The mobile media, and the advancements within technology, can be seen to have allowed a greater feeling of connection within people, communities and social groups. Furthermore, the mobile media has come into question whether it has allowed a better sense of connection, thus mobilising social groups in certain situations. An example of this is the Arab Springs in 2011, which was a revolutionary up rise which started within Tunisia. It involved violent, non-violent demonstrations, riots, coups and also civil wars. It was caused by authoritarianism, an energy crisis, political corruption, human rights violations and also an array of other issues. The goals of the uprising were a fair democratic system, economic freedom, better human rights and in increase in employment. It was seen that social media, and mobile media, played a vital role within the Arab Springs uprising. Thus, is mobile media allowing a greater sense of connected presence for social groups? However, these uses of mobile media are not always seen as good due to being a political uprising – therefore, mobile media can be used to connect other social groups, such as those within an education setting who would otherwise be confined to the classroom to communicate who can now use social and mobile media to communicate consistently with other class friends, and also teachers.
The ideologies of connection and togetherness is something that is explored through the social presence theory. It classifies the differences in communication media, such as the awareness of the other person within an interaction. (Sallnas, Rassmus-Grohn & Sjostrom, 2000). According to the theory, communication only works therefore is only effective when there is enough social presence to create an interpersonal involvement. Normally, within a communication interaction there are two parties, who fill out two main roles within the interaction. (Short, Williams & Christie, 1976). However, computer-mediated communication has evolved and advanced therefore there are more ways in which a social presence can be achieved. Social presence now can be looked at the way citizens represent themselves online in their online environments. Social presence also can be defined as how participants see one another, therefore how it affects their communication. (Kehrwald, 2008).
In this case, mobile media can be seen to be allowing a greater sense of connection between social groups through allowing easier social movements. The German sociologist, Lorenz von Stein first introduced the term “social movement” into public and scholarly discourse in the 1950s (Tilly, 2004). It originally was the working class gaining a self-consciousness and also power – which then evolved into collective challenges by people with a common goal, usually against an elite power. (Tarrow, 1994). Social media, and thus mobile media, is now seen as a new social networking tool for social and collective action. World communication is ever-changing and advancing. Communication is more participatory and more complex. Citizens have gained more power due to increased access to information, we can expand our reach to further than our personal circle socially due to mobile media. This all adds to advance our ability to undertake collective action. Originally, collective action was undertaken personally in social hubs – however due to the rise of the internet and mobile media in the late 1990s, world communication is easier and more potent. It is said that “social media introduces speed and interactivity that were lacking in traditional mobilisation techniques, which generally include the use of leaflets, posters, and faxes” (Eltantawy & Wiest, 2007. Pg. 1207). We see examples of the speed and interactivity through the mobile media sites Facebook and Twitter, which are able to have a reach of millions at the same time, from all over the world. Facebook and Twitter are separate to official sources; therefore, they are able to give a voice to those who could not normally through official mass media (Clark, 2012). Downey and Fenton explain about this saying “This is an argument for information abundance freed from the shackles of a mass communication system that broadcast from one to many” (2003, pg. 185).
As mentioned before, the Arab Spring was a revolutionary up rise in the Middle East which involved riots, coups, civil wars and also violent/non-violent demonstrations. It began in 2010 in Tunisia but spread further to other Middle Eastern countries. The Arab Spring was a highly questioned issue due to the use of social media to create action. Protests were mobilised in areas of high internet use such as Bahrain, in the Middle East, but was also used in areas with little to no internet use e.g. Libya. (Stepanova, 2011). Overall, the social media usage was from ordinary citizens trying to create movement rather than elitists and authorities. It was used to shape political debates within the circle of the Arab Spring, by spreading awareness of the events to the rest of the world; to organise demonstrations whether they be violent or non-violent and disseminate information of their activities. It is stated that social media allowed for “rapid and relative peaceful disintegration of at least two regimes” in Tunisia and Egypt but it also helped social and political mobilisation in Syria, and Bahrain.
Furthermore, social and mobile media allowed for the expansion of certain social groups – ones that could cause harm and issues during the Arab Springs. Within Syria, the SEA (Syrian Electronic Army) mobilised and created a hacktivist group – one that could launch cyber attacks against the political opposition. This was all able to take shape due to mobile media, without it – hacktivist groups could not happen. (Clayton & Jacobsen, 2013) A direct example of this is the Egyptian campaign which was actioned on Facebook “We are all Khaled said” by an opposition group – it was said to be the largest online human-rights activist group, which was only mobilised due to mobile media. Whilst social networking was used regularly within the uprising in the Middle East, other forms of mobile media was also used – there were other ways of using mobile media to coordinate social movements. Common uses of mobile media were used, such as YouTube, emails and standard text messaging. Within the idea of the Arab Spring, mobile media – specifically social networking, was used to connect social groups together. These social groups were ones who could not use standard mainstream media, due to their niche views, therefore used un-mediated and unbiased forms of communication to rally support.
Another contemporary example of mobile media being used to allow social groups better connection is through the summer of 2011 London Riots. The riots were originally caused by the shooting of Mark Duggan by the London Metropolitan Police in Tottenham, which then caused uproar in areas such as Tottenham, Wood Green, Enfield, Hackney and Ealing to name a few. It was suggested strongly that social networking and mobile media, was the cause of the London Riots. This is because, with the central point of the riots being in London – they then spread further afield in places such as Birmingham, Nottingham and Wolverhampton. Theresa May, then British Home Secretary, stated “[social media] have been used to co-ordinate criminality and stay one step ahead of the police” which was first published within the Financial Times, which then was pushed out to other newspapers, primarily tabloid press.
The main issue of the 2011 London Riots was the messaging service Blackberry Messenger which was used by citizens who took part in the riots, they used it to communicate with others due to the encryption which meant that authorities could not understand what they were doing. Due to mobile media, it has allowed increased connectivity to organise gatherings and other social movements (Jurgenson, 2012. Pg. 83). Furthermore, to the use of text messaging services, Twitter was also used to help movements within the riots. Twitter was used to rapidly spread messages amongst people, quickly before authorities could intervene. It was seen that Twitter could promote and enhance gang culture, and therefore violence to add to the riots of the summer. In this case, mobile media has enhanced commuciation between social groups thus allowing a greater sense of ‘together’ yet, it was not in a good way – communication was abused and led to the rioting and looting of several towns and cities within the United Kingdom.
However, there are times where mobile media is helpful when connecting social groups. Within education, mobile media is used more and more often nowadays to communicate and link students together. Mobile media has allowed the idea of mobile learning which thus can be done from geographically diverse locations and can therefore create a greater sense of communication. Teachers are able to communicate with their pupils after school, they can encourage after-school learning and provide constant help due to the connection between them. Teachers are also able to reach areas of the social group that wouldn’t ask for help, or wouldn’t be noticed – due to the personal touch of mobile media such as a pupil being able to ask for help without everyone else knowing – which can sometimes be embarrassing.
To conclude, with the advances in mobile media – we see communication become easier. Where communication is easier due to mobile media, social groups are able to communicate quicker and more efficiently, allowing social groups who would not exist without mobile media exist and this fact causes certain issues and positives. Mobile media has helped the idea of social movements and helped rally supporters. These supporters are not always geographically close therefore would not be able to communicate easily. But due to mobile media, efficient communication is available. We see this during the Arab Springs, which started in Tunisia – but then further spread to other countries in the Middle East such as Bahrain and Yemen. This communication has allowed social movements, ones to create a better democracy and allow citizens to live with more human rights. Whilst, in the Middle East, not all goals have been achieved – without social media and mobile media, none of their goals would have been achieved because they couldn’t have mobilised as easy as they did, with the use of mobile media. Other instances meant that whilst communication between social groups was achieved but led to issues such as crime and violence, as seen in the London 2011 riots. Therefore, overall I believe mobile media has increased communication thus leading to a greater sense of ‘together’, however there are instances where the outcome has been good – such as the use within an education setting, but there have also been bad outcomes such as crime and potentially death.