Abstract
Social media and online activism give marginalized communities a voice and often that voice is accompanied by the power to hold perpetrators of injustice accountable, or so we think. With every viral video and social media post documenting racial microaggressions, police brutality, or hate speech, there is a growing feeling people are dismantling real life systems of oppression; however, I argue that the growth of online activism has given society a false sense of progress in the fight against social injustice. I believe this discussion is important because similar to Gilson’s discussion in Chapter 9 of this edited collection teaching students to pull back the veil on technology’s supposed neutrality is a must for our students and their careers.Because of this, it is imperative for educators to engage students in a critical study of social media so that they may better understand how and why systems of oppression have found their way into digital spaces. To this end, I recommend that we include the critical analysis of online activism as a prominent tool in the social justice and TPC conversation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work: Theories, Methodologies, and Topics |
| Publisher | Utah State University Press |
| State | Accepted/In press - 2021 |