Introduction
The main objective of this essay is to analyze how social media networks can change the attitude of the youths towards poverty war in Australia. If a change is to be effectively implemented, then the whole society has to be wholly involved. In the fight against poverty, there is a need to engage the youth. One of the most effective ways that can be used to encourage the youth into fighting poverty is through using the social network media.
There is need to take advantage of the social media networks as they are very common among the young people to change the attitude of the youths towards fighting poverty. As Shirky has comprehensively shown in his studies, the media technology has a huge potential to change the world for a better place.
This paper discusses the issue of the need to eliminate poverty and shows the youth can be engaged to assist in the fight against poverty by changing their attitudes toward poverty.
An analysis of the current situation- Poverty
Fundamental Issues on Change
There are four fundamental aspects that should be put into consideration when discussing change: who is involved in the change or what is involved in the change; this can either be an individual or institutional actors, what are the strategies that are involved in bringing change; these can either be reformers, mass demonstrations or group mobilization, what is the context in which and on how change can happen and what is the process or the path that change can happen through.
These issues are critical for any individual or any society to navigate though the path of change. There have been several concerns as to where change originates from, that is, whether it comes from within or without or whether it is intentional or spontaneous and whether it is evolutionary, reform or through transformation. For a change to be fully incorporated, it should undergo some series of stages.
Poverty Analysis
In the context of this paper, poverty has been big challenges all over the world. Australia joined the Make Poverty History campaign alongside other English speaking countries. The Make Poverty History campaign aims at raising awareness of global poverty and more so to realize policy change regarding the injustices of poverty.
The campaign concentrates on various issues but more specific to the eighth millennium development goal such as aid, trade and justice. One of the most successful campaigns to be achieved through the use social media networks is the Make Poverty History campaign. Various advocacy groups have been using different campaigns and mobilizing strategies to realize this cause.
In analyzing change in relation to Make Poverty History campaign, it is imperative to answer the following questions: what is the change to be explained? What is the situation before and after the change? Who is involved in the change?
This may include relevant actors like who is to change or what is to be changed, who are the active agents of the change; who facilitated the change and who resisted the change. What are the strategies that can be employed in bringing change? (Krznaric 6).
Why It Needs to Change
The level to which the Australian society is poor is quite astonishing. Statics over the years have shown a continued increase in the level of poverty in Australia. The Smith Family report of 2001 showed the following: “14.9 % children of Australia are poor; total percentages of Australians who live in poverty are 13% and; percentage of single parent families who live in poverty are 21.8%” (Australia 1).
The most recent poll shows that 11 percent (2.2 million) Australians live under poverty (Middendorp 1). This is a very small decrease in percent of poverty. It is clear that something needs to be done to reduce and if possible eliminate poverty in Australia.
Potential Drivers of Change
Australia is the leading country in web using, they are considered frequent customers in the social networking craze. They lead in posting, blogging, poking and twittering. It is estimated that the average time Australians visit social sites are seven hours in a month; this is more when compared with the global average of five and half hours.
This is considered as a desire by the Australian youth to bridge their geographical isolation and to make their voices heard. Shirky claims that people have got so much time which can be used in a beneficial manner. He observed that the young generation is not keen on spending so much time watching TV but instead much of their time is spent on social media networks (Shirky 10).
Shirky affirms that social media networks can be used positively and indeed it has been used positively to bring about positive changes in the society, he substantiated these claims by giving examples of how young people through Facebook have already achieved great results.
Shirky identified four ways in which social media can be used: personal, communal, public and civic (Shirky 183). Poverty is a communal issue and social media networks can be used to eradicate it by sensitizing people.
It is therefore very evident that to effectively include the youth in the fight against poverty, the potential of social media networks has to be tapped into.
Social Media Networks
The growing influence of Facebook is due to the search for meaningful time for connection and identity by the Generation Y. Social media amplifies the word of mouth and makes the voices of the young generation to sound loud (Warby 1).
Twitter is a social media network that allows users to communicate. Facebook on the other hand provides for live feed, in this case what the user is doing is streamed straight to the members as it happens. YouTube is equally commonly used by youths.
Potential of Social Media Networks
The change we want to explore is the role of social media networks in influencing the attitude of Australian youth towards poverty through the Make Poverty History campaign. The Make Poverty History campaign through social media networks, incite social mobilization among the general population in Australia.
Through Facebook applications and updates, thousands of Australian youths can be connected due to the common interests and humanitarian needs. Individuals can use the Facebook applications and updates to peruse through various social causes including Make Poverty History initiative.
In Facebook there is a Make Poverty History page where members and particularly youths have to like the page in order to receive updates. This site features photos, activities and the news of the Make Poverty History campaign.
YouTube has been used in a quite influential manner to tap into the interest of the people into joining the Make Poverty History Campaign. YouTube is very common among the youths and is one of the most common ways they use to pass information around. There are many advertisements concerning Make Poverty History Australia which have been posted in YouTube.
Some of the campaigners who have been engaged in the campaign through YouTube include Bono, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, and Missy Higgins among many others. YouTube clips are quite interactive as they allow people to comment and make suggestions on the campaign.
For instance the one Make Poverty History commercial hosted by Missy Higgins has registered 7, 629 views and has a good number of comments with 40 likes and no dislike at all (Higgins 1). There are many other commercial campaigns which are helping the youth to spread the message of eradicating poverty. Such commercial positively influence the attitude of the youths because some of the artist towards fighting poverty.
The youths have mostly made use the social media networking sites to achieve the objectives of the campaign. Social media networks serve the following objectives in the Make Poverty History campaign:
- To provide educational services on all issues concerning touching on the Make Poverty History initiative in order to achieve an effective social action.
- To collaborate with other Make Poverty History initiatives operating in other countries of the globe.
- To network with other individuals, groups or organizations to enhance partnerships for the Make Poverty History campaign results.
- To develop a group solidarity syndrome around the Make Poverty History initiative where all the youths will participate; these groups will make it easy for the young generation to clarify and to seek clarifications concerning the initiative.
How Social Media Networks influence the Attitudes of the Youth
Social media networks have been considered a powerful toll in influencing the attitudes of the youth towards achieving the goals and the objectives of Make Poverty History campaign. The influence of social media networks is prompted by the realization that most of the established campaign organizations has found it difficult to find and retain supporters.
The use of social networks to influence attitudes and to drive change was actualized in Australia when the GetUp initiative was launched in 2005. Currently, GetUp has more supporters than all Australian political parties put together.
GetUp encourages people to engage and interact together through its page. GetUp has managed to take people to the streets and they have taken real actions in solving problems that afflict the society. These social media networks have influenced the youth generation to develop some sense of hope and belonging for their country.
Non- profit organizations and campaigners have experiencing change in the social media networks through blogging, podcasting and posting videos and comments. The influence of the social media networks for campaigning was experimented in 2007 and its potential to attract a lot of supporters was realized (Raymond 1).
The Make Poverty History campaign captures the attention of the Australia’s poorest people who include the indigenous population. The most visible campaign on the social media networks sites brings to fore the poverty of the Australia’s indigenous people. This campaign has been taken to various parts of Australia including the churches.
The entrenched poverty and the social exclusion of the indigenous Australian population are matters of great concern and it is the major objective of the Make Poverty History campaign in Australia. The campaign conducted through social media networks has been considered a constant reminder that the poverty issue has long been ignored and now it is at the door step.
This campaign is spearheaded by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Ecumenical Commission. The aim of this campaign has been to ensure that there is link between the Millennium Development Goals and the emancipation of the Australian Indigenous people from poverty.
The act to end poverty in Australia can be realized when all people are involved. With the united efforts of all grass root campaigns, road shows and roadtrips and the online and social media network strategy, a lot of people have signed the youth petition, the Act to End Poverty which is popular in social media networks.
This Act to End Poverty rests its attention on the political leaders regarding the issue of poverty and places its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). This was considered a step in the right direction by the federal government of Australia in the war against poverty.
The government has acknowledged that the Make Poverty History campaign has not only been a fad but it has become a systematic campaign which has enhanced and translated its objectives and goals into government policy and has also marked an important milestone in the fight against poverty (Duane 1).
A strategy for Bringing Change
Strategies of Make Poverty History initiative in Australia
A campaign can be a success when it is grounded on very strong campaign strategies. In the contemporary world characterized by advanced technologies, a successful campaign can be launched on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. This can be particularly successful if the campaign targets the younger generation.
The campaigns though social media networks have rejuvenated and revitalized the resolve of the youth towards supporting the Make Poverty History campaign. They have implemented their resolution through slogans on the social network sites such as; Every Minute Counts, Make Poverty History, End the Cycle of Poverty and Disability.
The youth have expressed their ideas concerning Make Poverty History initiative through slogans on their social media networks pages.
On a post on a social media network titled: urgent action on health MDGs, youths took advantage of the opportunity provided by the meeting of the heads of Commonwealth Nations to petition the political leaders to take urgent action on the eighth Millennium Development Goal which touches on poverty and health.
They addressed this petition to the Australian prime minister. The changes they wanted to see implemented by the commonwealth countries in order to eradicate poverty were:
- Improvement of food security and nutrition which can be achieved by supporting small scale farmers for them to increase their produce and to diversify their farming. It also concerned the need to address matters of climate change. Much of this assistance was to be focused on women producers who lacked access to land and other factors of production.
- To ensure that every individual has access to safe drinking water and effective hygiene.
- To help eradicate polio which is the second killer disease by ensuring the Global Polio Eradication initiative is fully funded.
- To scale up responses to TB and HIV that is the prime target of the action plan.
The road trips, the ability to reach several people though the media both national broadcasts or social network sites have an enormous impact on the national debate about poverty. It is estimated that Facebook campaign created positive impressions in approximately 19 million which was a great boost to the Make Poverty History campaign (Oaktree Foundation 6).
Poverty in the Global South
Countries in the global South are adversely affected by poverty. The global South nations have plenty of natural resources which are not utilized well. The global south consists of “the post-colonial and predominantly poor countries of Africa, Caribbean-Pacific, Latin America and Asia” (Omeje, 2008, p. 1). The Make Poverty History campaign has been taken to the global South economies.
The Make Poverty History management has tried to convince political parties in the global South to adopt its policies in their political party manifesto. The campaign has also played a significant role in pressurizing the G8 country governments to reduce debts that the global South owes them (Chant & Mcllwaine, 2009, p. 22).
The global North nations have been coerced into assisting the fight against poverty in the global South through the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) (Ekine, 2009, p. 60). Technology has also played a very huge role in ensuring that the fight against poverty in the global South is being fought well.
The Global Call to Action against Poverty SMS (GCAPSMS) is a good example of how technology has helped in this fight and actually it was “the African component of the international Make Poverty History campaign” (Ekine, 2009, p. 60). The African component was spearheaded by Fahamu (NGO):
For this campaign, Fahamu enhanced the SMS technology to be able to send longer text messages and for every SMS message to be displayed in a section of the GCAPSMS website.
Concerts and musical, featuring Africa’s most prominent musicians, and held to coincide with important meetings of world bodies such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, were broadcast on television throughout Africa. (Ekine, 2009, p. 60)
The Oaktree Foundation
The Oaktree foundation is an organization consisting of young people who are working together with an aim of ending poverty.
The members of the foundation describe themselves as being “young, passionate, hopelessly idealistic, ruthlessly pragmatic, and dedicated to achieving change for the world’s most marginalized, oppressed and disadvantaged” (Oaktree, 2011, p. 1). The foundation is made of a staff of 350 below 26 years youths and already 98338 people have signed up with the foundation.
The foundation works towards reducing poverty in through three ways: “education in developing communities, high impact advocacy, creating young leaders of change” (Oaktree, 2011, p. 1). The foundation works towards the achievement if its objectives through:
Live: “Promoting awareness and education amongst young people to reduce the impact of debilitating diseases and encourage healthy lifestyle choices” (Oaktree, 2011, p. 1). A project has been executed in South Africa to create HIV/Aids awareness.
Learn: “Providing communities with equal access to quality schools, teachers, and learning opportunities” (Oaktree, 2011, p. 1). Three projects, in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste, are being carried out in line to enhance quality learning.
Lead: “Supporting young people to develop the capacity, skills and confidence for life success – developing young people to establish the capacity, skills and confidence for life success” (Oaktree, 2011, p. 1).
Earn: “Supporting youth to gain the knowledge and skills for income generation” (Oaktree, 2011, p. 1).
Effectiveness of Social Media Networks
The attitude of the youth towards the Make Poverty History campaign is influenced by the blogs posted on social media networks. These blogs can be used to put pressure on the government or they can be used to appreciate the efforts of the government. The change that was realized was when the government responded to the Make Poverty History campaign through the independent review of aid effectiveness.
Through the Make Poverty History campaign the government acknowledged the role of the youth in doing well in responding to the poverty menace around the world. The Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness established that Australia has better aid program that has enhanced the progress of mitigating poverty (Luke 1).
The social media networks have been considered as an influential tool in changing the attitudes of the youth. It is also effective in campaigning. Social media networks achieve its objectives in the following ways:
- Through online petitions. It is very easy to send an email or to just click a button as opposed to sending a letter.
- By recruiting, connecting and being in touch with group members. The Genocide Intervention Network in the USA gained influence and prominence though the social media network and it is considered an inspiration to the social network campaign.
- It facilitates the raising of funds through fundraising activities and options which are available online.
- Social media networks enhance advocacy in mobilizing support though giving stories and the accounts of people who are suffering and this captures people’s attention to contribute towards the course (Leadbeater 10).
Online social networks are revolutionizing how people in the world communicate, interact, work and how they play. Facebook is considered the world’s most influential social network, but there exists other social media networks like Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube. These social networks have been transformed into tools of public communication.
They have been turned into tools of mass communication in the sense that by just updating a Facebook page or posting a tweet, several users and particularly friends will access it and will know what is taking place, where and then react to it (Economist 1).
The Make Poverty History campaign has resonated well with the public particularly the youth and the individual decision makers largely due to the increased media influence in favor of the campaign. The main reason for establishing this initiative was to mobilize the NGO’s and the civil society in making poverty history and two, it was also aimed at influencing policy change based on the framework of MDG and debt relief.
Approximately 45,000 Australians majority of them youth have joined the Make Poverty History campaign and through the social media networks, they receive daily and immediate updates regarding the progress and events of the campaign. Various concerts and road trips aimed at popularizing the campaign has been actualized through the social media networks (Hasset 6).
The social media network has been credited as the best and an effective medium of digital activism. This was galvanized when it influenced the recent protest and uprising in the Maghreb and the Middle East countries. Digital activism is linked to tie relationships and shared experiences which is one feature that makes social media networks influential in the Make Poverty History campaigns.
People articulate issues on the social media networks because they will know that other people are on their side. It is evident that the role of social media networks in galvanizing support for a particular course can not be underestimated and it is evident that digital engagement is the future of activism (Gladwell 1).
The social media networks are useful in the following ways:
Establishing a blog for the campaign cause; this blog can be used in bringing to the attention of other members particular item of change, an item that calls for action or a particular cause that requires championing.
Australian youths use social media sites as the platform of inspiration to support the campaign of Making Poverty History. Social media networks are updated every day and it has the ability to alter the attitude of individuals towards the cause.
Raise money for a cause: it is also possible to raise money towards a particular cause through the social networks. This can be supported by the messages of concern from other people. People are willing and able to donate money through social media networks. A lot of money has been raised in Australia by the youth towards supporting the Make Poverty History initiative through social media networks.
Supporting social causes or social change: Facebook in particular can effectively achieve this objective.
Promotion of charities: youth can establish Make Poverty History on YouTube and they can enclose various photos and videos of the initiative. These videos can be discussed by the youth fraternity and as such they generate interest and mailing lists and through this, the youth will have achieved the role popularizing the campaign and later they will alert their friends on the time take action.
Social media networks play a very significant role in facilitating the campaign to Make Poverty History. It is through the social media that this campaign has been a success. They contribute towards this cause through sensitization, resource mobilization, creating awareness and as means of digital advocacy.
They also facilitate the campaign through communicating and educating the youth about the initiative. The social media effect on change has been sporadically gaining momentum due to the ever increasing numbers of Generation Y signing up on these social networks.
Conclusion
The effectiveness of social media networks in advancing change is gaining prominence. This has been made possible through innovations in the field of information technology. Social media networks are famous and only effective with the dot com generation or Generation Y. The Make Poverty History initiative in Australia has attracted the participation of the youth through the social media networks.
The youths sign in to the social media sites and become members just by liking the page. Social media networks have been effective in mobilizing resources, creating awareness and lobbying for support towards the initiative. Social media networks are quite effective in changing the attitudes of the youth towards issues touching on poverty eradication.
Works Cited
Australia. Poverty Line of Australia. Australia on Net, 2001. Web.
Chant, Sylvia, and Mcllwaine Cathy. Geographies of Development in the 21st Century: An Introduction to the Global South. New York, NY: Edward Elgar, 2009. Print.
Economist. World of connections. The economist, 2010. Web.
Ekine, Sokari. SMS uprising: mobile phone activism in Africa. London, UK: Fahamu, 2009. Print.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Is digital activism an effective medium for change? Guardian, 2010. Web.
Hasset, Andrew, Gopalakrishnan Anueja and Cant Sue. Why campaign? World Vision’s experience of Make Poverty History in Australia. Web.
Higgins, Missy. Make Poverty History Australia. YouTube, 2008. Web.
Krznaric, Roman. How Change Happens: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Human Development. Oxfam GB, 2007. Web.
Leadbeater, Charles. Social software for social change. Harles Lead Beat, 2007. Web.
Luke, Garth. MPH applauds government response to aid review. Make Poverty History, 2011. Web.
Middendorp, Chris. No lies, no inventions – poverty in Australia is awfully real. The Age, 2011. Web.
Oaktree Foundation. Make Poverty History roadtrip: campaign impact report. Nick Allardice. Web.
Oaktree. Overseas Project. Oaktree Foundation, 2011. Web.
Omeje, Kenneth. Extractive economies and conflicts in the global South: multi-regional perspectives on rentier politics. New York, NY: Ashgate, 2008. Print.
Raymond, Duane. What’s happening in campaigning and the Internet. Fair Say, 2004. Web.
Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Warby, Danielle. Australia is social networking capital of the world. Telegraph, 2011. Web.