Shifting Stakes: Understanding the Dynamic Roles of Individuals and Organizations in Social Media Protests

Abstract

In this paper we examine two protests characterized by substantial social media presence and distributed participation frameworks via two core questions: what roles did organizations and individuals play, and how did participants’ social interactions change over the course of the protests? To answer these questions, we analyzed a large Twitter activity dataset for the #YoSoy132 student uprising in Mexico and Brazil’s “bus rebellion.” Results indicate that individuals initially took prominence at the protests but faded in importance as the movements dwindled and organizations took over. Regarding the dynamics and structure of the interactions, we found that key time points with unique social structures often map to exogenous events such as coordinated protests in physical locations. Our results have important consequences for the visibility of such social movements and their ability to attract continued participation by individuals and organizations.

Beyond the eye-catchers: A large-scale study of social movement organizations’ involvement in online protests

“…Consistent with prior studies (Fetner and King, 2016; Spiro and Monroy-Hernández, 2016), we observe that eye-catcher SMOs are indeed more committed to sustaining movements when compared to individuals. They also partake in more knowledge sharing and community building efforts, and attract a significant fraction of engagements.…”

“…With the birth and expansion of the Web, however, the role of SMOs is being reconsidered. Thus far, researchers have examined SMOs’ general social media presence (Guo and Saxton, 2014; Lovejoy et al, 2012), their role and significance compared to that of individuals (Spiro and Monroy-Hernández, 2016), and their importance within specific movement context (Davis et al, 2005). While these studies are valuable, there are several caveats.…”

“…Recent years have seen growing academic interest in Internet activism (Barberá et al, 2015; Budak and Watts, 2015; Freelon et al, 2016; Theocharis et al, 2015). A few studies examine the participation of SMOs (Fetner and King, 2016; Guo and Saxton, 2014; Lovejoy et al, 2012; Obar et al, 2012; Spiro and Monroy-Hernández, 2016), but—much like studies of SMOs during the pre-web era—they often focus on a biased subset of exceptionally successful or prestigious SMOs (i.e. eye-catchers) from the core SMI.…”

“…We use three distinct perspectives, comparing (1) SMOs to individuals, (2) large SMOs to small ones, and we distinguish (3) SMOs from core and peripheral SMIs. The first comparison is motivated by existing divergent findings concerning the relative significance of SMOs versus individuals in social movements (Earl and Kimport, 2011; Spiro and Monroy-Hernández, 2016). The second and third comparisons extend previous studies that examine the role of SMOs as a function of their size (Edwards and Foley, 2003) and industry (McCarthy and Zald, 1977).…”

Is mobile app a new political discussion platform? An empirical study of the effect of WeChat use on college students’ political discussion and political efficacy

“…As Chen claimed that, studies on how social media affect political mobilization in China are still extremely scarce, especially for relevant theoretical work and empirical researches [ 15 ]. Actually, the ongoing debate remains between cyber-realists and utopians regarding the uses and effects of social media [ 16 , 17 ]. Some optimistic scholars suggested that the adoption of social media will stimulate political activism and social change, which eventually lead to a more pluralistic and democratic China [ 4 , 18 ].…”