Factors Behind the Popularity of Protest Messages on Twitter: The Case of Venezuela Crisis
Based on the material of the political crisis in Venezuela in 2019, the paper studies factors behind the popularity of protest messages (tweets) on Twitter. Methodologically, the study develops the notion of SIMCA (Social Identity Model for Collective Action). The theory suggests that factors in the social environment may mobilize a person through such psychological antecedents as anger, belief in ability to achieve the desired goals (efficacy belief) and protest identification. The project participants created a database including over 5.7 million tweets, based on which three sets of the most popular messages (tweets) have been selected. The three sets were named according to psychological antecedents: a) anger, b) belief in success (including international support), and c) protest identification. The analysis of the tweets demonstrates that the belief in the success of the protest campaign has the greatest mobilizing force.