CNET: Social media and social justice: How to vet online awareness campaigns before jumping in. “Whether it’s a black square on #BlackOutTuesday or a black-and-white selfie for #womensupportingwomen, odds are you’ve seen some campaign related to a social cause take over your newsfeed. But at a time when calls to take action are louder than ever, how much good can social media campaigns really do? Fact is, they’re not all created equal, and you’ll want to pause before deciding which ones to support.”
social change
Library of Congress: The March on Washington in Color
Library of Congress / Unsplash Guest Post: The March on Washington in Color. “[August 28] marks the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington—when a quarter-million people came together to draw attention to the continued challenges and inequalities faced by Black Americans. The two dozen or so color photographs from that day and its leaders are locked down under expensive licenses, inaccessible to the general public, limiting the usage and awareness of one of the most defining moments in American history. Today, we fix this. With the help of the team at the Library and visual historian Jordan Lloyd, we’ve assembled a set of images with no known restrictions from the March, its leaders and segregated America.”
Uncut and unedited: Livestreamers have become a key cog in the Louisville protests (USA Today)
USA Today: Uncut and unedited: Livestreamers have become a key cog in the Louisville protests. “Just before 7 p.m. May 28, Louisville entertainer Montez Jones was in a car on the way to an impromptu protest in the name of Breonna Taylor. He opened his Facebook page and hit ‘go live.’ Within hours, hundreds of people had joined him downtown – the crowd growing as word spread through texts, calls and shares of his livestream. Fast-forward three months, and the protests have continued, with people young and old calling for justice for the unarmed Black woman killed in March at the hands of police.”
Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University: New Online Tool Tracks Oil and Gas Transformation
Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University: New Online Tool Tracks Oil and Gas Transformation. “To help explain how the oil and gas sector is transforming, the many challenges the industry is facing, and the intersecting factors that will shape its role in the energy transition, the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) partnered with the World Economic Forum on the Oil and Gas Transformation Map, an interactive tool for users to explore and make sense of the complex and interlinked forces that will dictate the future of the industry.”
Axios: Coronavirus forces rethinking of safety net for working women
Axios: Coronavirus forces rethinking of safety net for working women. “The coronavirus pandemic has been devastating for working women, but one prominent women’s policy expert says it could provide a new opportunity to create the kinds of social supports they should have had all along.”
BBC: Iran halts execution of three protesters after online campaign
BBC: Iran halts execution of three protesters after online campaign. “Iran has halted the executions of three men who were sentenced to death over anti-government protests last year, according to one of their lawyers. Babak Paknia told reporters that a request for a retrial had been accepted by the supreme court. The decision comes after a hashtag against their execution was used millions of times online.”
New Yorker: How Pandemics Wreak Havoc—and Open Minds
New Yorker: How Pandemics Wreak Havoc—and Open Minds. “Great crises tend to bring profound social change, for good or ill. The consequences of wars and economic depressions have been amply studied; the consequences of pandemics, less so. This spring, in order to understand our possible future, I decided to look at the past through the eyes of Gianna Pomata, a retired professor at the Institute of the History of Medicine, at Johns Hopkins University. When we first talked, on Skype, she immediately compared covid-19 to the bubonic plague that struck Europe in the fourteenth century—’not in the number of dead but in terms of shaking up the way people think.’ She went on, ‘The Black Death really marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of something else.’ That something else was the Renaissance.”
WashU Expert: How to document the protests (Washington University in St. Louis)
Washington University in St. Louis: WashU Expert: How to document the protests. “Americans across the nation are documenting today’s protests through photography and video, often posting their content on Instagram, Twitter and other social media feeds. But is that the safest way to preserve these historic images? No, said Miranda Rectenwald, curator of local history at University Libraries at Washington University in St. Louis. She has created a list of resources from Documenting the Now, the Blacktivists and more, to help protest participants preserve their content for the long term.”
Observer: Feeling Heat, Mark Zuckerberg Will Meet With Civil Rights Groups Boycotting Facebook
Observer: Feeling Heat, Mark Zuckerberg Will Meet With Civil Rights Groups Boycotting Facebook. “While the boycott may not make a significant dent in the company’s income, global brands such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola publicly calling for the platform to change is a big deal. And after a team of top Facebook executives failed to talk those advertisers out of it, CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally agreed to meet with the civil rights groups behind the boycott and hear what they want, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters late Tuesday.”
New York Times: How Social Media Has Changed Civil Rights Protests
New York Times: How Social Media Has Changed Civil Rights Protests. “Omar Wasow is steeped in both social media and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And he marvels at how the two have melded in the current demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality. Wasow, a professor at Princeton University and co-founder of the pioneering social network BlackPlanet.com, said social media was helping publicize police brutality and galvanizing public support for protesters’ goals — a role that his research found conventional media played a half century ago. And he said he believed that the internet was making it easier to organize social movements today, for good and for ill.”
Nikkei Asian Review: Tiananmen museum seeks funds to preserve crackdown relics online
Nikkei Asian Review: Tiananmen museum seeks funds to preserve crackdown relics online. “The operators of the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving the memory of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown have begun a global crowdfunding drive to take their collection online, prodded by the looming national security law Beijing plans to impose in Hong Kong.”
New York Times: Will the Pandemic Slow New York’s Progressive Momentum?
New York Times: Will the Pandemic Slow New York’s Progressive Momentum?. “After helping Democrats win control of New York State’s government two years ago, progressives envisioned 2020 as the year to expand their foothold in the State Capitol in Albany. They would use a proven playbook: Progressive groups would recruit liberal-minded newcomers to challenge entrenched Democratic state legislators whom they regarded as too moderate, and who had run unopposed for years. But just as they were getting their grass-roots campaigns off the ground, the coronavirus descended on New York, dampening efforts to push the State Legislature leftward in the June 23 primary elections.”
ABC News: Smithsonian museums collecting White House protest signs to preserve slice of history
ABC News: Smithsonian museums collecting White House protest signs to preserve slice of history. “Several museums moved to preserve a slice of history in Washington on Wednesday by taking steps to keep some of the signs protesters strung along a fence near the White House after the death of George Floyd.”
‘Dead’ links and ‘missing’ systemic changes: Inside Google’s response to the George Floyd protests (NBC News)
NBC News: ‘Dead’ links and ‘missing’ systemic changes: Inside Google’s response to the George Floyd protests. “Ten current and former Google employees spoke to NBC News about the internal dynamics at the company on the condition of anonymity because of strict company policies against speaking to news organizations, as well as non-disclosure agreements signed by ex-employees. The sources pointed to rising complaints from some black Google employees about how the company has responded to the ongoing protests in support of racial justice and against police violence, exacerbated by what they see as the company’s retreat on diversity and inclusion initiatives.”
Campaigns & Elections: How Social Media Has Powered America’s Racial Justice Protests
Campaigns & Elections: How Social Media Has Powered America’s Racial Justice Protests. “Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become as much a part of the racial-justice protests sweeping America as handmade signs, water bottles and face masks. Besides helping activists flood the streets, monitor the police, mobilize supporters and raise money, mobile apps and social media platforms have brought the American public right to the front lines.”
