This year I’ve set myself the challenge of reading some books. After my studies there came a period where I didn’t want to read anything, but since the start of 2008 I’ve been trying to read some books of substance.
I’ve recently finished No Logo by Naomi Klein. It’s described as ‘The Das Kapital of the growing anti-corporate movement’ by The Guardian. In it Klein exposes the child labour violations of corporations, such as Nike, and makes you realise how quickly corporations have taken over the public space. She also spent a lot of the book focussing on the activism of consumers in the face of the ever expanding corporate sphere. It was inspiring to read the stories of those in the mid/to late 90s who fought back against the branding of their lives.
Klein ended the book on a rather sombre note. Yes a new global movement seemed to be forming, and after the Seattle riots following the World Trade Organisation summit then there really was a change in the air – but the attacks on September 11 2001 changed so much. That one event seemed to change the way that activism was taking place and changed the public perception towards the protestors – “You’re either with us, or against us” is the rhetoric that George W Bush spilled out. Johann Hari in the New Statesman asks ‘Whatever happened to No Logo?’.
I was especially interested in how Klein referenced the internet in her book. It seemed that this explosion of activism against large corporations happened around the same time that internet take-up really took off (mid-late 90s). She states: “it is the Internet that has rapidly become the tool of choice for spreading information about multinationals around the globe.” Which made me think, Klein wrote this before the rise of big internet corporations, such as Google and Facebook. How easy would it be for activists to use these social media in their campaigns? Facebook relies on advertisers to keep itself going, if consumers were to revolt against a branded network space – what would happen?
But, also, with the explosion of broadband has their been an explosion in activism using the web? What examples are there of people using the web to network as citizens and turn that into a campaign? How are third sector organisations using the ‘online’ generation to affect change? I started my series on ‘How third sector organisations are using the web for campaigning’ and reading No Logo has inspired me to finish it. How are these social media, that by their very nature are there to connect people, being used to connect and affect change?
Over the coming weeks I’m going to be taking a look at how third sector organisations (charities, voluntary organisations, lobby groups) have been using the web as a campaigning tool. This came about as in my role at the Students’ Union at UCLan I am investigating ways for the Union to use the web for campaigning, as previously the organisation relied heavily on printed material and suffers from a general lack of imagination around campaigning. And the biggest problem, no people.
So, to kick things off I’m looking at Action Aid. As their website header proudly states they’ve been fighting poverty for 35 years – but how is the web playing a role in fighting poverty?
The key to any successful campaign is PEOPLE, people and MORE people. People feel, have rights and have time/effort/energy. Many hands make light work and all that. Well, on the frontpage of Action Aid’s site – perhaps not as prominently as it could be – is ‘MyActionAid‘. This is hosted on a separate URL so can be promoted offline. This is a social network for activists.
Social networks and media should be great for charity. They allow the creation of social networks around specific topics, and for Action Aid they’ve taken this to a higher level by hosting and creating their own network. I can’t get access to it, as I’m not a member, but this rather funky (E4 style video clip) shows me the power of it:
Good stuff and great use of video, plus it helps if you’ve got a relative celebrity to do your voiceovers (yeah that bloke off the E4 ads who puts loads of sarcasm into everything). However it’s only had 266 views on Youtube.
The homepage of MyActionAid could be a bit better, they highlight upcoming events but it could do with showcasing more of the fundraising events that are upcoming. Overall though, a cracking social network for activists.
The campaigns section is titled ‘What you can do‘ – good stuff, if I saw the section ‘Campaigns’ I’d be bored stiff. This is engaging and a call to arms, it says ‘We are ActionAid, come join us’. Not ‘We are ActionAid, we campaign on this’. Again, it’s about engagement and people. I managed to end up clicking a big circle called ‘Take action now’ but when I did I was a bit disappointed to find a news story about a Labour minister giving his heart. The form to actually take action about this was below the scroll line, so I might not have bothered to look. If there’s a form, put it high up or at least have a big link to it.
Great social network for activists, but frontpage could have more of a buzz about it and feature more of what the activists are doing to campaign, raise money etc
Good use of blogging to support campaigns, helped by some creative PR
Hiding away forms that encourage engagement below scroll lines is not good
Good use of video to promote the social network, was good to watch and helped by star voiceover
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