The Bring Back Our Girls Campaign is working: Boko Haram should be scared of a hashtag

[DonViejo]

FELICITY MORSE

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Social media campaigns have their faults, but they make politicians sit up and listen

Boko Haram must be quaking in their boots. These ‘Islamic’ militants have razed entire villages to the ground, hacked men to death and killed children as they slept, but now the West has a hashtag campaign.

#BringBackOurGirls has exploded across social media, powered by a desire to reunite 200 kidnapped Nigerian girls with their parents as well as a strong sense of outrage. Facebook and Twitter are well adapted mediums for protest, yet often the complaints made were not against Boko Haram, but against what was seen as the mainstream media’s wilful ignorance of the girls’ kidnap. A volley of tweets argued that “if these children were white European girls, countries would do something.” They are right. If 200 girls had gone missing in Spain, whether white or black, there would have been far more coverage. Not because of media racism but because such events in Europe are unheard of and therefore in industry terms, more newsworthy. Many of us have been on holiday to Spain and it is a sad fact of humanity that we care more about things we can imagine happening to us.

The media weren’t ignoring those girls. Reports from the Associated Press and Reuters captured the attention of those who first began campaigning to bring them home. News bulletins didn’t give the issue prominence, but that’s because the media gives their audience what they think they want. All organisations have to shift papers, get clicks and bring in viewers . In February alone, 60 boys were burnt to death as the they slept at a boarding school in Yobe. That same month 150 Christian men were hacked to death and gunned down in a village in central Nigeria. There was no hashtag in February. If readers don’t suggest they are interested in Boko Haram (which given the lack of Western outrage in February, it would be easy to assume), then there will be no primetime coverage.

Hashtag activism is a new phenomenon and campaigning in this way has its faults. It can be a brilliant way to bring a campaign to people's attention, but presumably those using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls want to do more than just spread awareness-they want those girls brought home. Getting people like Michelle Obama and David Cameron to hold up a slogan and pull a concerned face is not mission accomplished. We, the people, use a hashtag because we don't have the power that these leaders have. I want influential people to act, not update their status.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-bring-back-our-girls-campaign-is-working-boko-haram-should-be-scared-of-a-hashtag-9360830.html