Ariyana Posey

Professor Cuddy
Eng101
11 November 2019
Politics Can Be C00l
With a large uproar against former president of Pakistan​, ​Pervez Musharraf​,​ older and

more experienced activist were taken aback by the drastic amount of young college students

showing interest in this political battle and activly wanting to participate themselves​. ​These

college students were very entusiastic and eager to participate in anyway they could​. ​As a result​,

they have become more active in politics​,​ rioting outside of campuses​,​ and also bringing a more

creative approach to make campaingns and symbols of rejection within the government through

social media post and art​.​ With the sudden inclusion of a younger participants in political

engagment​,​ it only made people curious as to where this new spark of interest came from​.

Afiya S​.​ Zia​,​ scholar and feminist who is activly pro​-​democratic in Pakistan​,​ writes a

scholarly journal titled​, “​Social Media Politics in Pakistan​” ​in 2012​. ​In this journal, Zia looks at

how the media’s activism catches the youth’s attention but​,​ ​“​has not yet [become] a spark for a

more generalised protest​.” ​(16) Zia provides a lot of research by first telling about some events

where young activist got involved and also gave some reasons which may have resulted in their

inclusion​. ​Majority of the middle​-​class youth have decided to keep their strong expressions

online as they have been met with a lot cynism from the conservatives​,​ national​-​purist​,​ and

religio​-​political parties in Pakistan​.​ Zia then states that despite the commonly known succssesses
of the virtual actvists, politics via social media​, “​may need to be tempered in view of limitations

of virtual activism​.’’ ​(18) She points out that its easy for them to constantly pick on a smaller

issue while larger ones are able to get slipped under the rug​. ​For example cyber activists fighting

until Maya Khan​,​ a TV anchor​,​ gets fired for her political views while sexual harrastment cases

within media organisations did not get the equal amount of coverage that it should have​. ​Zia then

concludes that​ ​even though ​“​social media still remains at the fringe of larger movements​,​ the

divisions of [the] non​-​virtual world are replicated with sharp divides between the liberal​-​radicals

and the religious-conservatives​.”​ (18) Pakistan’s political activism on social media is

continously diluted by the bigger people in “real” politics.

Khalid Jarral provides a lot of statistics in his article titled, “Pakistan Elections: the role

of social media” while stating that social media​, “​served as a mouth​-​piece for the ordinary

citizens and an alternative to the mainstream media for the expression of dissent [in Pakistan]​.”

(Jarral) Despite not explaning what they are​,​ Jarral says that the PTI and the PML​-​N were the

first two organisations to incorporate social media into the elections​. ​Used as a way of opinion

making and mass mobilisation​, ​social media was constantly in use between the PTI and the

PML​-​N as a way to criticise the opposite side​. ​On to a more ordinary approach​, ​the everyday

person can use social media as a way to ask questions and voice their own opinions​. ​Thanks to

social media​, ​Patkistan’s society has been able to be more informed on what is going on in the

world​. ​Which as a result​,​ encourages more people to follow along and participate in politics and
the elections​. ​With more and more people using social media as a platform to get their point

across​, ​Jarral concludes that​, “​Amid accusations of media control​, ​restrictions and

self​-​censorship during the general elections in Pakistan​,​ social media facilitated the expression

of dissent and protest​.” ​(Jarral)

Despite the two discussing the same topic​, ​there still seemed to be an interesting contrast

between the scholarly journal and the online article that was selected for this project​. ​The

scholarly journal written by Afiya S​.​ Zia was well organized​,​ professional, and full of research​.

In contrast to Khalid Jarral’s online article​,​ it too was organized​,​ but still seemed to be all over

the place​. ​It was the both of their usage of ethos and logos to say that​, ​although politics in social

media has brought growth to Pakistan’s society​,​ they still have a lot to work on​.
 Rationale

Jarral, Khalid. “Pakistan Elections: the role of social media” ​Asian Dialogue, ​Oct. 15 2018

https://theasiadialogue.com/2018/10/15/pakistan-elections-the-role-of-social-media/

Zia, Afiya S. “Social Media Politics in Pakistan.” ​Economic and Political Weekly​, vol. 47, no. 7,

2012, pp. 16–18., www.jstor.org/stable/41419789.