#RhodesMustFall

#RhodesMustFall Campaign
Published by S Lurewana
24 March 2016


 #RhodesMustFall, social media advantages and disadvantages for PRPs 

#RhodesMustFall – a campaign of students and staff members calling up for direct action against the racism at the University of Cape Town. The main focus of the campaign is to create avenues for transformation that students and staff members be called and treated equally. The students and staff members believe that if the Rhodes Statue is kept on the institution premises then the university caters White students and staff, therefore there is no freedom at the university after this democracy era. 1. RhodesMustFall Oxford views 2. More about RhodesMustFall


Social media advantages of #RhodesMustFall and for PRPs

• Creates a channel for conversation – social media platforms with hashtags like twitter and facebook give organisations and public relations practitioners an opportunity to communicate with people/audience. Organisations also have an opportunity to respond and react quickly to comments addressing issues and concerns of the public. The #RhodesMustFall went viral/trended on social media platforms like twitter, gmail and facebook whereby not only students and staff members of the university of Cape Town expresses their views but also giving an opportunity to the public to be involved in the conversations based on the matter. Hashtags makes it easier for PR pros to respond to comments on time and also to get solutions to the issue through conversations under the hashtag, other organisations and institutions like Oxford University also became part of the #RhodesMustFall movement which means that hashtags create stable conversations not only in one place but also internationally, that gives an opportunity to PR pros to get more ideas on how to respond and react on a certain issue like RhodesMustFall.

• Reachability – hashtags makes it easier for public relations practitioners to reach a wide range of audience when communicating messages and executing campaigns. Creating the #RhodesMustFall made it easier for the public to give support and be updated on current situation regarding to the issue, for example EFF leader Julius Malema texted on twitter supporting that the Rhodes Statue be removed from the institution. #RhodesMustFall reached countless publics like apartheid era president F.W de Klerk wherehe called the movement/campaign “folly”, Rhodes university, University of Pretoria and Stellenbosch University also supported the movement. Social media advantage & disadvantages

Social media disadvantages for #RhodesMustFall and PRPs

• Time consuming – In order for a hashtag to trend, it has to have constant monitoring of activity and for it to not lose comments from the public. Publics needs to be updated on time on the current issue so University of Cape Town public relations practitioners might not get much time to respond to the current issue. Read about social networking
• Attracts current users – social media mostly attract the attention from current and active users, #RhodesMustFall updates might not get attention and support as needed because of some of users of twitter and facebook may be busy with other work or academic stuff not paying attention to social media. Read Pro and Cons of Social Media

                                          How #RhodesMustFall Started/video

Recommendations for strategic use of social media for future campaigns
I recommend that social media to be used only when necessary and to know what is the suitable time to reach your targeted audience. PRPs must interact with key people of the campaign so that when the is a need to comment or respond to an issue they know who to contact, to save time.









Rhodes Statue being removed...

#FeesMustFall

#FeesMustFall Campaign

Published by S Lurewana

24 March 2016

                                         #FeesMustFall influence on social media

It is a students’ protest campaign which began in mid-October 2015 against the fee increment at universities in South Africa. The protests also not only included the issue on fees increment, it also included the calling off of the outsourcing and employees (such as cleaners, securities) to be insourced (employed directly by universities). These student protests started from Wits university and spreading over to University of Cape Town along to Rhodes University before going viral to other universities in South Africa.

University fees can increase up to hundreds of thousands which leads to Black students who are financially needy or financially disadvantaged to struggle to meet those fees. There are bursaries and student financial loans such as Eduloan, NSFAS etc but they do not go that further mile to make sure that students’ demands like residence, registration and book fees are met. If a student has an unpaid or outstanding debt, he or she will not be able to see the academic results and also be blocked from registering to enroll or graduate the following year, now a student is forced to take a gap year to find a job in order to obtain their certificate or further their studies. 1. Read more about #FeesMustFall  2. FeesMustFall 2015 SA

Social media advantages for #FeesMustFall:

 The use of this hashtag on social media platforms helped the students to gain more support from other universities, the public and other organizations daily, because it was pointing out and rectifying the flaws in the educational system.Powerful Voice Of Youth 

·                                                                                                                  Support from celebrities/video

     Students views or demands were halfway met and now students will not have to take time off because they cannot afford registration fee and finish their studies within the stipulated time. 

            The campaign helped in a way that there is no more competition over a place at varsity between financially needy and financial stable students.

·         PRPs get to know the key leaders of student’s representatives to respond to and communicate with. Support from Graca Machel

Disadvantages of hashtags on social media:

·         Misinterpretation of pictures, this leads to not getting support if the pictures of protests are misinterpreted because students are violent so if only violent action pictures go viral on social media then the brand or       campaign reputation can be ruined.

·         Protests are always disruptive by nature, so disruptive pictures on social media leads to arrests. More disadvantages

Mixed views/video

I would recommend that the PRPs make themselves familiar with social media platforms and be active all the time of the issue so that they can respond quickly to the matter. Hashtags makes it easier for any campaign to be recognized and get support so people or organizations need to be responsible and monitor them all times, no harmful posts or pictures to be used.