From consumer to producer: motivations, internet use, and political consumerism

ABSTRACT

Our understanding of how political consumerism relates to broader civic engagement has been clouded by the myriad ways in which it has been conceptualized in the literature. In this study, we draw a distinction between the use of socially conscious consumption practices in everyday life and participation in organized boycotts and ‘buycotts.’ We argue that whether political consumerism is enacted as lifestyle politics or as contentious politics may depend, at least in part, on the motivations that underlie political consumerism and the way in which they orient behavior in the online environment. Results of a national survey of U.S. adults show that while both value-expressive and social-identification motivation facilitate comparable levels of content consumption, only the latter facilitates the more involved act of posting and sharing original content. Moreover, results show that while both uses of internet, in turn, facilitate lifestyle and contentious political consumerism, content production facilitates significantly greater levels of both. This was especially pronounced for contentious political consumerism. These findings suggest that content production may be an important vehicle for channeling motivations for political consumerism rooted in social-identification needs toward participation in more organized and collective modes of consumer action. Implications for understanding the potential political consumerism holds as a gateway to participation in conventional political activities are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Motivations
• internet use
• user-generated content
• political consumerism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Melissa R. Gotlieb is an assistant professor of advertising in the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University. Her research explores the intersections of media, politics, and consumer behavior. She is particularly interested in how individual orientations and communication processes relate to unconventional participation among young adults. [email: [email protected]].

Sadia E. Cheema is a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University in the College of Media and Communication. Her research examines the effect of digital media on civic engagement, political communication and global communication among youth. More specifically, her research explores the influence of production and consumption of user-generated content online to assess its implications on political attitudes and behaviors. [email: [email protected]].

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by funding from the Marshall and Sharleen Formby Regents Endowed Professorship in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.