The Secrets to Mobilization

The advent of print media brought many huge social changes into the drama that is human existance. As literacy rates in the Western world began to rise in the 18th and 19th centuries, more and more people had access to information and society gradually became more transparent. This new emerging society has been classified as the beginnings of the information age, where power lies with whomever has access to the most relevent information.

One of the biggest changes incited by print media and rising literacy rates was that it was now much easier for strong minded individuals to spread their views regarding a certain social situation and to print their opinions and to mobilize others towards their cause. Through the media, large groups of people have been able to recognize a common "frame alignment" and mobilize together to evoke some sort of social change.

As discussed in the Snow article, a group must share a similar perspective before they can mobilize. These frame allignments usually revolve around social or political realities and through the frame allignment process the groups' message can be added upon, amplified, and eventually transformed as need be. The Vietnam war in the 60's provided an issue for activists to coalesce around and so became a means of creating a common frame allignment for protestors to mobilize against.