scholarly journals ‘Volunteering is like any other business’: Civic participation and social media

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 2186-2207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Kaun ◽  
Julie Uldam

The increased influx of refugees in 2015 has led to challenges in transition and destination countries such as Germany, Sweden and Denmark. Volunteer-led initiatives providing urgent relief played a crucial role in meeting the needs of arriving refugees. The work of the volunteers in central stations and transition shelters was mainly organised with the help of Facebook, in terms of both inward and outward communications. This article examines the role of social media for civic participation drawing on Swedish volunteer initiatives that emerged in the context of the migration crisis in 2015 as a case study. Theoretically, this article provides an analytical framework, including power relations, technological affordances, practices and discourses, which helps shed light on the interrelation between social media and civic participation.

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110587
Author(s):  
Cato Waeterloos ◽  
Michel Walrave ◽  
Koen Ponnet

This study employs the orientation–stimulus–reasoning–orientation–response (O-S-R-O-R) framework to examine how multi-platform news consumption is associated with civic participation during the COVID-19 pandemic (offline and via social media) and how this relation is mediated by civic talk and civic attitudes. A survey was administered to 1500 adults in Belgium. Results from structural equation modelling indicate how civic talk with weak ties is not associated with civic attitudes or participation. Analysis of indirect effects reveals that multi-platform news consumption stimulates two different types of participation, through civic talk with strong ties and civic attitudes. The results shed light on previously unexplored pathways towards participation, while providing support for the O-S-R-O-R framework and highlighting the role of social media as an emerging arena for civic participation.


Author(s):  
Kenneth C. C. Yang ◽  
Yowei Kang

Western scholars have previously predicted Weibo and social media will provide Chinese netizens with an opportunity to foster its nascent civil society. However, the growing applications of surveillance technologies have challenged this rosy, yet deterministic prediction. This chapter argues that Jürgen Habermas's concept of public sphere is less likely to function properly, given the pervasive applications of surveillance technologies in China, which has fundamentally challenge its many assumptions. Using Habermas's analytical framework that is used to better comprehend the role of social media in Chinese politics, the authors argue that information technologies turn out to deteriorate the formation and maintenance of a public sphere for Chinese civil society. The authors employ a case study to examine the interrelations among social media, surveillance technologies, civil society, state power, economic development, political process, and democratization in China as demonstrated in Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Law Protests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3836
Author(s):  
David Flores-Ruiz ◽  
Adolfo Elizondo-Salto ◽  
María de la O. Barroso-González

This paper explores the role of social media in tourist sentiment analysis. To do this, it describes previous studies that have carried out tourist sentiment analysis using social media data, before analyzing changes in tourists’ sentiments and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case study, which focuses on Andalusia, the changes experienced by the tourism sector in the southern Spanish region as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are assessed using the Andalusian Tourism Situation Survey (ECTA). This information is then compared with data obtained from a sentiment analysis based on the social network Twitter. On the basis of this comparative analysis, the paper concludes that it is possible to identify and classify tourists’ perceptions using sentiment analysis on a mass scale with the help of statistical software (RStudio and Knime). The sentiment analysis using Twitter data correlates with and is supplemented by information from the ECTA survey, with both analyses showing that tourists placed greater value on safety and preferred to travel individually to nearby, less crowded destinations since the pandemic began. Of the two analytical tools, sentiment analysis can be carried out on social media on a continuous basis and offers cost savings.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630511880791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Mundt ◽  
Karen Ross ◽  
Charla M Burnett

In this article, we explore the potential role of social media in helping movements expand and/or strengthen themselves internally, processes we refer to as scaling up. Drawing on a case study of Black Lives Matter (BLM) that includes both analysis of public social media accounts and interviews with BLM groups, we highlight possibilities created by social media for building connections, mobilizing participants and tangible resources, coalition building, and amplifying alternative narratives. We also discuss challenges and risks associated with using social media as a platform for scaling up. Our analysis suggests that while benefits of social media use outweigh its risks, careful management of online media platforms is necessary to mitigate concrete, physical risks that social media can create for activists.


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (I) ◽  
pp. 470-476
Author(s):  
Hazrat Bilal ◽  
Shaista Gohar ◽  
Ayaz Ali Shah

An effort has been made to revisit the political participation of Pakhtun women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa former NWFP. The active role in the politics of Pakhtun women was quite difficult due to socio-cultural constraints. In such circumstances a woman from the elite class emerged on the political scene of NWFP; Begum Zari Sarfaraz who not only participated in the independence movement of Pakistan but also participated in politics after the creation of Pakistan and had rendered great services for women folk as members of national and provincial assemblies. The paper shed light on her opposition to One Unit. The paper also investigates the reason that why she quit politics. There is hardly any literature on the role of Begum Zari Sarfaraz in the politics of Pakistan.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Rizky Pamuji ◽  
Ismiarta Aknuranda ◽  
Fatwa Ramdani

Citizen participation in collect and distribute information increase the role of the citizen involvement in local issues and increasing the benefits of society for the government and the environment. The contribution of citizens can be useful in helping to deal with environment problems and assist certain parties in meeting data needs, this is commonly referred to as citizen science. In its development, citizen science involvement in providing information began to involve social media as a platform for sharing information. In this study we try to explore citizen science of Indonesia, we conduct case study exploring how citizen in Indonesia used social media such as Twitter in response to one of the country’s worst disaster in 2018 namely Lombok Earthquake. By analyzing these user generate message we may know what the response of Indonesian citizen during event and understand more about citizen science in Indonesia through social media including its role and contribution. The information also may assist local communities in obtaining up-to-date information, providing assistance according to needs of the populace and use to manage and plan disaster relief both during and after the event.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-85
Author(s):  
Suada A. Dzogovic ◽  
◽  
Vehbi Miftari ◽  

The topic of this article presents communication challenges and the role of the media in constructing an image of migrants and refugees as “the others” in our societies today. The article analyses the migrant situation in South-Eastern Europe, specifically in migration crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has been going on since 2018. The aim is to present the basic aspects of this issue and offer answers to key questions - who are migrants and refugees, what’s their own identity, from which countries do they come, how do they cross the border, where do they go, what is the state’s attitude towards them, what forms and channels of communication the state and other stakeholders use toward them, who cares for them, what do they preserve from their national, cultural and/or language identities and how do they construct self-identity and confront with the “hosting identities”, who donates funds for migration management and how they are managed? Also, a special focus of the research will be on the human rights of migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the subject of various discussions - both within the country itself and among various humanitarian, governmental and non-governmental international organizations in the EU and beyond.


Author(s):  
Kenneth C. C. Yang ◽  
Yowei Kang

On March 18, 2014, a group of student protestors raided and occupied the Legislative Yuan and later the Executive Yuan in Taiwan. The student-led movement lasted for about 3 weeks after Taiwan's President made significant concessions to change his non-transparent practices when signing the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) with People's Republic of China. Mostly labelled as a movement of civil disobedience against government's dealings with China, the 318 Sunflower Student Movement is viewed as an important step toward the deepening of Taiwan's democratization process. Its repercussions were felt in Hong-Kong and Macao where similar civil disobedience movements had emerged. On the basis of the resource mobilization theory (RMT), the authors used a combination of case study and thematic analysis methods to examine the role of social media in political mobilization in Taiwan. This chapter identified two major recurrent themes as follows: challenging mainstream media and mobilizing multi-movement resources.


Author(s):  
Syed Far Abid Hossain ◽  
Xu Shan ◽  
Abdul Qadeer

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the contemporary role of mobile phones in value co-creation through social media marketing. How mobile phones, in particular, smartphones with the help of numerous social media generate value co-creation, is the key objective of this study. A random sampling method was used to conduct a survey in different universities in China to identify the role of mobile phones in value co-creation. Findings from primary data collection indicated that mobile phones play a vital role in value co-creation because of the extensive use of social media. If value co-creation through social media marketing develops with the help of producers, suppliers and other intermediaries with the necessary technology and trust, the society, as well as customers, may enjoy a unique way of shopping. Future studies with mixed methodology and respondents who use different social media as a tool to generate value co-creation may shed light on the undiscovered phenomenon of social media marketing in the context of the mobile phone.


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