2011 has seen an incredible flood of newsworthy stories come from the belly of the social networks. The personalization of current affairs has brought citizen journalism to an all new dimension. Previously the mainstream idea of our social media networks was to relay personal insights and light tidbits to “friends” on these platforms but as we saw in 2011, and no doubt will continue to see, is that our networks are much more refined as our direct line of information streamed instantly to our arena of attention.
The days of sitting on the couch after work to catch up on the daily news is nearly outdated. Our news outlets are growing at a rapid pace with instant news access via our shareable search engine homepages, twitter accounts and Facebook updates. Whole populations are engaged and activated by these strings of opinions, calls to action and in some cases ferocious demands for change.
December, 2011 | Russians flooded networks with protests against leader, Vladamir Putin, over electoral fraud in Russia.
Thousands turn out into the streets demanding change. Russian government upped its game and retaliated in the social media networks with fraudulent tweets to drown out the noise, making it difficult to decipher the news. — details
August, 2011 | An Israeli tenant gets fed up with increasing rents, sets up a Facebook Page and pitches a tent in the center of Tel Aviv.
This act rallied other Israeli’s to join and do the same, not only in Israel but across the U.S. in such cities as NYC, LA and in the front yard of the White House in DC. 200,000+ protestors take to the streets of Tel Aviv. — details
January, 2011 | World is flooded with news of Egyptian unrest via social networks from inside the country.
World is given a first hand look at the bloody demonstrations prior to the government crackdown on internet access. Twitter confirms their site had been blocked in Egypt. Catalyst to the question of whether this will create a domino effect through out the region. — details
Social media has not created the unrest in the world but certainly has given voice to those who felt powerless prior to these tools. 2011 will be the commemorating year for it’s use in enacting catalytic movement toward active participation. The global communities have begun to re-define the meanings of the media tools available like never before. Occupy Wall Street began September 17th, 2011 and we have watched it grow to multiple cities across the nation and last for 3+ months. What will we see in 2012?
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