[Air-L] Social Media and the UK Riots: “Twitter Mobs”, “Facebook Mobs”, “Blackberry Mobs” and the Structural Violence of Neoliberalism

Thu Aug 11 05:39:16 PDT 2011

Thank goodness Adobe doesn't have a social network platform. Otherwise we'd
be seeing flash mobs everywhere!

Oh wait...

:-)

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 8:37 AM, Petr Lupac <petr.lupac at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> thank you too for interesting and thoughts-provoking essay. I've just
> read that the British government and police plan to prevent such
> situations in the future by enhancing surveillance system (more
> cameras, better tracking of mobile and internet communication).
>
> It seems that the technological determinism serves as a powerfool tool
> to both enhance surveillance capacities of the national state and to
> bypass the public's awareness of the real source of troubles>
> socioeconomic inequalities and cultural contradictions.
>
> Does anyone know about any theoretical grounding of politics using
> technological technodeterminism to mask and avoid the structural
> sources of inequality embedded in the system of production and public
> goods distribution?
>
> Petr Lupac
> Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
>
>
> 2011/8/10 Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at>:
> > Social Media and the UK Riots: “Twitter Mobs”, “Facebook Mobs”,
> “Blackberry
> > Mobs” and the Structural Violence of Neoliberalism
> > A blog post on the role of social media in the UK riots by Christian
> Fuchs
> > http://fuchs.uti.at/667/
> >
> > “One formula [...] can be that of the mob: gullible, fickle, herdlike,
> low
> > in taste and habit. [...] If [...] our purpsoe is manipulation – the
> > persuasion of a large number of people to act, feel, think, known in
> certain
> > ways – the convenient formula will be that of the masses”. — Raymond
> > Williams
> >
> > “What is true of London, is true of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, is
> true
> > of all great towns. Everywhere barbarous indifference, hard egotism on
> one
> > hand, and nameless misery on the other, everywhere social warfare, every
> > man’s house in a state of siege, everywhere reciprocal plundering under
> the
> > protection of the law, and all so shameless, so openly avowed that one
> > shrinks before the consequences of our social state as they manifest
> > themselves here undisguised, and can only wonder that the whole crazy
> fabric
> > still hangs together”. This passage could be a description of the social
> > conditions in the United Kingdom today. It is, however, a passage from
> > Friedrich Engels’ report about the “Working Class in England”, published
> in
> > 1845.
> >
> > In his book “Folk Devils and Moral Panics, first published in 1972,
> Stanley
> > Cohen shows how public discourse tends to blame media and popular culture
> > for triggering, causing or stimulating violence. “There is a long history
> of
> > moral panics about the alleged harmful effects of exposure to popular
> media
> > and cultural forms – comics and cartoons, popular theatre, cinema, rock
> > music, video nasties, computer games, internet porn” – and, one should
> add
> > today, social media. “For conservatives, the media glamorize crime,
> > trivialize public insecurities and undermine moral authority; for
> liberals
> > the media exaggerate the risks of crime and whip up moral panics to
> > vindicate an unjust and authoritarian crime control policy” (Cohen,
> Stanley.
> > 1972/2002. Folk devils and moral panics. Oxon: Routledge. Third edition.
> > page xvii).
> >
> > The shooting of Mark Duggan by the London police on August 4th 2011 in
> > Tottenham triggered riots in London areas such as Tottenham, Wood Green,
> > Enfield Town, Ponders End, Brixton, Walthamstow, Walthamstow Central,
> > Chingford Mount, Hackney, Croydon, Ealing and in other UK areas such as
> > Toxteth (Liverpool), Handsworth (Birmingham), St. Ann’s (Nottingham),
> West
> > Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Salford, or Central Manchester.
> >
> > Parts of the mass media started blaming social media for being the cause
> of
> > the violence. The Sun reported on August 8th: “Rioting thugs use Twitter
> to
> > boost their numbers in thieving store raids. [...] THUGS used social
> network
> > Twitter to orchestrate the Tottenham violence and incite others to join
> in
> > as they sent messages urging: ’Roll up and loot’“. The Telegraph wrote on
> > the same day: “How technology fuelled Britain’s first 21st century riot.
> The
> > Tottenham riots were orchestrated by teenage gang members, who used the
> > latest mobile phone technology to incite and film the looting and
> violence.
> > Gang members used Blackberry smart-phones designed as a communications
> tool
> > for high-flying executives to organise the mayhem”. The Daily Mail wrote
> on
> > August 7th that there are “fears that violence was fanned by Twitter as
> > picture of burning police car was re-tweeted more than 100 times”.
> >
> > Even the BBC took up the social media panic discourse on August 9th and
> > reported about the power of social media to bring together not only five,
> > but 200 people for forming a rioting “mob”. Media and politicians created
> > the impression that the riots were orchestrated by “Twitter mobs” and
> > “Blackberry mobs”.
> >
> > And also, as usual in moral panics, the call for policing technology
> could
> > be heard. The Daily Express (August 10th, 2011) wrote: ”Thugs and looters
> > are thought to have sent messages via the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)
> service
> > to other troublemakers, alerting them to riot scenes and inciting further
> > violence. Technology writer Mike Butcher said it was unbelievable the
> > service had not already been shut down. He said: ’Mobile phones have
> become
> > weaponised. It’s like text messaging with steroids – you can send
> messages
> > to hundreds of people that cannot be traced back to you.’ Tottenham MP
> David
> > Lammy appealed for BlackBerry to suspend the service“. The police
> published
> > pictures of rioters recorded by CCTV and asked the public to identify the
> > people. The mass media published these pictures. The Sun called for
> “naming
> > and shaming a rioter” and for “shopping a moron”. The mass media also
> > reported about citizens, who self-organized over social media in order to
> > gather in affected neighbourhoods for cleaning the streets.
> >
> > Blaming technology or popular culture for violence – the Daily Mirror
> blamed
> > “the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music, which glorifies
> violence
> > and loathing of authority (especially the police but including parents),
> > exalts trashy materialism and raves about drugs“ for the riots – is an
> old
> > and typical ideology that avoids engaging with the real societal causes
> of
> > riots and unrest and promises easy solutions: policing, control of
> > technology, surveillance. It neglects the structural causes of riots and
> how
> > violence is built into contemporary societies. Focusing on technology (as
> > cause of or solution for riots) is the ideological search for control,
> > simplicity and predictability in a situation of high complexity,
> > unpredictability and uncertainty. It is also an expression of fear. It
> > projects society’s guilt and shame into objects. Explanations are not
> sought
> > in complex social relations, but in the fetishism of things. Social media
> > and technology-centrism, both in its optimistic form (“social media will
> > help our communities to overcome the riots”, “social media and mobile
> phones
> > should be surveilled by the police”, “Blackberrys should be forbidden”,
> > “more CCTV surveillance is needed”, “CCTV will help us find and imprison
> all
> > rioters”) and its pessimistic form (“social media triggered, caused,
> > stimulated, boosted, orchestrated, organized or fanned violence”), is a
> > techno-deterministic ideology that subsitutes thinking about society by
> the
> > focus on technology. Societal problems are reduced to the level of
> > technology.
> >
> > Let’s talk about the society, in which these riots have taken place. Is
> it
> > really a surprise that riots emerged in the UK,  a country with high
> > socio-economic inequality and youth unemployment, in a situation of
> global
> > economic crisis? The United Kingdom has a high level of income
> inequality,
> > its Gini level was 32.4 in 2009 (0 means absolute equality, 100 absolute
> > inequality), a level that is only topped by a few countries in Europe and
> > that is comparable to the level of Greece (33.1) (data source: Eurostat).
> > 17.3% of the UK population had a risk of living in poverty in 2009 (data
> > source: Eurostat). In early 2011, the youth unemployment rate in the UK
> rose
> > to 20.3%, the highest level since these statistics started being recorded
> in
> > 1992.
> >
> > The UK is not only one of the most advanced developed countries today in
> > economic temrs, it is at the same time a developing country in social
> terms
> > with a lot of structurally deprived areas. Is it a surprise that riots
> > erupted especially in East London, the West Midlands and Greater
> Manchester?
> >  The UK Department of Communities and Local Government reported in its
> > analysis “The English Indices of Deprivation 2010”: “Liverpool,
> > Middlesbrough, Manchester, Knowsley, the City of Kingston-upon Hull,
> Hackney
> > and Tower Hamlets are the local authorities with the highest proportion
> of
> > LSOAs amongst the most deprived in England. [...] The north east quarter
> of
> > London, particularly Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets continue to
> exhibit
> > very high levels of deprivation“ (pages 1, 3). Decades of UK capitalist
> > development shaped by deindustrialization and neoliberalism have had
> effects
> > on the creation, intensification and extension of precariousness and
> > deprivation.
> >
> > Calls for more police, surveillance, crowd control and the blames of
> popular
> > culture and social media are helpless. It is too late once riots erupt.
> One
> > should not blame social media or popular culture, but the violent
> conditions
> > of society for the UK riots. The mass media’s and politics’ focus on
> > surveillance, law and order politics and the condemnation of social media
> > will not solve the problems. A serious discussion about class, inequality
> > and racism is needed, which also requires a change of policy regimes. The
> UK
> > riots are not a “Blackberry mob”, not a “Facebook mob” and not a “Twitter
> > mob”; they are the effects of the structure violence of neoliberalism.
> > Capitalism, crisis and class are the main contexts of unrests, uproars
> and
> > social media today.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Prof. Christian Fuchs
> > Chair in Media and Communication Studies
> > Department of Informatics and Media
> > Uppsala University
> > Kyrkogårdsgatan 10
> > Box 513
> > 751 20 Uppsala
> > Sweden
> > christian.fuchs at im.uu.se
> > Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019
> > http://fuchs.uti.at
> > http://www.im.uu.se
> > NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog
> > Editor of tripleC: http://www.triple-c.se
> > Book "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (Routledge
> > 2011)
> > Book "Internet and Society" (Paperback, Routledge 2010)
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> Mgr. Petr Lupac
> tel> +420736163866
> e-mail>petr.lupac at gmail.com
> _______________________________________________
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Thomas Jones
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