Uses of Social Media in Constituting a Student Movement: A Study over Quota Reform Demonstration in the University of Dhaka

Abstract

In 2018, the students of the University of Dhaka organized a massive demonstration against a discriminatory provision of preferential quota in which a particular section of students used to receive a huge advantage over all other students in recruitment process of a government job. In this movement, social media has been used as the key tool in order for people’s mobilization and information dissemination. This article mainly figured out the various uses of social media in constituting a student movement and its further implications. Demonstrators have chosen Facebook group and pages as the tools to keep their activists updated about latest developments and planning of next moves. Not only the demonstrators, the law enforcers, observers and government also had had great attention to social media sites regarding this demonstration. However, excessive reliance on social media due to having low credibility to mass media has caused spreading disinformation and resulted in violence.