Social media could be a power for social change and justice

This caught my eye.

It is written by Billy Shore and looks at how new journalism and social media may actually help to publicise social inequality.

Billy writes that

Modern media celebrates consumption, not deprivation, and focuses on celebrity and personality,

However he continues

in another way, and for the first time in history, the poor are no longer invisible at all, or at least don't have to be. We have instant access to information about virtually everything today -- as close as the computer on our desk or the phone in our pocket - and that includes access to who is hurting, left out, left behind, and why. In just a few minutes on Twitter one can link to everything from statistics to eyewitness accounts,

As he concludes

Social media can't ensure social justice. But it can affect the invisibility that is the first barrier to achieving it

Does art mimic society or vica versa?

Or does society get the media it deserves?

Although our country is falling into a bottom less pit according at least to some sections of the media,that is not how the entertainment business portrays us


Take a look at Ally Fogg writing on Comment is Free

Of all the fallacies surrounding the influence of the media on society, perhaps the greatest is that this process is a one-way street. For every nihilistic game of Grand Theft Auto there must be a hundred victories of good over evil. For every Chatsworth Estate on our screens there's a dozen Balamory's. All things considered it's a wonder that modern Britain isn't a dead ringer for Walnut Grove

What is he trying to say.

Well the media for him,far from painting a picture of a society in decline actually does the opposite and

hours of slick programming that sends out precisely the wrong message.

Rampant morality and righteousness infect the schedules from CBeebies to Midsomer Murders, with crimes being solved, wrongs being righted, good people being rewarded for good behaviour and bad people being punished for their sins. How on earth are we meant to encourage criminality and violence when we have the officers from Sun Hill actually catching the guilty every week?

Surrounded by not just television it seems but also

Entire racks of the newsagent are taken up by magazines devoted to men's health, health and beauty or good parenting, while almost every other publication contains page after page of sensible lifestyle advice from doctors and nutritionists

.

So Mr Cameron,looks like we already have your nudge society courtesy of the media.