COMM317 Media and Human Rights
100,000 than they are one with 29,000 out of 30,000 . Though this is speculative , this may have proved effective in boosting the current level of signatories of the petition . Fundamentally , the campaign cannot be considered effective for the sole reason that it has struggled to even come close to reaching the first necessary step to success – a debate in parliament .
Efficiency This section will assess whether the campaign was conducted in the most appropriate way as to achieve its aim . According to Boyle et al . ( 2017 ), the best way to use the media is to use a combination of traditional and new media in conjunction with each other – the “ Resist Facial Recognition ” campaign did this .
Regarding the traditional media component , Liberty lawyers featured in news bulletins with Sky news , explaining the dangers of facial recognition technology . However , they did not receive any significant amount of coverage . This may partially explain why the campaign has had a heavy focus on new media platforms .
Social media has been the main platform for the campaign and is undoubtedly the most efficient means of conducting the campaign . This is primarily down to
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the ability of social media to reach large numbers of the population . According to Statista ( 2020 ), at the beginning of 2017 , the total number of people using social media in the UK had reached around 40 million . This is around 60 % of the entire population . More specifically , Omnicore ( 2020 ) found that out of all the people who use the internet , 83 % of women and 75 % of men use Facebook . Such statistics demonstrate how social media platforms can be an extremely effective medium in reaching large audiences .
Not to mention the fact that social media has a distinct ability to spread posts or messages particularly quickly through the interactive features of the platform , such as ‘ retweeting ’ or ‘ sharing ’ posts . This helps post to circulate much quicker , sometimes initiating a domino effect that results in a post ‘ going viral ’.
Finally , for the most part , social media is free to use . This allows the campaign to gain ‘ easy ’ publicity free of charge , therefore increasing its chances of success . Moreover , given there is minimal cost to run the campaign beyond paying their employees , the campaign can theoretically be sustained over an indefinite period of time . Again , increasing its chances of success . Overall , the campaign was