Social justice organizations have more power than ever before to bring attention to causes they care about - thanks to social media. They are no longer at the mercy of corporate controlled mass media to reach a large audience. Yes, there has always been an "alternative press." But how many people could be reached via Mother Jones as opposed to Facebook?
Yet, there continues to be a gap between the issues covered by social justice organizations and the mainstream media. For example, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)) has set up an online petition on Change.org to force J.C. Penney not to renege on a pledge to compensate families of a fire at a factory in Bangladesh in 2010. Never heard of it? Not surprising. I did a Google News search, and it seems the only people interested are social justice and "alternative" websites.
The victims worked in an unsafe sweatshop for a company called That's It Sportswear, which produced clothing for major chains such as Target, Gap, Abercrombie and Finch, and J.C. Penney. Following pressure via means such as Change.org, seven of the eight companies doing business with the Hameem Group, the parent company of That's It, signed a pledge to compensate the victims. According to the ILRF, J.C. Penney, one of those seven, has backed out of compensation negotiations.
In fairness to J.C. Penney, the ILRF does not give the company's side of the story. But neither does J.C. Penney. There is not a mention of the negotiations on the company's corporate social responsibility news release page or anywhere else on its site. (If you enter the words 'Bangladesh fire' in the company's search field, you end up with a Melissa and Doug firefighter puppet." I wonder who made that puppet and where.)
J.C. Penney is no stranger to controversy. You may recall it had to apologize following the heat it received for selling a t-shirt with the logo "I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me." It also was blasted recently in a New York Times article for allegedly using "black-hat" search engine optimization techniques. Google's search ranking for any given website is based in part on the number of other sites that link to it. The Times article alleges that somebody paid a lot of sites to link to J.C. Penney pages. It's not an illegal activity, but it is one that goes against Google's standards of fairness. J.C. Penney was quick to respond to that allegation, calling it "misleading and unwarranted."
The sexist t-shirt and the allegations of "black hat" SEO tactics both pale in comparison to contracting with unsafe sweat shops and not living up to a commitment to compensate relatives of those who died in a fire at one of those sweatshops. But neither J.C. Penney nor the mainstream media seem that interested in the story - so far.
I know that the media has to be skeptical about claims of any organization, including NGOs. But according to change.org, more than 93,000 people have signed a petition. Online petitions are tricky things for the news media. Even if an IP address is limited to one signature, there's nothing to stop someone from going to another computer and signing it again. Even - perhaps especially - the mainstream media's own online polls - should be treated with skepticism.
But the allegation of a corporate giant balking on its responsibility to victims' families is significant. I hope the media has at least looked into it.
The ILRF's use of change.org illustrates how social media can be used to gather support for a cause. And, if you wish, you can start your own petition. Why don't we petition the media to look into industrial accidents in sweatshops and the companies that do business with those factories?
Please note that feedback to this post may be used in a study into the use of social media for development. Please see my Disclosure of Study.
No comments:
Post a Comment