Blogging For Social Change
Have you ever wanted to get voice your opinion on issues about society that bother you or awaken the world to problems that oft go ignored? Well then blogging is your solution. Blogging will soon become the premiere form of social protest in the world. Blogs are easy to start websites that can be informational or be personal online journals that allow web users to publish their personal thoughts or opinions on the Internet for the world to read. This means that blogs can have far reaching audiences from around the world.
Often bloggers for social change are called keyboard warriors and have been labeled as lazy protesters unwilling to stand up from behind their screens and go out into the world and do something. This is not the case. Blog posts for change can quickly go viral and as opposed to a protest that soon is relegated to the back of the publics mind, blogs are online and as the saying goes, the internet never forgets. Meaning, that blogs can drive social change for the long haul.
In Kenya, blogs such www.willthisbeaproblem.com and www.brainstorm.co.ke are examples of blogs that are driving the online movement to inform and inspire more and more Kenyans online towards a better society. Most Kenyan youth never pick up a newspaper, but once online they go through at least three blog posts a day. Also the print media is not always willing to publish articles on social change because they might be unpopular. Issues such as prostitution,mental health and gay rights make few and far between appearances in mainstream media merely because they are afraid of that their readership would reduce due to association or are portrayed in a negative light in the opinion section.
Blogs are able to reach a global audience, give voice to a cause and give causes a lasting presence in the global conversation. Blogs such as www.razanghazzawi.org run by Syrian citizen journalist Rhazzan Ghazzawi gave an insight into the Syrian crisis. The news reaching the international media mostly comprised of stories stitched together by professional journalist outside Syria. At the height of the crisis she was the only anti-regime blogger in Syria informing the world on the day-to-day goings on in Syria. Without her blog the world would have been in the dark for a longer time about goings on in Syria. Bloggers for change are not ineffective but actually do have an impact on the society at large. Have something you feel you need to be vocal about? Start your blog for social change today and begin your journey to changing the world.
