scholarly journals Does Social Media Promote Civic Activism? A Field Experiment with a Civic Campaign

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Florian Foos ◽  
Lyubomir Kostadinov ◽  
Nikolay Marinov ◽  
Frank Schimmelfennig
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Randomized Field Experiment ◽  
Causal Impact

Abstract Social media may help civil society organize and mobilize for different campaigns. However, the extent to which social media campaigns simply recruit like-minded individuals as compared to exerting a causal impact on joiners’ attitudes is difficult to disentangle. We test both the organizational and transformative potential of a civil society campaign in a randomized field experiment deployed via Facebook or an email newsletter in collaboration with a Bulgarian environmental campaign. As expected, we find that Bulgarian Facebook users who are active in pro-environmental groups, and those who decide to follow the campaign, are more highly educated than those who decide to stay at the sidelines. Moreover, beliefs in the effectiveness of civic society, character traits and prior activism systematically predict whether a Bulgarian Facebook user decides to join the cause on Facebook, or subscribe to the email newsletter. In contrast, we find little evidence that the campaign affected opinions, knowledge, or self-reported behavior. We conclude that social media campaigns that are commonplace among civil society organizations are effective at selecting activist-types, but changing the views and behaviors of the broader social media population may be more difficult than assumed.

Pushing Back, Through Media and Civil Society

Hate Spin ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherian George
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Social Media Platforms

How a society responds to hate spin depends on not only its laws, but also its social norms—in particular, whether people consider bigotry to be socially acceptable or something to fight against, how comfortable they are with ideas and beliefs that are different, and whether their sense of national belonging is based on inclusive democratic values or an exclusive cultural identity. This chapter examines the role of non-state actors in shaping societies’ responses to hate spin. These players—secular and religious civil society groups, news organizations, and social media platforms, for example—are essential parts of any effort to build democracies that are respectful of religious differences. But, like state policy, media and civil society organizations are also often part of the problem, facilitating, encouraging, or even generating hate spin.

scholarly journals Meta-Cognition of Efficacy and Social Media Usage among Japanese Civil Society Organizations

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Tomoya Sagara ◽  
Muneo Kaigo ◽  
Yutaka Tsujinaka
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Flow Of Information

This paper examines how social media are affecting Japanese civil society organizations, in relation to efficacy and political participation. Using data from the 2017 Japan Interest Group Study survey, we analyzed how the flow of information leads to the political participation of civil society organizations. The total number of respondents (organizations) were 1285 (942 organizations in Tokyo and 343 from Ibaraki). In the analysis of our survey we focused on the data portion related to information behavior and efficacy and investigated the meta-cognition of efficacy in lobbying among civil society organizations in Tokyo and Ibaraki. We found that organizations that use social media were relatively few. However, among the few organizations that use social media, we found that these organizations have a much higher meta-cognition of political efficacy in comparison to those that do not use social media. For instance, social media usage had a higher tendency of having cognition of being able to exert influence upon others. We also found that organizations that interact with citizens have a higher tendency to use social media. The correspondence analysis results point towards a hypothesis of how efficacy and participation are mutually higher among the organizations that use social media in Japan.

scholarly journals Images as Afro-positivist narratives and counter hegemonic strategy: A study of #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (16) ◽  
pp. 601-628
Author(s):  
Floribert Patrick C. Endong
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
African Soil ◽  
Digital Cultures

To arrest the negative stereotypes of Africa in and outside the African continent, a number of civil society organizations and activists have launched various social media-assisted initiatives aimed at showcasing the positive facets of African cultures as well as the beautiful touristic attractions existing on the continent. One of such initiatives is the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement launched in 2015 to combat the negative and colonial stereotypes of Africa through the sharing of beautiful images and videos of Africa on Twitter. The movement encouraged Africans of all horizons to share attractive images of Africa, particularly the ones that are rarely or never shown on mainstream media. Six years after the project was launched, it is high time to evaluate its strength and know some of its merits and implications. In line with this aphorism, this paper uses secondary sources and a qualitative analysis of images and videos shared on Twitter to examine the contribution of the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement to the imperative of challenging colonial representations of Africa. It specifically discusses the genesis, trans-nationalization and promises of the project; and assesses the movement in the light of two philosophico-cultural currents/theories namely Afro-positivism and counter hegemony. The paper argues that the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement put to question the popular but problematic belief that Africa is all about negativisms. It started a visual-assisted conversation not only about the wonders found on African soil but also about some of the cultures which non-Africans have often viewed as problematic or controversial. Such a conversation is a proof that Afro-optimism is still much alive on the continent and that; Africans are conscious that the fight against colonial stereotypes is a perpetual battle which must be fought even with the help of new digital cultures such as digitalized image-based activism.

scholarly journals Social Media for Enhancing Civil Society and Disaster Relief: Usage by Local Municipalities in Japan

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Muneo Kaigo ◽  
Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Social Networking Services ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Local Municipalities ◽  
Local Municipality

This main focus of this article is a case study that analyzes social media usage by a local municipality in Japan, and on the possibilities and problems of complementary communication channels such as social networking services for promoting civil society activities and linking civil society organizations. We examine how in the past, Japanese municipalities have been using social media and social networking services for enhancing civil society and how social networking services are a potential tool that can provide vital information and connect citizens, municipal governments and civil society. This article focuses on the first phase of the Tsukuba Civic Activities Cyber-Square [Tsukuba Shimin Katsudō no Hiroba] on Facebook Experiment in 2012 and how it functioned during and after the May 6, 2012 Tsukuba city tornado disaster for the subsequent relief and support activities during May 2012.

Social Media and Civil Society Organizations (CSOS)

2015 ◽  
pp. 237-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Steen-Johnsen ◽  
Bernard Enjolras
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Lateral Communication ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Social Media Strategy

This qualitative case study describes and analyzes the use of social media by Amnesty International Norway (AIN), a medium-sized human rights organization. Specifically, the case looks at how and to what extent AIN fulfilled its aims of enhancing information, public debate, and mobilization for campaigns through the use of Facebook and the organization's own website blog. While AIN saw great potentials in using social media, a core question was whether opening up for more lateral communication would lead to a loss of trustworthiness and organizational identity. Although AIN experienced an initial lack of success in using social media to generate response and mobilization in 2011, it was able to develop a powerful social media strategy resulting in high degrees of activity and exchange in 2014. Findings indicated that this change seemed to rely both on the ability of AIN to reflect upon its own governance structures and on the organization's ability to learn from experience.

SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISM MOVEMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN ON ISSUES OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ABUSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
Y. Kumar ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Societal Problems

This paper analyzes several aspects concerning the national issues of rape and sexual harassment incidences in the context of Kazakhstan via a discourse analysis approach of social media activist movements. The article touches upon crucial social media movements, such as ‘#MeTooTalgo’, ‘NeMolchi.kz’ or ‘#OrtashaEmes’, which all emerged after the 2016 incident with the rape case in a Talgo Train, causing eventually an upward rising tendency for awareness-raising social media campaigns across the country. Alongside that, the paper also provides insight into the discussion about the societal influence of the contextual conservative patriarchal state on women, the factors causing women to become victims of sexual and physical abuse as well the power of the social media as a tool and platform for catalyzing the enraged voices of women into influential instruments for societal changes. On top of that, this paper also looks at how the movements of social media activism have influenced government decisions and law amendments in the country towards tightening legislations. The paper follows a discourse analysis research methodology, where only secondary sources of information are used and referred to. In conclusion, the significance of this paper is that it tries to enlighten and bring forth one of the societal problems that women and under-aged girls in Kazakhstan face, and which has yet to be accepted as a “societal problem” by the society itself. Hence, despite the conservative regime with a still developing but much promising civic society, social media has shown to be ‘a free fighting space’ for those who want to voice their problems and for those who want to be heard.

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