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 Analytic Activism and Its Limitations

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511775071 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Karpf
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Organizations

Some of the most important impacts of social media on social movement organizations come not through the new forms of speech that are created but through new forms of listening. This article discusses “analytic activism”—the practice of applying analytics and experimentation to develop new tactics and strategies, identify emergent mobilization opportunities, and listen to their members and supporters in new ways. After defining the key components of analytic activism, the article then develops and illustrates two boundary conditions—the analytics floor and the analytics frontier—that define the limited context within which analytic activism operates. The article concludes by highlighting how a focus on digital listening leads researchers to capture phenomena that have previously been ignored in the social media and collective action literature.

Reinventing the Concept of Civic Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Lichterman
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
Movement Organizations

This article proposes a new and better concept of civic culture and shows how it can benefit sociology. It argues that a better concept of civic culture gives us a stronger, comparative, and contextual perspective on voluntary associations—the conventional American empirical referent for “civic”—while also improving our sociologies of religion and social movements. The article first considers the classic perspective on civic culture and its current incarnations in order to show why we need better conceptual groundwork than they have offered. It then introduces the alternative approach, which is rooted in a pragmatist understanding of collective action and both builds on and departs in some ways from newly prominent understandings of culture in sociology. This approach’s virtues are illustrated with ethnographic examples from a variety of volunteer groups, social movement organizations, and religious associations.

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>

Sector-Level Dynamics and Collective Action in the United States, 1965-1975

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Larson ◽  
Sarah Soule
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organizational Ecology ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Mixed Support ◽  
Movement Organizations

To explain varying levels of collective action by social movement organizations in the United States operating during the height of the 1960s protest cycle, this article examines social movement sector-level dynamics alongside indicators of resources and political opportunities. Drawing on hypotheses from neoinstitutional, organizational ecology, and embeddedness perspectives, the paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the sector-level dynamics of legitimacy, competition, and embeddedness when explaining levels of collective action. Results show strong support for neoinstitutional, organizational ecology, and embeddedness theories, but more mixed support for arguments about how political opportunities and resources affect levels of collective action by social movement organizations.

scholarly journals What Strikes the Responsive Chord? The Effects of Framing Qualities on Frame Resonance among Protest Participants*

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Ketelaars
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Collective Action Frames ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Everyday Experiences ◽  
Or Organization ◽  
Movement Organizations

This study analyzes the extent to which collective action frames with certain qualities resonate with protesters. It goes beyond previous research on frame resonance by directly examining the frames that demonstrators use to motivate their participation and by comparing them with the frames of social movement organizations. The data consist of protest surveys from more than 5,000 participants in twenty-nine street demonstrations on various issues in three countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Results show that frames that appeal to people's everyday experiences resonate more than abstract or technical frames do. Also, resonance is higher when blame for the issue is put on a specific person or organization than when intangible forces or causes are held responsible. A comparison of two Dutch student demonstrations illustrates the results. These events were similar in most aspects but differed in framing and the extent to which protesters aligned with the organizers' frames.

Religious Culture and Immigrant Civic Participation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan R. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Undocumented Immigrants ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Marginalized Populations ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Movement Organizations

Juan R. Martinez’s chapter argues that religious institutions today offer unique resources that encourage civic participation among non-citizens. Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, the chapter shows that social movement organizations apply and customize recognizable aspects of religious culture to promote progressive values and action among undocumented immigrants. By using religion to cast undocumented immigrants as deserving citizens, these organizations generate religious meaning that encourages calls for citizenship and civic engagement among marginalized populations.

Internet-Enabled Activism and Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis E. Hestres ◽  
Jill E. Hopke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Movement Organizations

The past two decades have transformed how interest groups, social movement organizations, and individuals engage in collective action. Meanwhile, the climate change advocacy landscape, previously dominated by well-established environmental organizations, now accommodates new ones focused exclusively on this issue. What binds these closely related trends is the rapid diffusion of communication technologies like the internet and portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. Before the diffusion of digital and mobile technologies, collective action, whether channeled through interest groups or social movement organizations, consisted of amassing and expending resources—money, staff, time, etc.—on behalf of a cause via top-down organizations. These resource expenditures often took the form of elite persuasion: media outreach, policy and scientific expertise, legal action, and lobbying. But broad diffusion of digital technologies has enabled alternatives to this model to flourish. In some cases, digital communication technologies have simply made the collective action process faster and more cost-effective for organizations; in other cases, these same technologies now allow individuals to eschew traditional advocacy groups and instead rely on digital platforms to self-organize. New political organizations have also emerged whose scope and influence would not be possible without digital technologies. Journalism has also felt the impact of technological diffusion. Within networked environments, digital news platforms are reconfiguring traditional news production, giving rise to new paradigms of journalism. At the same time, climate change and related issues are increasingly becoming the backdrop to news stories on topics as varied as politics and international relations, science and the environment, economics and inequality, and popular culture. Digital communication technologies have significantly reduced the barriers for collective action—a trend that in many cases has meant a reduced role for traditional brick-and-mortar advocacy organizations and their preferred strategies. This trend is already changing the types of advocacy efforts that reach decision-makers, which may help determine the policies that they are willing to consider and adopt on a range of issues—including climate change. In short, widespread adoption of digital media has fueled broad changes in both collective action and climate change advocacy. Examples of advocacy organizations and campaigns that embody this trend include 350.org, the Climate Reality Project, and the Guardian’s “Keep It in the Ground” campaign. 350.org was co-founded in 2007 by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben and several of his former students from Middlebury College in Vermont. The Climate Reality project was founded under another name by former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. The Guardian’s “Keep It in the Ground” fossil fuel divestment campaign, which is a partnership with 350.org and its Go Fossil Free Campaign, was launched in March 2015 at the behest of outgoing editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger.

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 Influence of the pandemic lockdown on Fridays for Future’s hashtag activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110265
Author(s):  
Jörg Haßler ◽  
Anna-Katharina Wurst ◽  
Marc Jungblut ◽  
Katharina Schlosser
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
German Language ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Twitter Activity ◽  
Movement Organizations

Social movement organizations (SMOs) increasingly rely on Twitter to create new and viral communication spaces alongside newsworthy protest events and communicate their grievance directly to the public. When the COVID-19 pandemic impeded street protests in spring 2020, SMOs had to adapt their strategies to online-only formats. We analyze the German-language Twitter communication of the climate movement Fridays for Future (FFF) before and during the lockdown to explain how SMOs adapted their strategy under online-only conditions. We collected (re-)tweets containing the hashtag #fridaysforfuture ( N = 46,881 tweets, N = 225,562 retweets) and analyzed Twitter activity, use of hashtags, and predominant topics. Results show that although the number of tweets was already steadily declining before, it sharply dropped during the lockdown. Moreover, the use of hashtags changed substantially and tweets focused increasingly on thematic discourses and debates around the legitimacy of FFF, while tweets about protests and calls for mobilization decreased.

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