The Political Power of Social Media

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/clay-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media

Summary: Discussion of the political impact of social media has focused on the power of mass protests to topple governments. In fact, social media's real potential lies in supporting civil society and the public sphere -- which will produce change over years and decades, not weeks or months.

CLAY SHIRKY is Professor of New Media at New York University

The Political Power of Social Media - Over the last two decades the world's networked population has grown from the low millions to billions.  Social media is now an innate part of life for civil society worldwide.  Global communication is now more intimate than ever and has more participants than ever.  It is easier than ever to have your voice heard and hear the voices of others.  The immediacy and fluidity of social media allows citizens to create change in the present but its long term scope is beginning to show as well.   In 2001, Philippine President Joseph Estrada was on trial for impeachment.  Loyalists in the Philippine Congress voted to exclude key evidence against Estrada.  Just hours after the decision was announced thousands of angry Filipinos protested at a major crossroad in Manila.  The protest was arranged by a forwarded text message reading, "Go 2 EDSA.  Wear blk."  In the end over a million people arrived and the public's ability to coordinate such a rapid and massive response forced the country's legislators to allow the critical evidence to be presented.  Estrada was impeached just days later.  This protest marked the first time that social media helped force out a national leader but as we've seen recently it wasn't the last.  Social media has given people more opportunities to engage in public speech and undertake collective action.  Social media has increased our ability to coordinate public demand change.