My blog post this week will focus on the Ukrainian revolution that has been recently amplified in international news media and how social media outlets have played a massive role in the midst of this uprising. The revolution in Ukraine, for those who may not be up to date, was initially a peaceful protest that began early November 2013. However, receiving little to no news coverage by Western media, even when riot police began to attack protestors, those involved in the situation turned to social media outlets to disseminate information and give further insight on what is really happening in Ukraine.
Ukraine has seen massive protests and outrage in response to current president Viktor Yanukovich’s decision to reject the European Union trade pact in an attempt to return to a totalitarian regime, thus leaving the country suffering from both corruption and economic issues. What Western media outlets initially ignored was quickly brought to light through several thousands of posts on Twitter and Facebook. Interconnectivity has allowed for a more effective and prompt response, increasing the number of protestors exponentially.
Being Ukrainian myself, I have noticed the rapid response and support of family friends and relatives on Facebook; profile pictures quickly changed to black icons with an overlay of a Ukrainian flag hung upside down, symbolizing a country in distress.
News articles, supportive “cover photos”, demonstration groups, and links to events where individuals could protest locally in areas around the GTA quickly flooded my newsfeed. Social networks, specifically Facebook, allowed for the development of a quickly informed community through tactics such as crowdsourcing and decentralized flow of information.
Last week we focused on how organizations strive to better produce and shape their content in order to narrow down audiences and have them become engaged. I believe this idea is one that is working on a much grander scale in terms of the Ukrainian revolution. In last weeks lecture we learned, “Social media is an ecosystem in perpetual evolution,” I believe this to be extremely relevant to this situation. As visible on my own Facebook feed, individuals are constantly sharing, discussing, and interacting amongst one another in order to find solutions, show support, and become more involved with the international crisis. As Facebook is sustaining and supporting the revolution we can further understand the importance of these platforms in times of exponential crisis. One article that further overviews how social media is implemented to better the condition and spread information on the crisis states, “The Euromaidan Facebook page, Euromaidan SOS, called for emergency aid as soon as protesters began to tweet and post the happenings on social media. Posts on the page are forwarding information to protesters in real-time, with suggestions to keep the protesters safe.”
By noticing the massive influence of these social networks we can begin to question: Is technology and accessibility to these emerging social tools changing the nature and direction of international storytelling? How much of this information would be censored or altered in regular news media if it wasn’t for the available social networks providing prompt updates and further details on the crisis?
There is a lot to learn from this revolution and the way social media has made an effective impact; unfortunately I cannot cover all that has occurred in this one blog post. If you would like to gain more insight on the revolution and how social media is involved here is the link to the article mentioned above, http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/ukraine-social-networking-is-the-revolution/
Iryna's Social Media and Organizations Blog 
Great consideration on how social tools and are starting to shape global politics. It may have been easy for Western and European Nations to ignore the violence and repression, but with widespread social sharing, advocates for Ukraine have effectively made Maidan an international relation’s crisis that cannot be ignored. Here’s a personal post I wrote about my visit to Ukraine and Maidan in December: https://medium.com/philosophy-logic/fdaa1612f230
Thank you for sharing your post, it was a great read!