These resources were used while creating the Oh Shit! What Now? Social Media 101 class, or offer opportunities for further learning. You’ll also find links to websites and apps which can help movement organizers and citizen journalists on social media.
Apps
- Boomerang — create 6 second looping animated gifs
- Instaweather — put weather info on your photos
- Layout — create pretty photogrids
- Photoshop Express — simple way to edit photos on the fly
- IFTTT — a powerful way to link up sites and automate (for example, tie your calendar to your Twitter)
- Signal — encrypted, private SMS and voice chat that’s Edward Snowden approved
- Tweetdeck — manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule Tweets, powerful view of Twitter searches & hashtags
- Vidstitch — create video and photo grids, like Layout plus videos
Articles
- How effective is social media activism? — online activism works when it’s linked to real world issues
- How Facebook News Feed Works — basics of the Facebook algorithm
- Smashed Windows, Social Media and State Surveillance — how to be a responsible citizen journalist without putting activists at risk
- Social Media Use by Age — from Pew Research
- Social Media Use Divides Along Class Lines — data from 2015, but still important reminder about who you reach and don’t reach online
- Twitter Is Making It Harder To Swear At Trump & Pence — Twitter is making it harder to swear at verified accounts, in general
Books
- Tweets and the Streets by Paolo Gerbaudo — this book is very academic and somewhat dry, but if you want a deep dive into how social media can influence movements this is a great study
Videos
- How to Film Protests:A Video for Change Guide (Multilingual) — more great resources like this at https://witness.org/
Other Useful Sites
- ImgFlip.com — (or Powerpoint/Google Slides) for memes
- Morguefile, Flickr (search for Creative Commons images), Wikimedia Commons — sources for images
- Twitter Audit — how many followers are real?
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