More Social Networking and Political Movements
Barnes’ theory, that people didn’t have to know each other personally to influence the way decisions get made in a community, was adopted and expanded by scientists and mathematicians trying to make sense of the connections that bind people in larger populations. Stanley Milgram, a Yale social psychologist, made the theory famous with his “Small World Experiment” in 1967, otherwise known as the idea of, “Six Degrees of Separation” — a term Milgram himself never used.
Milgram conducted an experiment in which he attempted to connect two random people in different geographic areas through a chain of intermediary acquaintances. He did this by sending several letters to random people in Omaha, Neb., Wichita, Kan., and Boston, Mass. He asked each recipient to send the letter on to a target recipient in Boston. If they did not know this person personally, the first recipients were asked to forward the letter to someone they knew who would be more likely to know the target recipient. Of the letters that arrived at their destination, Milgram and his team calculated the average chain of intermediaries was about six people long — hence the idea that everyone in the world is separated from everyone else by just six degrees.
But Milgram’s model only works to connect people who already have some link, however fragile. The Internet breaks down those barriers—it creates networks almost automatically.
Therein lies the political power of online political organizing. Social scientist Charles Tilly writes that groups attempting to change their societies can only succeed if the organizers make alliances outside of their own communities — with such actors as the media, with politicians or with other groups who share similar aims.
Previous generations have accomplished such brokering with letter-writing campaigns, sit-ins or rock concerts. Such demonstrations require a lot of manpower and sometimes wasted energy. The Internet accomplishes the same thing, but diffuses ideas to unpredictable recipients almost as fast as a person can type.
In this way, the Internet allows political organizers to take advantage of what mathematician Mark S. Granovetter called, “The strength of weak ties.” In his seminal 1973 paper of the same name, Granovetter said it is not direct personal links that make a network powerful. Rather, groups that can connect with strangers who have their own networks, their own goals, and their own worldviews, have the most lasting impact on societies.
According to Granovetter’s theory, the online anti-war movement will succeed only if its organizers can connect with people far outside their own circles. Traditional demonstrations — the sit-ins and rock concerts favored by previous generations — still have their place in social movements of the digital generation. But today, the energy propelling them often starts here: on the Internet.
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Posted by Team B 3:03 PM 0 comments
The Theory of Social Networking and Political Movements
In 1954, a little-known social scientist traveled to a remote Norwegian fishing village to study social structures in communities.
What the sociologist, J.A. Barnes, found there changed how scientists interpret social interactions in large and small groups. Fishermen, herring oil factory workers, farmers, people working in market cooperatives, all played a part in an intricate social network, even though they rarely communicated face-to-face.
Barnes’ observations, and the term he coined, “Social Networking,” also provided a key to understanding how the Internet impacts political movements more than 50 years later and lent its name to the phenomenon of Web sites like MySpace and Facebook.
This project explores the connections between two New York University undergraduate students, Bumhe Han — B to his friends — and Samantha Goldman, and their network of political activists. The Web site is intended as a model of a much larger project that introduces users to a new network of political leaders and the virtual ties that bind them. But the key to understanding how their brand of political organizing works lies back in that Norwegian fishing village, in Barnes’ work and the theories it inspired.
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B's Story
In this video, B introduces himself and talks about how social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook played a major role in his social life in high school and college.
Now, B discusses his personal motivation for protesting the war generally and President Bush in particular.
When he arrived at NYU, B was determined to get involved in anti-war activism. He found ample opportunities on the Web.
By seeing what his friends were doing through Facebook's "newsfeed" feature, B discovered other political causes he wasn't aware of, some of them far closer to home. Here, he discusses his interest in the organization Open Washington Square Park. (Watch the YouTube clip B is looking at in the video here.)
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Posted by Team B 1:56 PM 0 comments
Washington Square Park Protest
This video documents a protest marking the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Anti-war activists affiliated with the groups World Can't Wait and Campus Anti-War Network promoted the event online through a group on the popular social networking Web site Facebook. In addition to recruiting participants, the site allowed viewers to post statements about their own opposition to the war, which organizers shared at the protest.
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Posted by Team B 1:28 PM 0 comments
Sam's Story
Meet Samantha Goldman. The 19 year old NYU college student is heavily involved in organizations that promote peace, justice, and women’s rights. For the past year, Sam has worked as a grassroots organizer for “World Can’t Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime”. Her role is to connect with students and raise awareness about the “the atrocities” that the Bush regime has committed.
Sam has used a variety of ways to get her message out to students. She has handed out flyers in front of her school, given talks on the radio, and used the Web. The Internet has allowed her message to spread far and wide, connecting her to people that she would have never been able to reach before.
Sam is adventurous, eloquent, and intelligent. She has no trouble going up to strangers and introducing herself. But the Internet has given her a way to get her message out to thousands of other like-minded students in a fast and convenient way. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have allowed her to not only meet new people, but also to update people she knows on upcoming protests and events.
Her Facebook networking led her to B. They met for the first time at a protest against the war in
Now, together, they participate in protests and help organize others to join them in their causes.
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Posted by Lizzie 7:31 PM 0 comments
Opposing War in the Internet Age
By STEPHANIE AKIN, RYAN DAVIS and CYRUS SANATI
This is a story about two New York University undergraduates and how they use the Internet to organize and participate in protests against the Iraq war.
On the face of it, their activism looks similar to what generations have done before—organizing protests, sending out letters, chanting political slogans on the street. But these two students, Bumhe Han and Samantha Goldman, are using a new tool to spread their message: The Internet. Their success will have a lasting impact on how social movements work.
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View a video clip documenting an anti-war protest in New York that was organized in part by postings on Facebook, the social networking Web site.
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