Reed, T. V. (2014). Digitized lives: Culture, power, and social change in the internet era

According to Reed, “The political impact of new media technologies will depend on how the informational and communicational powers of the technologies are put to use. If information gathering is simply used to further already existing political beliefs, then our political lives will be no richer, and may in fact become more polarized and dangerous. If information gathering leads to expanded knowledge and more substantive exchanges of ideas, then greater political wisdom may emerge. But the technology is only the means; the ends, once again, will be decided by who uses the technology most imaginatively and most effectively” (p. 125).

In a paper of approximately 500 words (two double-spaced pages), apply one or two outside sources and draw on insights from Chapter 6 in Digitized Lives: Culture, Power, and Social Change in the Internet Era and articles from this week’s reading to examine the following:

Identify how the protests examined in the studies by Brym et al. and Vraga et al. made use of new media technologies in their activist efforts.

Synthesize the conclusions of Brym et al. and Vraga et al. with the respect to the authors’ evaluations of the protestors’ uses of social media to advance social change.

USE THESE SOURCES:
van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. London: Oxford University Press.
ISBN-13: 978-0199970780