Football belongs to the people. In the Middle Ages, entire towns and villages would play mob footballA kind of football played with an unlimited number of players and with very few rules. These matches could get so violent that in the 14th Century football had to be banned., where they would compete to kick a ball between two goals that could be miles apart. Later, in the 19th Century, many of the first football clubs were set up by workers in industrial towns: Blackburn, Bolton, Accrington, Burnley and Preston.

So it is no surprise that footballers have often become working-class heroes who look to lift up the communities that made them. And no-one embodies this today more than Marcus Rashford, the 23-year-old Manchester United player who last year fought for schoolchildren to keep their free school meals under lockdown.

Now Rashford's achievements in social campaigning are being recognised by the exam boards. From next year, students taking the AQA GCSE in Media Studies will be asked about Rashford in their exams. Other exam boards and the IB are expected to follow suit.

Rashford stands at the head of a long tradition of campaigning for social change. All the way back in the 14th Century the Lollards called for the Bible to be translated into English so the masses could access it. In the 17th Century the Levellers campaigned for a representative government and the Diggers made even more radical demands for the people to own the land.

Then in the 19th Century it would be the Chartists who marched for democratic reforms to empower working people and give them the reins to the state. At the same time, the Tolpuddle MartyrsA group of six workers who were arrested in 1834 for joining a trade union, which was illegal in Britain at the time. were punished for demanding the right to form a trade union to fight for better wages.

But what is different today is a campaigner's capacity to reach millions of people with social media. That gives them much more power to spread their message, change public opinion and put pressure on their governments. 

And it has proved effective: when Rashford forced the UK government to back down last summer, some people started calling him "the real Leader of the OppositionThe leader of the second-largest party in the House of Commons. They have a constitutional duty to hold the government to account. The incumbent is Keir Starmer.". 

Social media is challenging established politics the world over. During the Arab SpringA series of mass protests across the Arab World against dictatorships that had stood for decades. In Tunisia, the protesters succeeded in creating a democratic government, but many other countries collapsed into civil war or experienced new dictatorships. in 2011, protesters against dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used social media to spread their ideas and coordinate their movements. 

Video footage of Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed BouaziziBouazizi set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest at police corruption and poverty. setting himself on fire over the country's corruption and authoritarianismA form of government in which individual freedoms are severely limited by government power. Examples include Nazi Germany, Khmer Rogue Cambodia and contemporary China. went viral across the whole Arab world and drove people to take to the streets.

But some think Rashford's strength as a campaigner is also a source of weakness. As an immensely popular celebrity, he is able to present his campaigns, like the one he has waged against food poverty, as "apolitical". 

If he were to endorse a broader platform for social change then he would start to alienate some of his supporters, who might be put off by what they saw as a "political" campaign. That is why some feel that the new social movements can only achieve limited change.

Yes, say some. Social media has made political campaigns much more nimble and decentralised. It is difficult for slow-moving governments, often with low tech literacy, to keep up. Campaigners like Rashford have managed to build a substantial following and keep the government on the back foot.

No, say others. Governments are not powerless in the face of social media: they can use it to spread disinformation, build their own support and even spy on protest movements. Social campaigners might have extracted some victories, but gradually the established order is reasserting itself.