet as we know it all together, unless of course the act is blocked by congress - an act the internet is currently fighting to win.
Influential people, including movements such as the Women's March, have spoken out right against the removal of Net Neutrality - calling it an attack on freedom and the people they are obligated to protect.
After the FCC announced their proposal to take away the freedom of the internet, the world broke into outrage, sparking one of the biggest online campaigns ever seen, branching across sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc. with the aim of bringing down the FCC, Ajit Pai and the White House's plans for the new age. You only have to Google this topic to be greeted by an endless chain of websites imploring people to vote against this act, on Twitter we have #SaveNetNeutrality and #SaveTheInternet trending. People from all over the world have come together to speak out against this decision.
All of this has resulted in the creation of a website called https://www.battleforthenet.com/.
Following this link takes you to a site asking you to sign a petition; a petition which will then be sent to congress with the signatures of everybody wanting net neutrality to stay in place. This revolt against the FCC has swept across the internet and has even made it on the news, most notably platforms like the BBC and New York Times.
This entire revolt against the FCC demonstrates the power of media and the internet. it's very interesting compared to movements such as the women's march. The #SaveTheInternet movement sparked though online collaboration and very few physical interactions, relying completely on their platform as a base of communication and action.
This is also the first time I've seen media outlets (mostly) agree with the revolt against the government, acknowledging that the removal of Net Neutrality is a bad move not only for the people, but for smaller business forced into the shadows due to slow ISPs and pay walls from internet providers. Big company names such as Apple have even spoken out against the FCC's plans which in my eyes, is most likely to save face in front of their consumers - but this isn't the first time Apple and the U.S government have clashed over plans regarding freedom and security.
The FBI wanted Apple to create and electronically sign new software that would enable the FBI to unlock a work-issued iPhone 5C it recovered from one of the shooters who, in a December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, killed 14 people and injured 22. The two attackers later died in a shootout with police, having first destroyed their personal phones. The work phone was recovered intact but was locked with a four-digit password and was set to eliminate all its data after ten failed password attempts. Apple declined to create the software, and a hearing was scheduled for March 22. However, a day before the hearing was supposed to happen, the government obtained a delay, saying they had found a third party able to assist in unlocking the iPhone and, on March 28, it announced that the FBI had unlocked the iPhone and withdrew its request.
Apple refused on both counts to create software that could be manipulated by criminals or even the government (There's a fine line) for their own gains. The U.S government has been in hot water in the past for breaching their citizens personally security through the NSA in order to "seek out and prevent terrorist attacks before they have a chance to take place" - in my opinion if you have to breach your citizens private lives and freedom rights to prevent terrorism, you've already lost.
This type of revolt against the FCC was an attempt to bring about global change through many forms of media, either through social media, news networks or print. It challenged a dominant agenda whilst strengthening community ties through the internet - entire networks banded together in an attempt to save something they feel is theirs by right. Social media networks were used in an attempt to reach a public audience that usually avoid news networks or aren't interested in current events all together, this act affects everyone and the movement is making sure that everyone is aware.
Social Media's effect on the LGBT movement
Social media is a way for people, businesses, and communities to communicate with each other over the internet. There are different reasons why people use social media whether it be for entertainment, research, social, or educational purposes; but all social media sites are mainly used for people to communicate with others.
The LGBT Rights Movement is a movement that strives to end discrimination against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. This movement has been around since the early 20th century and has become a big social topic today. The goal of this movement is to change laws that prohibit LGBT activity(for example: the ban on gay marriage) and convince the world that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination is wrong.
These videos are an example of the LGBT community making use of social media websites such as YouTube, one of the most harrowing of the videos is a young gay man talking about his experience with Kyrgyzstan's police force torturing gay men.
The rights of LGBT people are violated all over the world. LGBT people face inequality, discrimination, violence, and even torture or death in some countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The rights of LGBT people are being violated because of hate crimes and federal civil rights laws in most countries that don't protect LGBT people.
Social media is used to spread news on the topic of the LGBT movement and promote as well as give support to the movement. The promotion of the LGBT movement is spread through posts, tweets, photos, comics, and videos.
Because of social media, the LGBT movement has become a more relevant social topic in today’s society. Social media has helped bring more LGBT supporters and it’s also helped some people to come out as being homosexual, bisexual, etc. Social media is a more reliable way of spreading the cause more than the mainstream news media because more people (including teens) use social media rather than pay attention to the news. Also, the only time that the LGBT movement will really get any news attention is when there’s a vote on same-sex marriage in a state. This is a better way to spread the LGBT movement because it will actually go into detail about the movement unlike the mainstream news media.
Prior to broad deployment of the Internet, life, especially life as an LGBT individual, was mostly limited by geography. The geographic circles within which LGBT people lived, moved and worked were largely our entire world when it came to LGBT contacts. Unless we happened to live in a major city that had a “gay ghetto,” going outside these circles usually meant sneaking off to a small, dimly lit bar, often hidden in the shadows and the recesses of communities across the United States. LGBT communities lived in the shadows, often in shame and in fear of police raids and arrests. There have certainly been examples of equality and empowerment, such as the Stonewall riots or the March on Washington, but amplifying these geographic events was difficult without means of mass communication, and with limited means of disseminating information to maintain momentum and raise awareness.
In the 1980s and 1990s the AIDS crisis forced homosexuality out of the shadows and onto the front pages of American and global newspapers. No longer could gay men easily hide who they were; the rising tide of HIV infections and AIDS cases affected gay men in the prime of their lives. Whole communities were struck down. The AIDS crisis often added to those feelings of shame and self-loathing that afflicted LGBT communities, as discrimination added to fear and ignorance. The AIDS crisis also had another effect: It galvanized the community to start doing more, because time was critical. Organizations like ACT UP, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the AIDS Memorial Quilt and others gave rise to LGBT activists who were fighting for their lives and had nothing to gain by being polite, and everything to lose. These organizations and activists protested and mobilized in increasing numbers for greater AIDS funding and research, against a government that was largely deaf to their life-threatening issues
The now largely byzantine methods of organizing via phone trees and the printing and posting of flyers on telephone poles at universities were the accepted methods used to get the word out.
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Images taken during the protests as a result of the AIDS crisis in the 1980's.
Many in the gay community tried their hardest to convey that the AIDS crisis was not their fault as HIV was unknown and transmission was not accompanied by noticeable signs or symptoms. They weren't to know they had been subject to the disease.
As awareness of gay people grew in the media and across America’s homes, later research confirmed that when a person knows or learns that a friend or family member is LGBT, those people are much more likely to positively change their views and attitudes toward LGBT people. They become more supportive of LGBT rights and same-sex marriage. There was also an increasing rise of LGBT people represented in the media and coming out to serve as role models. The lesbian kiss on Ellen is very renown as at that time, it would have been hard to envision a landscape where television shows such as Glee could positively portray transgender and gay high school students on primetime TV, or that actors such as Neil Patrick Harris could be proudly out and portray a heterosexual romantic lead on the top-rated broadcast sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
The Internet and the subsequent rise of social media have allowed LGBT people to bridge disparate geographies in ways that no previous technologies permitted. The Internet has also permitted LGBT people to safely and discreetly find partners and learn that they are not alone, regardless of where they live, from the comfort and security of their own home. The rise of social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and the continuous connectivity via smartphones have only accelerated the decrease in the isolation that has long been a part of the LGBT experience. One need only look at the sea of red equal signs that appeared on Facebook in support of marriage equality to see the potential impact of sharing ideas across new social media.
As technology has become integrated into our daily lives, there are real ways in which LGBT communities utilize technology differently, from online and app dating to activism.
As the LGBT civil rights movement continues to play out across the country, it will definitely be thanks to technological platforms such as broadband, Wi-Fi, smartphones, tablets and social media that its acceleration has been enabled.
Comparisons Between Both Movements
The purpose of both of these movements was to bring about global and national change.
The fight for LGBT rights will affect every member of the community no matter the nationality, ethnicity or background. The fight for net neutrality is a one that will mostly affect the United States of America but if the law is passed and neutrality is abolished, then it will no doubt have a monopoly effect around the world - but the current campaign is aimed at national change.
The main aim of the LGBT rights campaign is bring about awareness among not just the government, but communities. They are hoping to teach people that being a member of LGBT community does not justify inequality and a lack in basic human rights. It's certainly working, as more and more countries are passing the law to allow gay people to marry - unfortunately this campaign isn't met with completely open arms and sometimes even ends up resulting in tragic circumstances such as the terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States, in which 49 people were killed and 58 wounded. Incidents like this help make the world aware of this current battle for rights, but it really shouldn't be necessary in the 21st century.
The LGBT campaign also aims to challenge dominant representations of their struggle - whether it's through challenging local authorities, communities in which the anti-LGBT mind-set is normal or even the U.S government themselves. They battle these representations by infiltrating mainstream media via social media and protests. They wish to change the world's stance on gay rights but they also wish to inform, their effort is definitely working although they have a long way to come.
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