Why the heck should you care about social media?

The title is a bit nicer version of the hilarious presentation by Martha Z.  Kagan, see here.  Anyhow, both versions asks the same questions: does social media (or mobile technology) have any relevance (to Plan’s work) or are they only fancy buzz words?  Based on presentations and discussions in the Social Media for Social Change Workshop, the quick answer would be yes – and yes.

Whether we are talking about blogs, wikis, SMS or youtube, they are all powerfull tools for telling everyone that you like your pets. But also that there are human rights violations happening in your country. Thus, as Hannah Beardon writes in the soon-to-be-published Mobile for Development: how mobile technologies can enhance Plan’s work in Africa:  …it is the information and communication, not the technology, which is at the heart of social change”.

Still, it’s ok to get excited about all the potential and possibilities of new technology. At their best, they can radically amplify the messages, information and communication between the “North” and the “South”, between rights-holders and duty-bearers, the state and the citizens, the communities and individuals – just to name a few.

Because I’m impressed by the incredible documentary called “Burma VJ – Reporting from a close country”, I’m quoting here what hand-held cameras and internet connections can do even in the most totalitarian country:

The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) consists of a group of about 30 Burmese reporters who secretly film the abuses in their country. The footage is then smuggled across the border and broadcast via satellite from the headquarters in Oslo. These are the images that could be seen across the globe when a revolution was about to erupt in the late summer of 2007. Led by Buddhist monks, more than 100,000 people took to the streets to march peacefully against the military dictatorship that has held the country in an iron grip for 40 years now. Burma VJ is almost exclusively compiled from footage shot by DVB reporters. One of them from his hiding place in Thailand,  uses the telephone or Internet to stay in touch with colleagues who report on the uprising: shaky hand-held images of emergency deliberations by protesters, of the dispersion of the crowd, of monks and civilians getting knocked down. Their cameras hidden in bags or clenched under their armpits, the DVB reporters risk their lives and take the viewer right into the heat of the turmoil.
(quote from here)

This probably an extreme case of using lastest technology for human rights and development, but therefore also shows the potential of ICT (whether in the form of social media, mobile technology or any other service/equipment) in in the most difficult circumstances.

Do you agree or disagree? What do you think?  Please feel welcome to comment this post!