Hinton & Hjorth discuss the change of media audiences from once being passive, to now being active and participating in and even creating media content through the rise of social media. They discuss two different types of content; User Generated Content (UGC) which refers to content made by others that is forwarded on by users, and User Created Content (UCC) which refers to content that is made by users for others to consume. They discuss the use of social media in online activism or ‘click-activism’, its role in crisis management and journalism.

They suggest that social media hasn’t caused political events, but has changed the way in which they are organised; the affect rather than effect. The idea that the internet is built to be democratic and thus used for activism is proposed by John Gilmore as he believes it “interprets censorship damage and routes around it”. This democratic notion has meant that many protests have been organised through mobile technology and social media. “Participation reinforces the importance of offline realities in online behaviour” illustrates how the internet in many ways has empowered the public to speak out on real injustices and band communities together to work towards change. Participation is however subject to what the local social & cultural aspects define ‘participation’ to be as internet censorship in some countries would to us seem like people aren’t able to fully participate.

These groups are called ‘smart mobs’; “large groups of people who use mobile technologies as a way of connecting, allowing a group to act with collective intelligence”. Examples of these include the Arab Springs revolution in which members of the public uploaded video of protests and violence online, forcing dictators to step down or flee their positions.

While social media and mobile technologies can be used for good, they are open to being used negatively. While the internet is in many ways democratic and give the average citizen a voice, it can also be used by people in power to influence the public, “undermines the contention that the digital media is fundamentally empowering – it can also be used to reinforce, strengthen and deepen existing power structures.” This demonstrates that the internet is not always democratic and can be used to swing political influence. An example is ‘Kony 2012’ which spread like wild fire but was deemed as having misleading information and questionable financing sources. This video went viral after it asked people to share it online with their friends with the term ‘Slacktivism’ coined as a result; people who use social media to make them feel good about taking a stand, but actually have done very little and could actually do harm if they don’t know the facts.

While social media campaigns can be organised very quickly and gather like-minded people for a cause, it can also be used to promote misinformation and misleading accounts.