Social Media: A Voice for the Voiceless
We blogged not long ago about the way in which social media gave voice to the people of Egypt, resulting in a victory for democracy. Much of the Arab world has followed suit and it seems with every dawning day we're brought more news of citizens demanding to be heard, aided and fuelled by social media technology.
There's certainly no doubt that people with a voice will use it – and try as they might to silence that voice, regimes will not be successful for long. But what if you've never been given a voice in the first place? How do you connect when you don't have the tools? The uprisings abroad – and the relative impact in terms of loss of life between the recent earthquake in Christchurch and the 2010 Haitian quake – are cause for reflection on the unheard voices closer to home.
Bridging the digital divide
According to a research report on bridging the digital divide conducted by the Inspire Foundation, Indigenous Australians 'remain much less likely to have access to the Internet than their non-indigenous peers', which means that the all-important forum of social media is also out of reach. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, around 36 per cent of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people had access to the Internet at home, compared with the national average of 67 per cent.
Australians were outraged when Libya, Egypt and other countries had their Internet cut as a bid to stop anti-government sentiments, yet in 2008, only eight per cent of indigenous Australians living in remote areas had access to the Internet at home. (In towns and cities the number goes up to about 50 per cent.)
Reach Out is an Inspire Foundation initiative that is in the early stages of launching a social media initiative to give young people in marginalised communities a chance to 'reach out' via social media. It's a concept known as 'moblogging'.
'The moblogging project is focused on engaging young people using mobile phone technology,' explains Ben Hanckel, Inspire's Youth Content Coordinator. 'The project forms part of ReachOut.com's Youth Action Project, which is focused on working with young people in different settings around the country to do something about the issues their community faces.'
Providing an outlet
It's initiatives like this, from organisations that really want to listen, that give young Australians from marginalised communities a chance to find a unique voice. In a time where we like our news and current affairs in 140 characters, the immediacy and multimedia aspect of social media is a perfect forum for Indigenous Australians – especially the younger generations – to say what they need to say and be heard.
Where previously literacy levels proved something of a barrier to communication, smart phone technology means that young people in the moblogging project can upload their own content their own way – via text message, video, pictures or social networking.
'We are planning to run the workshops in two Indigenous communities next month in Port Hedland and Perth,' says Hanckel. 'Participants will be given mobile phones and will report back to us about how everything is going with their projects over a three month implementation period. 'hey will report back about their projects on a moblog, which is a mobile weblog updated with mobile content in the form of text, photographs and video using their mobile phones and data plans.'
Improving access to and competency with social media in the Indigenous community is a powerful way to let Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people connect – not only with each other, but also with the wider community that too often assumes the role of speaking for them.
Questions and Answers
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