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| The Human Rights Campaign released this photo across social media to fuel citizen participation in political discussion during the Supreme Court's hearings on gay marriage on March 26 and 27, 2013. |
The Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group for
gays and lesbians, made a heavy impact on social media on March 26 and 27, 2013
during the Supreme Court’s hearings on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The group made a graphic of their defining equality logo
in the colors red and pink rather than its’ original blue and yellow
colors. According to an article by blogger Cody Switzer, the marketing director
of the Human Rights Capmpaign, Anastasia Khoo, said within 24 hours of the
image being released, it was reposted 10,000 times and ten million page views
on the Internet. The group planned the graphic in hopes of raising awareness
about the potential possibility of same sex marriage in the United States of
America.
People all over social media seemed to either post
the picture with some type of personal message for their friends, family, and
coworkers to see. Those who did not agree with the pro-same sex marriage stance
also posted their thoughts on the landmark cases that would mark the first time
same sex marriage would be heard by the justices of the Supreme Court.
“For a long time, when people stood up for a cause and weren’t all
physically standing shoulder to shoulder, the size of their impact wasn’t
immediately apparent,” Facebook data researcher Eytan Bakshy said. “But today,
we can see the spread of an idea online in greater detail than ever before.
That’s data well worth finding.”
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| This map shows the location of the 2.7 million who changed their profile pictures to the HRC's red and pink equality sign on March 26, 2013. Red represents areas where profile pictures were changed the most. Whit represents areas where profile pictures were changed the least. |
In addition to the picture that gave a face to the
marriage equality fight, some other social media websites and social media friendly websites like Archivist,
YouTube, Keek, Freedom to Marry and Soundcloud
have attracted citizens to engage in the issue in different ways. For
example, Archivist is a website that analyzes trends on any topic. Some of the
main ideas and phrases raised in the marriage debate that were used on Twitter
will show up on a personalized graphic. YouTube is a very popular website where
anyone with a webcam can share their beliefs, thoughts and interests. It
enhances the use of citizen journalism because it gives people the opportunity
to capture events or take action on different aspects of the marriage debate.
Next, Keek is a website that allows people to make short videos that update
their followers or general public on anything of interest. Some people used
this outlet to express their support or distain on the two civil rights cases.
Soundcloud was a major asset to those who desired to be fully engaged on the
Supreme Court's arguments due to the fact that it captured the actual audio of
the two hearings. It also allowed listeners to comment in any place of the
audio that they felt were important. Lastly, Spotify is a website that captures
blurbs of information from an array of social media websites. In this
particular case, information from around the World Wide Web accumulated about
the marriage equality hearings could be personally gathered into an online
scrapbook of articles, graphics, videos and quotes that individuals collect and
share to others.
Overall, the social media impact of the coverage
given to the Prop 8 and DOMA Supreme Court hearings documents the evolution of
how citizen activism has changed over time. Critics compare the activists of
the past who stood in large crowds to voice their views outside the political
events to today's activists who focus on spreading their views from
anywhere through the use of the Internet and social media. Through data and documentation,
social media has proven to be effective in bringing people into political
awareness of the marriage equality debate. Do you believe that social media in
the United States is an accurate teller of public opinion when it comes to
today's political arena?
