The use of social media as a tool to educate against xenophobia

The use of social media as a tool to educate against xenophobia

An angry crowd at the Alexander township

Xenophobia is prejudice against people from other countries living  in South Africa.why so much hatred ?. Dozens of people have lost their lives because of not considered as being South African citizen. South Africa has dealt with this epidemic for so many years ,yet still people choose to discriminate based of somebody looking different, their personal values, religion of choice, nationality and the language they speak. Foreign nationals leaving South Africa .This has led to people living in fear especially those that come from other African countries such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nigeria etc. Due to the growing social media influence, Xenophobia attacks have grown from just being an Ethical issue ,to an economic and financial crisis,because foreigners are labeled as people who are here to still jobs from South Africans.

foreign National saying No to Xenophobia

 Stereotyping on social media has been one of the common perpetrator of these attacks. People will post stereotyped information on the social media platform in order to influence the audience to either treat other people differently because they are from other countries and because they look a certain way,  or even perpetrate  abuse towards them.Example of a common stereotype, people associate Nigerian people, as people who are criminals and drug dealers,People will therefore spread untrue information and people tend to believe those stereotypes without even checking for valid facts.

Houses Bunt down in Diepsloot Township

The social media however also has its impact as people grew heavily relying on social media to gain new knowledge and information.Information that people get from social media ,they tend to believe it so much to an extend that it shapes their thinking and reasoning towards things and people around them. It is through the media that we learn most of what we know or believe we know about social world and world politics.Caught on Camera

Stereotyping in the media has caused much more damage than what we are aware of. Even though it creates an opportunity to have an open communication but still some people choose to use it as a tool to dehumanize other people.Dealing with Xenophobia

Police shooting at the protesting group of people

The advantage of social media has been that its tool to enhanced information, by education those who don’t understand what xenophobia is about. Social media allows people to discuss issues around racial discrimination and xenophobia, whereby the audience can ask questions and share links that educate our society about what xenophobia is? and how to dealt with discrimination  anywhere in the world. This platform provides an opportunity to widen the xenophobic information and teaches us how to accept and get along well with each other as a society.Where to from here?

Camps for the attacked victims

Recommendation on the use of social media for this campaign, people must use social media to educate the audience about the issue at hand not to perpetrate hate speech. You can use social media to get feedback regarding the issue at hand because everything you publish becomes public information and things can get out of control. 

The use of social media for public engagement

The use of social media for public engagement

students march to the Union buildings in Pretoria

Students at the Uninion building in pretoria,Marching for the Fees must fall 

South Africa is a country where issues have always been swept under the carpet.The start of change These problems have now surfaced in the public arena. They share the view that political freedom is not the only freedom that needs to be achieved, they also want economic freedom that will ensure that every young person has access to free education, better opportunities in life. Moreover young people have taken the advantage of modern communication channels such as twitter, Facebook, watsup etc.Where young people are able to express their frustrations on a public platform.South Africa need to listen On the hashtag fees must fall campaign the social media strategy was a huge success because this campaign gained momentum. The conversation that happened online managed to get the offline attention as well, where by the conversation online took to streets through coordinated protest and petitions nationwide.

Social media 

Media went wild with coverage of this new movement which sparked massive conversation nationally and international. According to what has been said above the campaign was truly a social media success. It’s reported that even students as far as London and Canada were in support of the campaign and conversations grew from just being a South African campaign to the world wide hashtag campaign.Fees Must Fall

Fees Must Fall

For me the advantages of the social media on this campaign is firstly they understood the targeted audience and they had the perfect message to gain following, Hence a strong connection with all the prospective stakeholders to gain their views and debated the issue was the right move.

Mr Blade Nzimande addressing the students

Another advantage was that this campaign managed to engage the government, private sector, students, the universities, civil society and the parents, hence this became a national debate.The Campaign.The greatest disadvantage was the time frame given to government and the universities to respond to all that was happening. They needed time to assess the situation and come up with reasonable solutions but unfortunately when information goes viral on social media, it becomes difficult to control.

I strongly recommend that creating measurable goals is important in achieving the social media success. Goals allow you to explore the direction of when and how far you want to grow your campaign. I personally believe that a successful social media campaign such as this one requires the specific objective which will provide measurable results. Credibility is important, facts and evidences are crucial when handling information on social media.Social media and PR