The Role of Social Media in Social Sanction

Abstract

This research mainly studies the role of social media in social sanctioning by the trans-disciplinary method consisted of academic knowledge, social movement, emerging technology, modern media and mass communication perspectives. The key objective of the study aims to create a new paradigm and insight of today social sanction changing by the surrounding contexts and circumstances. To deeply synthesize the study, the selected methodology is focusing on integrating related academic papers with in-depth interview of all stakeholders in the social sanction via social media of both domestic and international examples.

The results show that the roles of social media in social sanction are the stimulus and amplifier of widespread communications for sanction through multi-media such as content, photo, music and video. Thus, social media itself can bust all the communication barriers, for example distance and location, without any media mediator, in order to form any collective activity of the social movement. Also, it can effectively be a resource mobilizing tool of organizing the social movement, not only online, but in the real world.

However, the social sanction through social media is very flexible and liberal in terms of formation, evolution and transformation, depending contextually on different time, location, social power, political intervention, media hegemony and so on.