Symposium: Social Media & Social Change

The symposium 'Social Media & Social Change' focuses on the rapidly changing role of digital social media and the way it is traversing not just the personal but also the socio-political lives of people. Civil unrest in the Arab world, 2009 elections in Iran and 2014's protest movement at the Parliament square in Islamabad are some of the examples the way digital public sphere is getting populated as an alternative means and source of communication, socialisation and/or mobilisation.

The symposium brings together scholars, practioners and graduate fellows from Germany and Pakistan to share their ideas in the form of research papers. The symposium is planned to take place from 15th to 17th December, 2014 at Heinrich Boell Foundation, Islamabad.

Participants

Participant Name Institute Topic  
       
Talal Mustahsan Raza Geo News, Pakistan Facebook and Ethnonationalism in Pakistan  
       
Syed Furrukh Zad Ali Shah Doctoral Fellow, University of Erfurt (Re)production of Islamophobia Discourses through Mediatization of Cultural Memory  
       
Fakiha Hassan Rizvi Creative Executive Content. Digital Marketing Agency, Lahore, Pakistan Political Communication in Blogosphere: A Comparative Case of General Elections in India (2014) and Pakistan (2013)  
       
Bilal Haider Rana Doctoral Fellow, University of Erfurt Resisting extremism: Anti-Taliban voices in Pakistani Social Media  
       
Karen Pilgrim Doctoral Fellow, University of Erfurt Social media for social change? Examples from Pakistan.  
       
Tobias Lebens Doctoral Fellow, University of Erfurt Limits, Opportunities and Realities of Social Media´s impact on Social Movements - The Azadi March and Sit-In  
       
Manuel Florian Inacker Doctoral Fellow, University of Erfurt Digital Resistance in the Age of Neoliberalism and Surveillance: A Case Study on Social Media Activism during the Turkish Gezi Park Uprising  
       
Hafsa Ali Doctoral Fellow, Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan Use of Social Media by Young Voters in the 2013 Elections in Pakistan  
       
Fouad Bajwa Internet Evangelist, Lahore, Pakistan TBA  
       
Syed Irfan Ashraf Assistant Professor, University of Peshawar TBA  
       
Hasnain Bokhari Research Associate, University of Peshawar TBA