Activists enjoy public’s embrace of social media | www.myajc.com

John McNeil walked out of prison a free man this year, months after the Georgia and North Carolina branches of the NAACP launched online campaigns to raise awareness about his questionable murder conviction.

McNeil was sentenced to life in prison when his self-defense claim did not hold up in a 2005 shooting at his Cobb County home. He served seven years, but had won an initial appeal for a new trial when the NAACP cranked up it’s campaign.

The district attorney reconsidered his case, and McNeil was released in February after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

The civil rights organization is one of many social and political organizations leveraging the public’s adoption of social media to help in their work. Liberal and conservative groups have latched onto mobile messaging, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to expand their reach, raise money, speed up their efforts, keep them instantly connected and spur change.

And it’s changing the way we act in our civic and political lives.

via Activists enjoy public’s embrace of social media | www.myajc.com.