My role in the debate was to assess the positions of both sides of the arguments and provide a result to who had the better rebuttal in the end. In order to do so I had to keep an open mind when reading through Dean’s article “Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism”. When providing a result for a debate, you must take down important points for each side in preparation. When doing this I found that I had more points down for how social media inhibits sociopolitical change, this may have been because Dean’s article was ultimately very negative in relation to technology and the media although, when listening to the other side of the debate I was persuaded to think that social media has a strong influence in enabling socio-political change. They brought up points about the incredible #MeToo movement that went above and beyond to produce actual change and it started out online by people who created awareness of the issue. Their points about how the internet provides a faster and easier way to promote change with a large number of users, more that could ever be apart of a protest, stood out to me as well as change requires many voices. The only point I found that went against their statement was when they mentioned that memes encourage awareness for socio-political change. This kind of entertainment media is not something that can promote vast change in any political aspect as people can’t take the real issue seriously or even gain knowledge on it when watching a silly meme on Twitter. Ultimately, I agree with how the majority of social media can promote socio-political change by creating awareness but we ended up favouring the other side of the debate because of the examples they provided and how they communicated their argument.

When listening to the other debate of the Castell’s article I found it a bit easier to make a decision when regarding social media and socio-political change. Their arguments discussed a narrower topic than the Dean debate, the Egyptian Revolution. Because we watched The Square in class and had knowledge on the subject already, it was a bit more interesting to follow along when our classmates were debating. In the end, I sided with how socio-political change enables political change because of the amount of positive change that happened in Egypt from posting online and gathering awareness. They dethroned two dictators that were ruining the country from the numbers that they generated in protest and online.

I found this debate incredibly eye-opening and a valuable exercise to gain knowledge on both sides of the argument for social media and socio-political change when studying media studies. 

Works Cited

Castells, Manuel. “The Egyptian Revolution.” Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age, 2nd ed., 2015.

Dean, Jodi. “Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism.” Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics, Duke University Press, 2009.

For someone who has always believed that social media was a boon to society and the modern world, going against a resolution for it seemed difficult to actually convict to the topic. While researching for the introductory statement I was gonna give, I started to realize the way social media actually restricted sociopolitical change in so many ways from the government putting a tax on social media in Uganda to arresting and banning influential users from social media in Singapore. Like this, I came to know of so much information that made me realize that even though social media is “free” it isn’t. In return for using their platform, we give our information, our clicks, our likes, etc which they use for their gain by selling it to other firms or help in pushing personal agenda or even sway users towards or away from a political agenda. My perspective entirely changed as I was looking at the “image” of social media from a consumers’ gain POV, but looking at the whole picture made me realize how it actually is a bane in its own ways. As I was doing the introduction, I knew I had to set the basis and foundation of which we would argue against Castells’ resolution and this forced me to broaden my mind and look at social media from an entirely different perspective which in turn changed my personal viewpoint on social media.

Watching and listening to the other group’s debate gave me another viewpoint as I was merely looking at it from a political aspect whereas they introduced the social detail of it. Key incidents of successful revolutions like the Tiananmen square revolt which occurred without the help of social media as compared to failed revolutions like the uprising of Egypt in 2011 which had the help of social media drives home the point that social media is more of a bane in sociopolitical situations due to the mere fact that the government can so easily warp or shut it down, thus making it an undependable tool if the goal is sociopoltical change.

As I learned about the Egyptian revolution, it was apparent to me that social media played a great role in its successes. Manuel Castells article “The Egyptian Revolution” coincided with my beliefs that social media enables sociopolitical change. Being able to present ‘for’ the statement, allowed me to fight on the side I believed in. Going into the debate I felt strongly about my beliefs, although I was open to hearing what the other group was going to propose.

The Castells reading expressed how social Media sites like Facebook, twitter and YouTube have given Egyptians a platform to express their beliefs and, therefore, spark a conversation on political issues. It was social media that allowed information and news to spread quickly across Egypt, allowing for the number of revolutionaries to increase rapidly. Our group felt strongly that during the revolution, social media gave Egyptians the ability to hear news straight from the source, unlike mainstream media outlets in which news was often skewed to paint the revolutionaries in a negative light. We believed that social media gave Egyptians a voice that could not be silenced by the government.

After taking part in the debate, most of my opinions stayed the same. The side arguing ‘against’ did have some valid points on how many revolutions have occurred throughout history before social media was invented. Although, I acknowledge that many great social movements have occurred, I believe that social media ultimately enhances the traditional forms of protest that have been used in the past. Hearing form the side that read the Dean article, it was evident that the article differed from the Castells reading as it relied on the idea that social media is unreliable and possibly invalid because anyone can post on social media.

In conclusion, my opinions on whether ‘be it resolved social media enables sociopolitical change’ have not been altered after partaking in the debate.

Works cited:

Castells, Manuel. “The Egyptian Revolution” Networks of Outrage an Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age, 2015.

As social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous in today’s culture and political climate, it is critical that we assess its efficacy in affecting sociopolitical change. In preparation for the in-class debate on this very topic, I was responsible for assessing Manuel Castells’s The Egyptian Revolution (2015). Furthermore, it was required that I make a case in favour of the aforementioned resolution. Going into this exercise, it was already my belief that social media could, in fact engender sociopolitical change, and given that it was my role to defend such a belief, I consequently read the assigned chapter in search of information which affirmed this position. Those in opposition of this argument made several strong points, such as social media’s extraneousness to the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, thus causing me to analyze social media’s effectiveness more critically. However, my overall perspective remained largely unchanged after this debate. Following the second debate regarding The Promises of Communicative Capitalism (Dean 2009) however, my perspective on social media’s ability to affect sociopolitical change shifted slightly. The Egyptian Revolution (Castells 2015) focused primarily on social media’s ability to form networks and connectivity among protesters as well its ability to provide protesters with a platform to share their uncensored opinions. While Dean concedes this is true, she addresses how merely stating one’s opinion online is not an effective means of protest. She develops this point further by stating that in the weeks prior to the invasion of Iraq, “the terabytes of commentary and information, then, did not indicate a debate”, but instead got lost in the masses of circulating content and “cultural effluvia” that fills the online space. (Dean 2009). As a result, though social media provides a platform for people to call out an issue, it does very little in the way of solving said issue. This point was made very clearly in the second debate and resonated with me greatly. Therefore, while I retain that social media is an effective tool for protest insofar as it provides the infrastructure to callout social and political issues, I now believe that social media alone cannot affect sociopolitical change.

Works cited

Castells, Manuel. “The Egyptian Revolution.” Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age, 2nd ed., Wiley, 2015.

Dean, Jodi. “Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism.” Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics, Duke University Press, 2009.

To end the first semester of my Arts Studies class, we looked at two articles written by Jodi Dean and Manuel Castells. These articles argued how social media affects sociopolitical change. I was assigned to read the Dean article, which argues social media’s inability to create sociopolitical change. Before reading the article, my thoughts on social media creating sociopolitical change were on the edge as I believed there are pros and cons to this argument. I was representing as an assessor and this, therefore did not help me come to a conclusion. I had to look at evidence from both sides, which is what I ultimately have done prior to the reading. This only made it harder for me to choose a side. Although the Dean articles speaks about the lack of sociopolitical change created by social media and how it does not go beyond the social media mediums, it is easy to create arguments going against her words. She speaks about how social media cannot go beyond its medium to create a large impact our society. As the information being portrayed on platforms get lost as more and more people share it with one another. Therefore making it difficult to understand the correct information and the main purpose of some movement. Thus, after hearing the for and against side from my peers, my group and I struggled to come to a conclusion as we wanted to side with the for side as that is ultimately what the article speaks about, but the against side had much stronger evidence.

Listening to the first group arguing Castells’ article gave me a different perspective to how social media creates sociopolitical change throughout history and the impacts, reaching millions of people to raise awareness about revolutions. It opened my eyes to realize the major ways social media can bring people together to start a movement. The main difference between the two articles is that the Dean article speaks about social media only creates an online movement where people can tweet and post online but does not do anything to actually create real change in the real world, but Castell speaks about how tweets and posts raise awareness and bring people together to create a revolution. Therefore, my overall thoughts on this arguments after this debate has not changed much, it might even made it harder for me to choose a side.

Through the debate, my perspective on Dean’s overall view hasn’t so much changed as it has evolved somewhat as a result of the debate. My stance has remained largely unchanged- Dean’s view that social media has inhibited change was never something I totally agreed with. That being said, my personal view is now that social media creates change, but that the change may not necessarily be positive. This position was reinforced by the discussion that was created through the debate.

            In my role as a member of the rebuttal team within my group, I was responsible for defending the position of my group- that the impact of social media is one that inhibits change. Though my groups positions were quite thoroughly taken apart, through the process of building our overall stance, my views were tempered by concrete examples. My views changed in that they were initially surrounding the idea that social media in general is a negative thing. Though I had no specific gripe with social media itself, my belief was and still is that large groups of people in general will struggle to accomplish meaningful or positive change.

            This view was made more concrete through research- by understanding that failed revolutions such as the Egyptian Revolution or the greater Arab Spring were made possible by social media, I am now able to view social media in more concrete terms as it pertains to my belief going into the debate. I believe that my role in rebutting the other group’s point was key in this evolution of my view on the issue. By largely losing that argument, I was exposed to views that I still disagree with, but also recognize as at least partly valid.

            Listening to the other debate impacted me at least partly, but it didn’t have the effect that actually participating in my debate did. This is partly due to parameters of the debate being somewhat unclear at the time- the other groups, as it was pointed out during the debate, were stuck in the unenviable position of going first and thus weren’t allowed the advantage of further clarification on the debate itself.

            As a result, I wasn’t able to draw a totally clear picture of Castell’s view from the debates themselves as a result of this. From what I was able to gather, however, it appears that Dean’s view is more focused on the human element of change, while Castell’s view was centered on how institutions used platforms. This is what I gathered from the debate, as the against group’s argument was largely centered on a government or a corporation was able to use previous modes of communication to subjugate the populace and prevent change.

            My view leaving the debate is now as follows: that social media is not necessarily instrumental in creating change, but that its use can act as an engine for change. However, as masses are involved, that change may not be positive, as movements can be hijacked by either institutions or other groups, as we saw with the Muslim Brotherhood during the Egyptian Revolution.

When considering social media and its impact, one fundamental question must be considered, does social media enable sociopolitical change? People like Castells, in his article “The Egyptian Revolution”, would argue yes. Since he focuses on a real life example, the Egyptian Revolution, it is hard to disagree with him. He makes it clear, in regards to the origins of the movement, “that the original spaces of resistance were formed on the Internet” (Castells 57). I myself agreed with most of his points, and the general conclusion it led towards.

When I was assigned the position of opposition, specifically co-leading the rebuttal, towards the resolution “Be it resolved that social media enables sociopolitical change” I had to reconsider the whole article contrary to my original standpoint. This time my reading was sceptical of everything that was said. My scepticism questioned if the singular example of the Egyptian Revolution was enough evidence to back this resolution, as revolutions happened before the internet. Our approach to the article changed completely, it became a ‘playbook’ for all the arguments we knew our opponents would use. Taking everything in the article with a grain of salt, we compiled a list of smaller counterarguments, from a number of outside sources, that I could make in the rebuttal if they mentioned any of the article’s main arguments that we were expecting. We also made sure to note any contradictory statements Castells made that went against the resolution, such as his mention of the revolution continuing without the presence of the Internet (64).

Despite my approach of skepticism, my own opinion on the resolution hardly changed. It was clear that there is grounds to skepticism when regarding social media’s impact on larger movements such as the Egyptian Revolution, but this is just one example. However, in listening to the arguments made by the groups debating the Dean article, specifically the for side, it was clear that all social impacts have grounds for skepticism regarding the role social media plays in them. They specifically showed this with the forgotten intent of the Ice Bucket Challenge, and making reference to the Egyptian Revolution never having led to a total positive change. Through their debate, it was clear that the question should be to what degree does social media play a role in sociopolitics, and furthermore if the impact has a net positive or negative outcome.

While Dean focused on a variety of examples when considering social media’s impact, allowing for more open discussion, Castells focused narrowly on the Egyptian Revolution which directed arguments away from sociopolitical change in general and towards revolutions. However they both provide important insights, showing that both perspective should be considered before making up one’s own position.

Since I was in the group that argued for the premise ‘Be it resolved that social media enables sociopolitical change,’ the readings were in line with my beliefs and simply heightened my conviction that social media is a powerful tool in times where people’s voices are suppressed. Though I have always been a proponent of social media’s ability to create social change, Castell’s article and the points raised by my peers during the debate opened me up to alternate perspectives.

Castell’s article brought to light specific events that took place during The Egyptian Revolution which had high emotional appeal and evidence that clearly supported our stance. It was particularly gripping because it showed how social media united the world for one single cause despite several differences, and it helped me understand how ‘powerless’ individuals can come together and form a counterpower against ‘powerful’ institutions like the government body in Egypt. Moreover, I found that the opposing group raised interesting points by citing historical events where social media was not accessible and thus, a revolution took place physically. These were events I was unaware about and it definitely increased my appreciation for the traditional forms of protest used in previous ages. This, however, did not deter my group’s opinion that traditional forms of protest are valuable but social media in this new age is necessary for cultivating actionable change since it appeals to newer generations. Of all these points, the most notable argument for me was from the other debate with the premise ‘Be it resolved that social media inhibits sociopolitical change,’ wherein the against group rebutted the other group’s point of how social media has negative impacts on sociopolitical situations by identifying that negative change is also counted as ‘change’. I feel as though that was a convincing argument because it takes into account the resolution directly and addresses that social media enables change, positively and negatively. This point struck out to me because, in my debate, I feel as though we were biased because Castell’s article mainly points out positive sociopolitical change so we were not able to recognize the true meaning of the premise.

All in all, my belief that social media enables social change and can complement traditional methods of protest and rebellion changed only in the sense that I, now, more strongly believe that social media is a tool that new generations must use to unite more social groups because it truly can create an insurmountable impact.

Works Cited:

Castells, Manuel. “The Egyptian Revolution.” Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age(2015): 54-94.

In the debate on the topic ‘Be it resolved that social media inhibit the sociopolitical change,’ my speaking position was the first speaker who provided the opening statement for the opposition team. To discuss against the proposition, we predicted what issues that another team might use to claim their standpoint, at this same time, I tried to point out issues that our team can take benefits from and state them in the opening statement to lead the discourse to our advantageous track. We drew the point that social media has been used as a tool for coordination and contributions of voices of the population without political intervention. Regardless of Dean’s perspective that highlights the individuality of voices, we argued by referring to the volume of content people have made online which we believe the high column conveys large impacts and raises social awareness.
In response to Dean’s article, my understanding of the context hasn’t changed much at the end. Dean’s provides both instances to the subject but his dominant viewpoints benefit the ‘for’ team rather than the opposing view. Therefore, I biassedly disagree with his opinion in some contexts. However, after I have listened to other team’s arguments on this topic, I tend to agree that in some situations, such as in Ice Bucket Challenge phenomenon, people did not pay attention to the actual results and that is when social media became merely a platform for message circulation. Plus, the subjectivity of the topic raised an objection to the quality of the impact as mentioned to the Egyptian revolution.

In Castells’s debate, the proposition side emphasized the function of online platforms that allow people to access and transmit political information and views. In this manner, the internet users contribute the awareness which leads to sociopolitical changes as Castells exemplifies in the Egyptian Revolution. This case, in particular, that fact that the revolution had still proceeded nonetheless, even though the government permitted the use of the internet, brought me an idea that changes take place in different forms and in dissimilar conditions. Yet, social media remains part of it.
The distinctive difference between Dean’s and Castells’s is that Dean makes his strong standpoint and gives many examples to support his views while Castells mainly disposes of the relationship from the Egyptian Revolution. Besides, their positions to the social media and sociopolitical change contrast. Therefore, these two articles contribute to different perceptions which are not comparable.

Throughout the debate, I still believe that social media plays an important role in sociopolitical changes, but the volume of impact may depend on each different setting, situation and political purpose. However, I also found that the active change in the current sociopolitical environment is challenging to create, and requires more than an online stream but political power and influence.

Works cited
Dean, Jodi. “Ch.1.Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism.” Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics. Duck University Press, 2009. 19-48.

Castells reveals the role that social media played in the Egyptian revolution, which leads to the question—does social media enables sociopolitical change? After reading his piece, I believed that social media played a vital role in the Egyptian revolution because his powerful examples showed that social media indeed had a catalytic effect on sociopolitical change. Castells mainly focused on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. and reveals the impact of these social media platforms had on sociopolitical change was spreading information. In other words, it increased people’s awareness of the event. However, I was in the AGAINST side and I was doing the CLOSING STATEMENT. What I supposed to do is listen carefully to what my group stated and what my opposing group’s opinion and make a conclusion. Thus, what I had to do was to read his article again from a different perspective. Finally, we found the pieces of evidence that Castells claims that the revolution was never incommunicable after the government shut down the Internet (64). Consequently, our group focused on the truth that there were still sociopolitical changes without social media in the early stage by giving the example of Tiananmen Square revolution in China which happened in an era without social media. However, the key to the debate is listening to what our opposing group’s argument and it turned out that the examples we used weren’t persuasive enough. Thus, the debate truly changed my point of view after listening to others’ opinions.

By listening to other group debate, we know that Dean stands on an opposite point of view and gives rise to another controversial question that “does social media inhibits sociopolitical change?”. Thus, the main difference between Castells and Dean is obvious that their viewpoints on social media are opposite that Dean focuses on the invalidity of the voices people made online. From my perspective, the relationship between social media and sociopolitical change depends on various standpoints and the two articles from Castells and Dean are the best evidence to prove it.

Overall, the debate gave everyone in the class a chance to speak out. Compared with other activities we had in class like group discussion, almost everyone participated in the debate. Last but not least, the debate was a reflection of teamwork that it offered us opportunities to learn how to cooperate with others.

works cited

Castells, Manuel. “The Egyptian Revolution.” Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age(2015): 54-94.