A Public Talk by Merlyna Lim
Drawing on empirical evidence from various contexts globally, such as the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong, the “Arab Spring”, and the “Bersih” movement in Malaysia, this talk will provide insights to the making of contemporary movements and the importance of networks and spaces in the discourses and practices of these movements, in digital and urban spaces. Some central questions posed in this talk include: How did tweets, posts, and pictures assist (or not) the protest? How did social media activism relate to the protests on in the streets and on the squares? What were the roles of social media in the movement? Did social media activism help sustaining the movement?