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Malaka Friedman
Finding the Middle Ground: Analyzing the Before and After of the Digital Divide Through the Lens of a Social Media Movement in Argument for Digital Literacy
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Rhetoric & Writing MA Portfolio
Part 1:
Technology as a Barrier for Collective Identity: Analyzing the 2017 Women’s March as a Social Media Movement
Overview
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Technology as a Barrier for Collective Identity focuses on the "before" of the digital divide, specifically what prevents people from accessing the internet. The two barriers I explored in this paper were socioeconomics and access that prevented a collective identity of the Women's March as a social media movement.
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This paper was written for Dr. Tiffany Bourelle's English 640 New Media Literacies course.
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What is Participation & Who Can Participate?
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Social media movements (SMOs) have proven to be "a powerful tool for protest movements" (Cammaerts et al. 77). One example of a perceived successful SMOs is the 2010 Arab Spring Protests, where individuals used social media to call for a shift in democracy. Occupy Wall Street
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However, a major criticism of SMOs is that often people participated in a bandwagon effort that only extends to participation online leading to a "free rider" issue (Oslo). Referred to as "clicktivism" or "slacktivism" by Victoria Carty, Activism2.0 does not appear as clear cut as it seems.
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Who is able to participate and who gets to make those decisions?
Women's March
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Participation for the Women's March was through in person Sister Marches and livestreams through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, amongst other social media platforms. Initially the Women's March was started through Facebook groups before moving to its own website (see website to the left).
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Throughout the website there is an attempted emphasis on inclusiveness to create a collective identity. A collective front was further emphasized through using social media platforms that used tagging through hashtags # and @ symbols to connect potential participants to the website.
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Anyone was able to participate as a result if they had access to the internet.
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New Mexico as a Sample Size
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The majority of internet access in New Mexico is through a mobile wireless carrier such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and NMobile. Coverage ranges from 3G to 4G coverage, depending on the area and availability of cell towers for mobile wireless or satellite internet as of May 2017. Mobile coverage however can fluctuate in its meaning from cell provider to cell provider, as some companies will count cell towers while others will count individuals (Lawson).
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New Mexico had six marches overall in Albuquerque, Deming, Fort Sumner, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, and Truth & Consequences. All of these locations, with the exception of Fort Sumner, have cable internet access with Fort Sumner having DSL access at the very least in addition to options for additional broadband internet services.
Tierra Amarilla
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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico resides within Rio Arriba county. More than 60% of homes lack board band internet access at home, resulting in internet access primarily being dominated by mobile wireless and satellite internet. As of April 2018 there are regions closer to Tierra Amarilla that do have DSL internet.
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Due to the lack of available internet individuals within this community would not be able to engage fully with the Women's March in terms of finding out information about the march and the resulting action steps the Women's March recommends.
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Bridging the Divide
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Equal parts of the digital divide need to be focused on in person resources in combination with online resources. Additional work should be done to create more connections for individuals and communities to get online.
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For my hypothetical example of Tierra Amarilla I created an in person newsletter (see PDF ) that can be distributed in combination with a Facebook page that reiterates the same information (see image).
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