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>

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>

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.

scholarly journals Introduction to Social Media, Activism, and Organizations

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511775071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhiraj Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Organizational Communication ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Transnational Social Movements ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Movement Organizations

Social media have become increasingly pervasive. However, the literature on social movements and social media has not fully grasped just how much social media have fundamentally changed the landscape of organizational communication, ranging from stakeholders being able to directly mobilize resources to making grassroots transnational social movements more organizationally feasible. A major gap in the literature is this lack of understanding how social media have shaped social movement organizations (SMOs) and the organization of social movements. This Special Issue brings together a unique collection of articles that map and comment on the field of social media and social movements. The volume contributes to literature in this area by exploring how social media are not only shaping social movements, advocacy, and activism from the point of view of organizational communication but also changing the ways in which activists and SMOs interact with each other. The volume leverages a diverse array of interdisciplinary methods and covers a broad terrain ranging from analyses of knowledge transfer between grassroot activists via social media to large SMOs. The Issue is broadly divided into two parts. Part 1 is focused around trends and interventions in social media, activism, and organizations research. Part 2 revolves around a global collection of case studies. The two are hardly mutually exclusive and the boundaries are roughly drawn. This collection provides a critical starting point for better understanding social media and social movements, an area that is fundamentally important to a variety of disciplines but severely underresearched.

scholarly journals Activists in the dark: Social media algorithms and collective action in two social movement organizations

Organization ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 135050842096153
Author(s):  
Michael Etter ◽  
Oana Brindusa Albu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Movement Organizations

It is widely established that social media afford social movement (SM) organizations new ways of organizing. Critical studies point out, however, that social media use may also trigger negative repercussions due to the commercial interests that are designed into these technologies. Yet empirical evidence about these matters is scarce. In this article, we investigate how social media algorithms influence activists’ actualization of collective affordances. Empirically, we build on an ethnographic study of two SM organizations based in Tunisia. The contributions of this paper are twofold. Firstly, we provide a theoretical framework that specifies how algorithms condition the actualization of three collective affordances (interlinking, assembling, augmenting). Specifically, we show how these affordances are supported by algorithmic facilitation, that is, operations pertaining to the sorting of interactions and actors, the filtering of information, and the ranking and aggregation of content. Secondly, we extend the understanding of how social media platforms’ profit-orientation undermines collective action. Namely, we identify how algorithms introduce constraints for organizing processes, manifested as algorithmic distortion, that is, information overload, opacity, and disinformation. We conclude by discussing the detrimental implications of social media algorithms for organizing and civic engagement, as activists are often unaware of the interests of social media-owning corporations.

scholarly journals Digital Activism in Asia: Good, Bad, and Banal Politics Online

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
Bart Barendregt ◽  
Florian Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Natural Forms ◽  
Online Activism

Abstract This article introduces the special issue on ‘Digital Activism’ by exploring some of the trends in social media activism and scholarship thereof. The authors ask to what extent this literature helps us understand Asian forms of online activism, which forms of activism have relatively done well, and whether Asian activism requires its own theorizing. Most of all, it is a plea for a careful and ethnographically informed approach to digital activism. Although outwardly they look similar and use the same templates, manuals, or even similar media strategies, not all forms of online activism promote democratic values. Furthermore, we argue that much of what happens under the banner of digital activism is not necessarily politics with a capital P but, rather, consists of everyday forms of engagement, with sometimes seemingly vulgar contents and often familiar routines and natural forms, yet in their impact such ‘banal activism’ may have political implications.

scholarly journals Yarning circles and social media activism

2018 ◽  
Vol 169 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Carlson ◽  
Ryan Frazer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Actual Case ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Indigenous Activism ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
The Relationship

The practices of ‘yarning’ and ‘yarning circles’ are relatively common across groups of Indigenous Australians. This practice broadly consists of storytelling within a respectful and deeply democratic space, where each participant takes turns in speaking, and in which the direction of discussion may meander, fixate, or take divergent and creative lines of flight. The existing literature has explored the use of ‘yarning circles’ in promoting both ethical, culturally appropriate research practices and effective, culturally relevant pedagogical techniques. However, there has yet to be any work to investigate the relationship between yarning circles and Indigenous activism. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the nexus between Indigenous online activism and yarning circles. In the first section, we outline work that has engaged in different ways with the use of yarning circles. Next, we offer our own, more political conceptualisation of ‘yarning circles’ through a reading of Paolo Freire’s work on conscientisation and, in particular, his concept of the ‘culture circle’. Finally, we draw on this new conceptualisation to explore an actual case of the use of yarning circles in political collaboration and conscientisation. Through this analysis, we discuss a number of convergent and divergent experiences shared by Indigenous activists.

scholarly journals “Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511986744
Author(s):  
Jessalynn Keller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
Team Research ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Technological Affordances

As avid social media users, it is perhaps unsurprising that feminist teenage girls use their favorite platforms to engage in various forms of feminist activism. Yet, existing research has not explored how a growing number of social media platforms and their technological affordances uniquely shape how girls engage in online activism. I address this oversight by asking the following: Why are girls using particular platforms for feminist activism? How do certain platforms facilitate distinctive opportunities for youth engagement with feminist politics? and How might this shape the types of feminist issues and politics both made possible and foreclosed by some social media platforms? To answer these questions, I draw on ethnographic data gathered from a group of American, Canadian, and British teenage girls involved in various forms of online feminist activism on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. These data were collected as part of two UK-based team research projects. Using the concept of “platform vernacular,” I analyze how these girls do feminism across these different platforms, based on discursive textual analysis of their social media postings and interview reflections. I argue that teenage girls strategically choose how to engage with feminist politics online, carefully weighing issues like privacy, community, and peer support as determining factors in which platform they choose to engage. These decisions are often related to distinctive platform vernaculars, in which the girls have a keen understanding. Nonetheless, these strategic choices shape the kinds of feminisms we see across various social media platforms, a result that necessitates some attention and critical reflection from social media scholars.

Redefining #YourAverageMuslim woman: Muslim female digital activism on social media

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inaash Islam
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Muslim Woman ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Women In Art ◽  
Controlling Images ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Orientalist discourses have largely shaped how Muslim women have come to be represented in western visual media as oppressed, subjugated or foreign. However, with the advent of social media platforms, Muslim women are utilizing social media spaces to rearticulate the controlling images promulgated through orientalist narratives. This article examines the complex relationship visual media shares with Muslim women and demonstrates that the lens of orientalism continues to structure the imaginaries that shape visual representations of Muslim women in art, news and film. This article addresses how visual platforms and social media spaces such as YouTube are being utilized by Muslim women to undertake digital activism that seeks to subvert essentialist narratives. At the centre of this discussion is YouTuber Dina Tokio’s (2017) documentary, titled ‘#YourAverageMuslim’, which tackles western preconceived notions, and instead offers a redefined version of the ‘Muslim woman’ predicated on resisting three narratives: (1) Muslim-Woman-As-Oppressed, (2) Muslim-Woman-As-Subjugated and (3) Muslim-Woman-As-Foreign-Other. This documentary clearly demonstrates how Muslim women are using social media platforms in specific ways to shape the discourses around Muslim women. In doing so they are demonstrating their agentic capabilities, taking control of their representations, and speaking for themselves instead of being spoken for by others.

scholarly journals #YELLOWPERILSUPPORTSBLACKPOWER: MEMORY WORK FOR INTERRACIAL SOLIDARITY

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yena Kang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Black Community ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Justice Movements

As various racial justice movements emerged under the “Black Lives Matter” slogan after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, Monyee Chau posted some artwork on Instagram with the slogan, #YellowPerilSupportsBlackPower. The artwork—symbolizing Asians with a yellow tiger and African Americans with a black panther—ignited Asians’ activism in support of African Americans and became circulated via multiple social media platforms. In this study, I view the #YellowPerilSupportsBlackPower movement (YPSBP) as digital activism, and I analyze how Asian Americans project their “Asianness” to advocate for the Black community. In particular, I focus on memory work among Asian participants when they demonstrate their solidarity with the Black community. By analyzing mediated memory work on Instagram, I identify the three types of memory work in which Asian participants engage. I conclude that this memory work plays a key role in legitimatizing a process through which Asian Americans can produce affective ties with the Black community that build a multiracial identity extending beyond color lines. This exploration of interracial solidarity enriches both the social movement and digital activism scholarship by illustrating how memory work mediates and amplifies affective solidarity.

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.

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