A big thing as a protest can be mobilised from a couch, you think I am kidding? Then why did the statue of Cecil John Rhodes fall? It is because of the #hashtag that the University of Cape Town's council did not see coming.
#RHODESMUSTFALL
Johannesburg - On the 9th of March 2015, the students of University of Cape Town (UCT) started a protest against the statue of Cecil John Rhodes in the university calling for it to be removed.First thing is first UCT is a public academic institution in a democratic country, thus equality is very crucial in places like these. As a result, UCT had to find strategic communication in which they can resolve the matter at hand.
This hashtag was disadvantageous to the university because it was actually giving them a bad image. UCT replied to the public through news conferences, their social media pages and also on their website. The problem is that they delayed to do so, and remember the social media users do not sleep. Thus, it gave the Twitter users more chance to mobilise and come up with more stuff to stir up the protest, and the hashtag spread even more to an extent that other institutions stood in solidarity with the protesting students.
This video shows the police trying to stop the students that are protesting, little do they know that when they do that it makes things even worse because people are getting more furious when they see such videos on social media. UCT had to be reasonable on why they should keep the statue.
Students where sharing the activities that took place in the institution on social media, what UCT should have done is to also engage in the Hashtag, in a polite and a positive manner. In that way, they would have controlled the issue to some extent.
Click here to view the tweets about #RhodesMustFall
Of course people reacted in different ways to the issue, the thing about social media is that once you post something, it is not possible to retract your words. Notable people, lecturers, even political figures were having opinions about this matter. When too many people have opinions there are disagreements. In this case, the disagreements led to racial issues. Again, UCT's procrastination to respond and engaging on social media, came back bite them and they were seen as a racist institution.
The Evolution of the Rhodes Statue at UCT, remember, social media gave this movement such great exposure.
Student were not happy about the Rodes statue.
ReplyDeleteYes they were not,which is why it resulted to the protest
DeleteIt is always good to reply on social media to give people an assurance on a matter and with the University delaying in responding to the protest made things worse. students felt like the University didn't really care enough to give its own response to the issue which is why the protest got out of hand.
ReplyDeleteSo true about their late response, the social media never sleeps that really did build up more trouble for them. Personally i think the statue was fine, symbolizes the struggle we went through as blacks and people we conquered, the likes of Rhodes. But hey don't shoot me that"s only my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, everyone has an opinion. Another person would say they commemorate the oppressor.
DeleteVery interesting post. If only the University knew that social media doesn't sleep and replied as early as possible to the protestors.
ReplyDeleteExactly
DeleteI fail to understand why would students want the statue to be removed. Whereas the very same person they seem to "dislike" pays for a certain portion of students' tuition fees through "The Rhodes Trust Scholarship". It is not fair right?
ReplyDelete