The Role of Social Media in Political Movements - The Student Strike / The Umbrella Revolution

In this blog, I am going to use my experience to express my idea and feeling to the question, first I would try to give the background what it is and how the social media help the process of the movement.

Before the moving to the central content of the blog, it is a need to give the background of the movement. Besides there is a dividing line between the student strike and the Umbrella Revolution when there was a clearance in the Central Government Offices, the student strike becomes a cvil disobedience on 26 September as the Police's act angered the citizens. Started from that day, it has been the 20th day of the movement.

So, the student strike started on 22 September when there were boycotted classes that week to lie on sprawling lawns outside the government headquarters and discuss different topics that leaded by professors from the universities in Hong Kong.
The boycott was in response to the decision by the National People's Congress imposing restrictions on choosing of candidates in the elections for the Chief Executive that will be held in 2017. The authority proposed that the election committee is made up of totally 1200 members who are mostly loyal members to the Chinese Government. And they will choose two or three candidates for the elections. This decision is not the "universal suffrage" that Hong Kong citizen want as it limited the voter's choice towards to the candidates.

therefore, the student strike aims at bargaining the true "universal suffrage" via the method of "cvil nomination" and later the occupying Central( the Umbrella Revolution) aims at the same goal.

During these 20 days, the social media played a crucial role in the movement and I tried to analyzed it by my experience. Before the boycott, there were lots of voice in Facebook, Twitter and even in your Whatsapp groups urged you to stand out, and I did go to Chinese University on the first day of the boycott.

<- Here is a short video clip I recored that day.






Then later the few days I did not go the the government headquarter as I was lazy to take a long bus route to there. However, I kept updating the news via the traditional mass media, and the new social media, like Whatsapp, Youtube and Facebook.

Until, the clearance night, I was watching the live steaming on Youtube on one hand, on the other hand, I was browsing the Forum chat room on the other side. Thus, the actual situation in Admiralty can instantly be seen by me. For example, I can get the information about "Joshua Wong climbed into the Cvil Square and was arrested by the police" within 3 minutes via Facebook.

pic taken on 17/10 by me

Besides, traditional mass media news, like Apple Daily and Now TV are not available live steaming through Internet, therefore, the credibility of the information is well to trust other than that of the Facebook sharing and rumors in the sharing in the Whatsapp.

As more and more news and visual images were instantly showing to the public, and information is much easier to spread instantly without the scanning by the traditional mass media, it attracted people to stand out and voice out their will.

pic taken on 12/10 by me

pic taken on 12/10 by me

Up to now, the movement is processing in a positive way as more and more people are willing to come out to chasing the goal.