The Hong Kong protests, also known as the Umbrella Revolution, began in September 2014 when activists in Hong Kong started to protest outside the Hong Kong Government headquarters and in several major city intersections, mainly due to NPCSC’s decision of disallowing civil nominations in future elections.
It has become a stunning peaceful civil disobedience movement, able to bring together thousands of protesters. Although some violent outbreaks have happened, this conflict should be mostly understood as an example of Cultural Violence (Galtung, 1969: 196). The conflict attitudes (Mitchell, 1981: FALTA PAG) have been germinating over the past 17 years of Chinese control, that has lead to a lost of democracy, though not to a feeling of belonging (Brown, 2014).
In this situation, Hong Kong citizens have organized themselves, mainly through social media, and are carrying out a powerful movement of protests, hoping that this conflict will be a source of development (Galtung, 2000: 10) for a …show more content…
The use of social media
The possibilities of social media in conflict are important to establish the different limits it has from traditional media. In the Hong Kong conflict, predominantly young demonstrators have used social media - what has been called the Millennia Generation or Generation Y (Horovitz, 2012). And as well as the “traditional” social media platforms (Twitter and Facebook), Hong Kong protesters are using “coverage” apps due to the fear that the PRC or the NPCSC may block the mobile signal or the access to Internet.
These apps (e.g. FireChat) allow people to connect using Bluetooth of Wi-Fi (Peterson, 2014). They are not limited by personal contacts and all the messages are available for everybody to see. This fact is extremely important for the conflict, as it allows more people to get involved, to organise and to join easily. Nevertheless, this also means that opponents of the protests can also read and prepare in advance for every action they are
It has become a stunning peaceful civil disobedience movement, able to bring together thousands of protesters. Although some violent outbreaks have happened, this conflict should be mostly understood as an example of Cultural Violence (Galtung, 1969: 196). The conflict attitudes (Mitchell, 1981: FALTA PAG) have been germinating over the past 17 years of Chinese control, that has lead to a lost of democracy, though not to a feeling of belonging (Brown, 2014).
In this situation, Hong Kong citizens have organized themselves, mainly through social media, and are carrying out a powerful movement of protests, hoping that this conflict will be a source of development (Galtung, 2000: 10) for a …show more content…
The use of social media
The possibilities of social media in conflict are important to establish the different limits it has from traditional media. In the Hong Kong conflict, predominantly young demonstrators have used social media - what has been called the Millennia Generation or Generation Y (Horovitz, 2012). And as well as the “traditional” social media platforms (Twitter and Facebook), Hong Kong protesters are using “coverage” apps due to the fear that the PRC or the NPCSC may block the mobile signal or the access to Internet.
These apps (e.g. FireChat) allow people to connect using Bluetooth of Wi-Fi (Peterson, 2014). They are not limited by personal contacts and all the messages are available for everybody to see. This fact is extremely important for the conflict, as it allows more people to get involved, to organise and to join easily. Nevertheless, this also means that opponents of the protests can also read and prepare in advance for every action they are