Presented at the launch event of the Association of Social Media Professionals in Mumbai, India. Tata Institute for Social Sciences. 18th July 2018.

1. Social Media
for Development
and Freedom
Association of Social Media Professionals
TISS University, Mumbai, India
18th July 2018
David Girling, Senior Lecturer, School of International
Development, University of EastAnglia, UK
@socialmedia4D
http://social-media-for-development.org

2. Is social media a
good thing?
Has social media
changed the world?

5. “The new information and communications
technologies are among the driving forces of
globalization. They are bringing people together ,
and bringing decision-makers unprecedented new
tools for development. At the same time, however,
the gap between the information “haves” and
“have-nots” is widening, and there is real danger
that the world’s poor will be excluded from the
emerging knowledge-based global community.”
Kofi Annan

6. ADD
INFOGRAPHIC
Social
Media
Divide
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcohn/16708922493

7. Meaningful Use of Social Media
Scalable Content Creation
-Empowers users to create content as opposed to
centralized approaches
-Relevance of content is inherent to the user
-Social media is simple to use, reduces barriers
-Social media has lead the way in solving
language barriers
-Social media allows expression beyond textual
characters

8. Meaningful Use of Social Media
Promoting basic ICT Skills
Search, Preview, Select, Incorporate, Share,
Create, Edit, Upload, Tag, Monitor, Respond,
Multi-task, IM, Wall posts, Blogging

9. Network Society
Global web of horizontal communications
networks that include the multimodal
exchange of interactive messages from
many to many both synchronous and
asynchronous.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/divagate/25037332312

10. https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcohn/23278220470

11. Mass self communication
-Reaches a global
audience
-Multimodal
-Self-generated
in content
-Self-generated
in emission
-Self selected in reception
by many thatcommunicate
with many

15. Mobile Phone and Internet Usage in
India
2nd largest smartphone market in the world. But less than 26% of
population (Statistica, 2018)
262m mobile internet users –Urban
109m mobile internet users – Rural
Internet Usage – 71% male / 29% female

16. “For all its participatory ideals, the process of
mobilisation always involves inequalities and
asymmetries in which there are people who
mobilise, and people who are mobilised, people who
lead and people who follow, and the two categories
only ever partly overlap”
Gerbaudo, P (2012) ‘Tweets and the Streets’

20. India case study – Kapal
Sibil IT Minister
“Any medium, any technology
can be put to good use and to
use that destroys the very
essence of the medium. It can be
used for terrorist actitivites, it can
be used for drug traffiking and it

21. http://www.hashtagcommoncor
e.com/content/we-are-media-
ongoing-disruption-social-space-
social-media

23. Uganda Case Studies
#Savetheminiskirt
#Evil Nanny
#ThisTaxMustGo
Reach a Hand
-Training – #consentat14
40 Days 40 Smiles

24. EVERYDAY
MUMBAI

31. NGOs and Social Media
Fundraising
Advocacy
Storytelling
Campaigning
Two-Way Dialogue

39. Advantages
•Mobilisation
•Democratisation
•Collective action
•Empowerment
•Anti-Corruption
•Peer-to-Peer Information
•Fundraising
•Disaster Relief
•Education
Disadvantages
•Riots
•Privacy
•Fake News
•Slacktivism
•Social Media Divide
•Censorship
•State surveillance
•Arrest / Imprisonment
•Crime

40. Is social media a
good thing?
Has social media
changed the world?

41. THANK YOU
David Girling
@socialmedia4D
http://social-media-for-development.org
d.girling@uea.ac.uk