In the book, “Here Come’s Everybody” Clay Shirky writes, “These tools allow citizens to report the news when they see it, without having to go through (or face delay and censorship by) official news channels.”
Social Media has opened the door to new ways for people to create groups making it easier and simple to accomplish their purposes. Social media has provided instant communication and the means to reach as many people as one wishes too.
For example twitter hash tags are the new way of identifying what people talk about. It is a way people identify topics, hence being able to find the information they might be looking for. Groups on Twitter are also using hash tags to identify their topic and lead them to accomplish their goals. An example of this is happening on Mexico. Since the drug war started it has caused increasing violence all around cities, at all times of the day. It had escalated from something between people involve in cartels to affecting the way citizens go on their daily life’s. Citizens want to be aware of shootings or any other events that can affect their area where they live and not find themselves on a threatening situation. Social media, such as twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs have become the tool citizens use to inform each other of violent breakouts, as they realize they couldn’t rely just on what the media said. As more and more people did this, citizens using twitter agreed on a standard hash tag to use. This way it will be easier for people to find out about any violent event by simply searching under the agreed hash tag. For example, cities like Monterrey and Reynosa have created their standard hash tags. Every twitter user living on those cities know that they can simply search “#mtyfollows” or “#reynosafollows” to find out about any shootings or any risky situations they should avoid for their own safety. This works because of what Shirky says, ““When people care enough, they can come together and accomplish things of a scope and longevity that were previously impossible; they can do big things for love.” One of the consequences of the Drug War is the increase of crime as well as the lack of getting justice out of it. Citizens also use social media to get help if they become victims of crime, for example stolen car, or to talk about the lack of help they got from authorities.
In a situation like these social media has given citizens the opportunities to take a “journalistic” behavior in an attempt to do their part in helping people being affected by crime and to stand for justice in a country when no one is getting it. The Media has been extremely affected by the drug war as many news outlets cannot inform the actual facts for different reasons. Some either have been bought by wither the government or cartel, others have been threatened, and other have actually lost members of their news team for reporting against the cartels. Some newspapers have taken different measures to inform as much as they can. For example, “El Diario” from Ciudad Juarez and “El Siglo de Torreon,” from Torreon do not longer have a ‘by line’ on articles related to the Drug War in an effort to protect their journalists. Two young citizens created “El Blog del Narco” (The Cartel Blog) to inform every event related to the Drug War. They have created a safe outlet for citizens to inform anything they witness or they have victims off. They use Facebook and twitter to reach as many people as possible. They also use YouTube to post videos, although several times their videos have been censored. Just like Shirky said about the Lott story, “The weblog kept they story alive.” This blog keeps the information alive not letting citizens forget what the authorities try to hide on a daily basis. Other citizens have also created twitter accounts dedicated only to inform about drug war events on their region. For example some of them are: @BadNewsLaguna and @SinViolenciaMexico and many others. Any of this given accounts have thousands of followers because citizens have realized is the only medium they have to either get the news instantly or even getting them at all. It is something like Shirky wrote on the book, “information sharing produces shared awareness among the participants, and collaborative production relies on shared creation, but collective action creates shared responsibility, by tying the user’s identity to the identity group.”
As sad as it sounds, when it comes to news related to the Drug War traditional news outlets, like broadcasting and print, have lost the trust of citizens. Everyone believes more the information they obtain through social media outlets, even when it was created by citizens just trying to help and not actual journalists. Without Social media citizens would have still stand up for justice, but social media provides them the tool they needed it to both protect themselves and reach thousands of citizens, hence actually being able to make a difference. Is not the journalists have stop doing their job, but their profession has found itself trapped in the chain of corruption created long ago in a country that now is fighting an internal war. Social Media is what citizens have left to inform each other and together try to do something about the Drug War that is slowly destroying the country. Shirky writes, “We are seeing these tools progress from coordination into governance, as groups gain enough power and support to be able to demand that they be deferred to.”
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