Collective Behavior & Social Movement / Week 12 / Cindy Paskalina Kweesar

Summary

Collective Behavior is not conforming behavior or deviant behavior. Collective behavior can occur when existing rules do not exist, are unclear or contradict each other. Collective behavior can be divided into 4 forms, the crowd, the mass and the social movement. Apart from that there are some actions that can be taken by collective behaviors such as rumors, riots, trends and fads.

I will try to explain some keywords in the collective behavior.

1. Crowds

Crowds are a group of people who have the same goal. An example in our daily life is in the music concert, all of the people who watch it have the same goal of enjoying music performed by the concert singer, therefore they are a crowd. When the group started doing things that were violent, they were no longer called crowd but mob.

2. Riots

Riots is violent behavior that breaks the rules carried out by a group of people with the same thought of disapproval. Usually there will be losses including damage to buildings or maybe individuals.

3. Rumors

Rumors are information that has not been verified. Spread by word of mouth and usually closely related to the needs of the community. Rumors can be dangerous because the information can be distorted. In the reading, it is written that 70% of the detailed information will disappear when it has passed 5 or 6 transmissions. Therefore rumors are often used as an effective technique in political communication.

The next topic is the social movement. The social movement is people who are connected because they have same interested on certain social change topic. One example of a social movement originating from Indonesia is the "Kesatuan Aksi Mahasiswa Indonesia" (An association of university students in Indonesia. In 1966 they blocked roads using motorized vehicles in order to prevent the inauguration ceremony of new cabinet members.

What was interesting/what did you learn

Although only a few people support and find evidence of this theory, I am very interested in mass-society theories that try to explain why social movements can occur. In this theory it is explained that feeling insignificant or eliminated from society is the main source of the social-movement.

Discussion Point

Moral Panics the thought that is felt when they feel that there are some people (usually minorities) who are in a threatened position. It was also written in the reading that it turned out that Media Coverage was one of the reasons this state occurred. The media has the duty to report on important matters that occur including negative ones. Knowing the capabilities of the media, does the media also have a moral responsibility to keep the audience away from this states?