Latent community, activism in social media
Being in the U.S., it was natural for me to lose the interests of events in Korean society. The recent big event of the meeting with Donald Trump and Jeong Eun Kim was one of the surprising events for me because the two countries announced it as a hot issue. However, I figured out the fact that Japan's restriction on the export of raw materials for semiconductor production to Korea and Korea's boycott of Japanese products named 'nonojapan' have become a hot topic from social media. Without reading and watching the news on TV, there are lots of nonojapan flyers on Instagram and videos on Youtube. As a result of the boycott, it is easy to check the situation where sales of Japanese products such as SPA brands are plummeting, and what happens afterwards, such as not importing raw materials from Japan but searching for alternative measures, through social media. Above all, the will and encouragement of the people through SNS seems to be playing a big role this time as well. In line with Japan's unreasonable measures and unresolved issues between Korea and Japan, the people are expressing their will to take collective action.
When I read Thapliyal's (2018) study, I came up with the situations in Korea and latent community by Shirky (2008). In Thapliyal's (2018) article, he explored how educators participated in protests to sound their right, opinions, and social justice using social media. Educators made their voice, constructed collective identity, and shared knowledge to support direct action. In the same vein, Korean citizens can show their will and share the movement quickly through SNS. Meanwhile, I could feel that every web page showing characteristics of a latent community which collects attention in contents, and people might be interested in interacting with each other. Even though it seems not activated but most of the people watch the information and show their will by dispersing and following the movement. This nonojapan movement can be a representative example of showing the power of social media.
In education, we can use those cases such as nonojapan or recent protest in Hong Kong as examples of social media roles in social studies. Also, I imagined using social media in class on how would have the historical events in the past develop if there were social media or how was the information transition.
Social media is not just a tool to entertain, and I believe that social media has the power to move citizen against injustice, and learners should learn how to use social media as a citizen in the right manner.
When I read Thapliyal's (2018) study, I came up with the situations in Korea and latent community by Shirky (2008). In Thapliyal's (2018) article, he explored how educators participated in protests to sound their right, opinions, and social justice using social media. Educators made their voice, constructed collective identity, and shared knowledge to support direct action. In the same vein, Korean citizens can show their will and share the movement quickly through SNS. Meanwhile, I could feel that every web page showing characteristics of a latent community which collects attention in contents, and people might be interested in interacting with each other. Even though it seems not activated but most of the people watch the information and show their will by dispersing and following the movement. This nonojapan movement can be a representative example of showing the power of social media.
In education, we can use those cases such as nonojapan or recent protest in Hong Kong as examples of social media roles in social studies. Also, I imagined using social media in class on how would have the historical events in the past develop if there were social media or how was the information transition.
Social media is not just a tool to entertain, and I believe that social media has the power to move citizen against injustice, and learners should learn how to use social media as a citizen in the right manner.
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