The Castan Centre for Human Rights Law and the Human Rights Law Resource Centre present

Will the Revolution be Tweeted?

The Role of Social Media in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights

5 April 2011
Held at Monash University Law Chambers, 472 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Forum

Click here for audio recording of forum (To listen to this recording using Mediaplayer you will need to download the plug-in)

Click here for video footage on our YouTube Channel or see the video below

Panelists

Professor Sarah Joseph, Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Simon Sheikh, National Director of GetUp!

Jonathan Green, Editor of The Drum, ABC

Alex Pagliaro, Refugee Campaign Coordinator, Amnesty International Australia

In an influential article in The New Yorker, entitled "Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted", Malcolm Gladwell argues that, far from supporting social movements and social change, social media may actually undermine them. Social media creates weak ties and can contribute to "networked authoritarianism" just as much as to progressive social change, Gladwell says.

In response, Clay Shirky, Professor of New Media at NYU, argues that social media can be used as a critical tool for the sharing of information and enhanced social engagement and mobilisation, empowering "loosely coordinated publics to demand change". He points to the role of social media in recent revolutions from Tunisia, to Egypt, to Libya.

Join our expert panel to debate these views and discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of social media to promote and protect human rights.

www.hrlrc.org.au

www.twitter.com/rightsagenda

www.facebook.com/HumanRightsLawResourceCentre

www.law.monash.edu/CastanCentre

www.twitter.com/CastanCentre

www.facebook.com/TheCastanCentre

Part 1 Video (of 2) of the Social Media and Human Rights Event