Social media is a great tool for activists campaigning for social justice. But if it is not used with caution it can end up working against them.
Vermont Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist, holding clipboard, a transgender woman, during her election night party in Burlington, Vt., Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018.
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Christine Hallquist this week became the first trans person to win a major party’s gubernatorial nomination. The percentage of trans adults has doubled since 2008. What’s responsible for that change?
Activism increasingly relies on strong visuals that can be shared online, and – somewhat surprisingly in a digital world – physical billboards still play an important role.
Race has long been a taboo subject in Brazil. With the March 14 killing of the black Rio politician Marielle Franco, any myth of the country as a ‘racial democracy’ has been broken wide open.
Protest is taking new shapes and forms.
Joe Giddens/PA Archive/PA Images
High profile strikes in key sectors – from railways to utility companies and universities – have taken place so far this year.
Peasant activists in rural Colombia have been under fire since the signing of the country’s 2016 peace plan, which will bring intensive economic development to these areas.
Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters
Nearly 300 community organizers and activists have been killed in Colombia since the country’s 2016 peace accord. Who’s behind these targeted assassinations?
Indonesia’s former president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left), and current president, Joko Widodo, had activists and scholars supporting their presidential campaigns. Many of them have since been given special staff positions in the administration.
Adi Weda/EPA
Many activists have entered politics in the two decades of Indonesia’s democratisation. But this hasn’t improved the quality of democracy in the country.
New global communities of concerned citizens can help protect iconic places such as the Great Barrier Reef. But the scope of these remote communities must extend beyond mere ‘slacktivism’.
The lightning-quick corporate response to demands for a boycott against the NRA shows that companies can’t escape politics in an age saturated with social media.
Some argue that news coverage of shootings is too sanitized.
puriri/Shutterstock.com
According to a photojournalism expert, there can be a relationship between exposure to grisly images and activism. But there are also ethical considerations to be made.
American skiier Gus Kenworthy is one of many openly gay athletes competing in Pyeongchang.
Head & Shoulders
Jan Leighley, American University School of Public Affairs et Jennifer Oser, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Citizen activists can influence the policy positions of their elected representatives. Their activism might well counter the advantages of the wealthy in America.