Keyword reflection on the first reading: Tufecki, Zeynep and Christopher Wilson "Social media and the decision to participate in political protest: Observations from Tahrir Square" Journal of communication 62.2 (2012):363-379
The project carried out in this document was to establish pieces of evidence on how the social media and the internet have made it possible to have political change for the authoritarian regimes. An example considered for the purpose of this study was the protest that was carried out in Tahrir square in Egypt. The following research questions were important during the study; how did the protesters arrange their involvement? How did they document their involvement? How did their use of social media teach them about the protests? It is important to note that the protests that were carried out in Tahrir square were set in a media context that had seen developments over the years.
The liberals and all other persons who were against the Mubarak regime began using the internet. Their use of internet ranged from blogs, personal sites, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Bloggers had a difficult time as they found themselves in jail because the internet at that time in Egypt was uncensored. In 2009, Facebook was introduced in Arabic. The introduction catalyzed the revolution process as the citizens could upload the political content online. Furthermore, the practice of citizen journalism where individuals posted events such as exposing corruption, poverty, human rights abuse as well as torture. In North Africa and the Middle East, social media has become the new system of political communication. It was made possible by the numerous expansion of the internet meaning persons could access the information on the internet. Moreover, the increase in citizen connectivity that was brought about by cheap cellphones that had the video, photo and internet capability made it possible to upload the events immediately from the point of occurrence. From the study, it is evident that majority of protestors who participated in Tahrir square protest obtained the information through the social media. Therefore, social media played a major role in ensuring the success of the protest.
Keyword reflection on the second reading: Miller-Young, Mireille. "Putting Hypersexuality to work: Black women and illicit eroticism in pornography." The study talks about the injustices taking place in the pornography industry and especially to the black sex workers who go through multiple acts of discrimination and harm as compared to the whites. Discrimination took various forms such as unfair pay for their work and being measured against unattainable and cruel standards of beauty and femininity. This is evident when the writer of the article had gone to the convention hall that hosted the AVN'S Adult Expo and heard the white director of all-white saying that "These black chicks are fucking skanks!" Furthermore, in the Adult Video News' Expo, they (black women) are placed in the peripheries. Unlike the white women in the industry who are valued as precious commodities in the sex market, the blacks on their side are tasked with less important roles. Despite the pornographic media in the sex economy having some set of hierarchical values in terms of production, distribution, and consumption, as well as the labor relations existing in the adult entertainment industry, evaluation, and commodification of bodies, are still done through the lenses of race, gender, class, and sexuality.
After identifying the injustices the black women go through in the industry, the writer tries to establish how the black women sex workers have responded to racial and gender hierarchies of valuation where they fight against the devaluation of their bodies and the sexual labors by coming up with pornography that symbolizes their own desires. They do so with the intention of the struggle for survival, success and sexual agency. Based on the writer's research, the black sex workers are struggling hard to create themselves a space in the sexual marketplace. In fact, there are various reforms taking place now. An example is where the black women whose roles as the sex workers are being replaced with other important roles of becoming hardcore directors, producers, agents, and webmistresses. This indicates a big achievement of their struggle of redefining their perceived roles by the whites.
Works Cited
Miller-Young, Mireille. "Putting hypersexuality to work: Black women and illicit eroticism in pornography." Sexualities 13.2 (2010): 219-235.
Tufekci, Zeynep, and Christopher Wilson. "Social media and the decision to participate in political protest: Observations from Tahrir Square." Journal of communication 62.2 (2012): 363-379.
