scholarly journals Digital Disobedience and the Limits of Persuasion: Social Media Activism in Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511982700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Agur ◽  
Nicholas Frisch
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
Digital Space ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article probes the catalytic features of social media in civic participation and mass civil disobedience in Hong Kong’s 2014 protests, and conceptualizes digital activism in terms of mobilization, organization, and persuasion. It makes use of in-depth interviews, in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, with 40 of the leading users of social media during the protests. These included, first and foremost, student activists, as well as opposition figures and journalists who reported on the protests. The article finds that the velocity and scale of social media have strengthened protesters’ ability to mobilize and organize, on the Internet and in the streets. Yet, these advantages have not carried over into persuasion of previously uncommitted individuals. Protesters encountered two main obstacles to persuasion via social media: the multitude of messages enabled by social media and the age segmentation of media. As a result, the movement’s social media efforts generated new attention and created digital space for activism, but did not persuade a durable majority of Hongkongers of the movement’s legitimacy. The Umbrella Movement may not have persuaded Hongkongers that their movement and tactics were valid or wise, but the existence of social media allowed protest leaders to document their motivations and conduct, and blunt less flattering narratives in legacy media.

Does Social Media Engagement Translate to Civic Engagement Offline?

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402199944
Author(s):  
Jaclyn Piatak ◽  
Ian Mikkelsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Informal Volunteering ◽  
Using Data

People increasingly engage in politics on social media, but does online engagement translate to offline engagement? Research is mixed with some suggesting how one uses the internet maters. We examine how political engagement on social media corresponds to offline engagement. Using data following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, we find the more politically engaged people are on social media, the more likely they are to engage offline across measures of engagement—formal and informal volunteering, attending local meetings, donating to and working for political campaigns, and voting. Findings offer important nuances across types of civic engagement and generations. Although online engagement corresponds to greater engagement offline in the community and may help narrow generational gaps, this should not be the only means to promote civic participation to ensure all have a voice and an opportunity to help, mobilize, and engage.

scholarly journals Social Media Activism. Water as a Common Good

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cernison
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Geographical Scale ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
Movement Organizations

<div>What happens when hundreds of social movement organizations give life to a diffused online campaign? Focusing on the referendums against water privatization in Italy, this book explores how the activists colonized social media thanks to a very wide set of communication practices that convinced 27 million citizens to vote.</div><div><br></div><div>This book focuses on the referendums against water privatisation in Italy and explores how activists took to social media, ultimately convincing twenty-seven million citizens to vote. Investigating the relationship between social movements and internet-related activism during complex campaigns, this book examines how a technological evolution-the increased relevance of social media platforms-affected in very different ways organisations with divergent characteristics, promoting at the same time decentralised communication practices, and new ways of coordinating dispersed communities of people.</div><div>Matteo Cernison combines and adapts a wide set of methods, from social network analysis to digital ethnography, in order to explore in detail how digital activism and face-to-face initiatives interact and overlap. He argues that the geographical scale of actions, the role played by external media professionals, and the activists' perceptions of digital technologies are key elements that contribute in a significant way to shape the very different communication practices often described as online activism.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Exploring Consumer Empowerment in Consumption Communities Based in Social Media

2015 ◽  
pp. 884-900
Author(s):  
Imene Ben Yahia ◽  
Lilia El Ferci
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Consumer Empowerment ◽  
Keen Interest ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
One Year ◽  
Depth Interviews

In spite of the keen interest in empowerment, few authors have applied the concept to the characteristics of the Internet. This paper approaches it within consumption communities based in social media and explores its effects on consumers' behaviors towards firms. A participant observation was carried out and has lasted one year and a half in two consumption communities based in Facebook. Additionally, distant in-depth interviews have been conducted. Results give evidence for the existence of consumer empowerment online and highlight its complex multidimensional structure. Four dimensions are identified: informational, technological, social, and psychological. Results also underline that empowered consumers assess firms and call to reward some and to boycott others (1); negotiate to get better offerings (2) and demand cooperation (3).

scholarly journals Internet Celebrities Bodies/Emotions in China’s Society 4.0

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 189-200
Author(s):  
Adrián Scribano ◽  
Zhang Jingting
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Internet Culture ◽  
Body Sensation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Virtual Platform ◽  
Depth Interviews

Internet celebrities, as a group of stars spawned by the market economy and The Internet, reveal both the state of Internet culture and the transformation of mass media in China. The bodies and pictures of these ‘celebs’, while unique, also take on a cultural symbolism. The 4.0 Revolution is the carrier of social practices and kinds of interaction in which the social media play a very special role. In this paper we will focus on the intersections and ruptures between the bodyindividual, body-subjective and body-social (Scribano, 2007) of Chinese Internet celebrities and the articulations and links between body-image and their body-in-movement. With the introduction ofChinese social media platforms such as WeChat (微信), Sina Weibo (新浪微博), Douyin, we try to trace links between the sociability, experiences and social sensibilities of the Internet celebrities and their influence on Society 4.0. This paper: (a) looks at the Chinese social media as a virtual platform for the Internet celebrities; (b) delves into the images and practices of the Internet celebrities; (c) highlights the link between body, sensation and perception regarding social celebrities; (d) shows the kinds of sociability and social sensibilities exhibited by celebrities in China’s Society 4.0. home foreclosure) in several Catalan municipalities. It was conducted by participatory observation, focus groups and in-depth interviews with activists.

Social Media Activism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Cernison
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Geographical Scale ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
The Relationship

This book focuses on the referendums against water privatization in Italy and explores how activists took to social media, ultimately convincing twenty-seven million citizens to vote. Investigating the relationship between social movements and internet-related activism during complex campaigns, this book examines how a technological evolution — the increased relevance of social media platforms — affected in very different ways organizations with divergent characteristics, promoting at the same time decentralized communication practices, and new ways of coordinating dispersed communities of people. Matteo Cernison combines and adapts a wide set of methods, from social network analysis to digital ethnography, in order to explore in detail how digital activism and face-to-face initiatives interact and overlap. He argues that the geographical scale of actions, the role played by external media professionals, and the activists’ perceptions of digital technologies are key elements that contribute in a significant way to shape the very different communication practices often described as online activism.

Social Media and Contentious Politics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico De Angelis ◽  
Yazan Badran
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Networked Public Sphere ◽  
Political Decisions

This chapter aims to re-examine the complex relationship between social media and contentious politics following the 2011 uprisings in Egypt and Syria. The chapter explores the contingent, differentiated, and contradictory roles social media played in each of these cases. The authors combine critical theoretical approaches to the internet and situated ethnographic accounts to make sense of this issue along the different phases of mobilization and its aftermath. They argue that the alternative hierarchies of power and visibility engendered by digital activism and facilitated by social media are an essential vehicle when it comes to establishing an effective connection between the street and the networked public sphere in the mobilization phase. In the post-mobilization phase, however, the logics of social media begin to hinder the ability of social movements to coalesce and transform the energy of the street into political decisions or leverage. Finally, they also argue that in the aftermath of mobilization these alternative online hierarchies of power and visibility tend to quickly lose their legitimizing function, which rested upon their, now severed, connection with the street.

Semi-Private Spheres as Safe Spaces for Young Social Media Users' Political Conversation

2022 ◽  
pp. 113-132
Author(s):  
Raquel Tarullo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Digital Space ◽  
Political Conversation ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Close Contacts

The incorporation of social media as spaces for political participation performances—especially among youth—has brought various issues into debate, including the formats of these practices and, at the same time, the significances of these repertoires for public conversation. In order to address this topic, this chapter explores the digital practices of political participation among young people in Argentina. Based on a qualitative approach in which 30 in-depth interviews to people from 18 to 24 years old were carried out, the findings of this research note that these segments of the population join the discussion of issues on the public agenda using emojis and hashtags and prefer reduced digital spaces to talk with their close contacts about polarized issues in order to avoid the aggression and violence that they say they observe in the digital space.

The secret life of pet Instagram accounts: Joy, resistance, and commodification in the Internet’s cute economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482095634
Author(s):  
Jessica Maddox
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Pet Owners ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Visual Cultures ◽  
Depth Interviews

A popular sentiment is that the Internet is for cute animal photos, but little has explored the visual cultures of pets and social media. The relationship between pets and social media is particularly prominent on Instagram, where pet owners often run Instagram accounts on behalf of their pets. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 23 individuals who run Instagram accounts for their pets, I discuss three dimensions of pet photos and social media: how individuals use pet Instagram accounts to curate a “fur baby” self-representation, the unspoken politics to sharing pet photographs online, and how individuals hope they provide followers joy. While joy and pet Instagram accounts are not solutions to the Internet’s problems, they do indicate how individuals work in ways to make platforms habitable. However, this joy is far from uncomplicated, as cultural dynamics of the Internet’s cute economy may problematize relationships between people, their pets, and their followers.

scholarly journals The Function and Importance of Fact-Checking Organizations in the Era of Fake News

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 140-160
Author(s):  
Recep Ünal ◽  
Alp Şahin Çiçeklioğlu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Filter Bubbles ◽  
Depth Interviews

The recent increase in usage of concepts such as ‘fake news’ or ‘post-truth’ reveals the importance of digital literacy especially on social media. In the digital era, people’s views on different topics are attempted to be manipulated with disinformation and fake news. Fake content is rapidly replacing the reality among new media users. It is stated with concepts such as ‘filter bubbles’ and ‘echo chambers’ that there is a greater tendency for people to be fed with content that is ideologically appropriate to their own views and to believe in fake news in this content. This article analyzes the structure and functioning of fact-checking organizations in the context of preventing propagation of fake news and improving digital literacy. The research is based on content analysis of verification activities of the fact-checking organization Teyit.org, which is a member of International Fact-Checking Network in Turkey, between January 1 and June 31, 2018. By conducting in-depth interviews with the verification team, propagation of fake news on social networks, fact-checking processes and their methods of combating fake news are revealed. Our article found that fake content spreading specifically through the Internet predominantly consists of political issues.

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