At a Tuesday night lecture entitled “Activism in the Digital Age,” panelists spoke about how social media is the medium of the Black Lives Matter movement and capabilities of technology.

More than 50 people attended the first lecture in a three-part Syracuse University series, called “Activism in the Digital Age.”

The Social Media and Democracy lecture series is co-hosted by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the School of Information Studies. Tuesday’s lecture in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium featured Dwight DeWerth-Pallmeyer, associate professor of communication studies at Widener University; Biko Mandela Gray, assistant professor of religion in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Tia C. M. Tyree, professor of strategic, legal and management communications at Howard University.

All three panelists’ research areas closely revolve around social media and justice, race, religion, civic engagement, media criticism and digital technology. Regina Luttrell, assistant professor of public relations at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, served as the moderator.

The discussion centered around questions related to social media and its impact on civic engagement, social activism and the current political climate. Gray began the session by reflecting on the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

“Fergusson was on fire after Darren Wilson was not indicted. It was a movement, reporting the things that CNN and mainstream outlets were not doing,” Gray said. “Initially social media became a way to document what was happening.”

Tyree pointed to the civil rights movement, adding that television was the mass medium used during that time to spread information. Once that information was televised, people saw what they heard.

Social media allows a user to not only experience what’s happening but to take part in it, she added. Gray said that online anonymity gives a voice to people who think they are voiceless.

Luttrell brought up a recent tweet that showed the results of a Pew Research report on media attitudes. She then asked if certain voices on social media were being silenced, and whether or not we live in our own bubble by following the same types of people.

“The reality is that we have ‘smart’ phones in our pockets which have figured out what we like,” Tyree said. “It’s our phone feeding us what we want to eat.”

Engy Adham, a television, radio and film graduate student, asked the panelists about freedom of expression online and how it limits people to share their opinions on digital platforms instead of going on the streets.

“Nobody is going to find who you are,” Tyree said. She said there are numerous bloggers who think their content may go viral anytime but that it is hard in today’s digital media climate.

The session ended with a question about how people can use social media to empower a movement and bring about an effective change. The biggest problem is that people need to act on an issue even if it doesn’t affect them, Gray said.

“We got to go to work,” he said. “I think that’s the only way we can begin to make critical change.”

Published on September 26, 2018 at 1:13 am

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