Targeted appeals: online social movement frame packaging and tactics customized for youth

ABSTRACT

Tailoring messages and calls-to-action to demographic subgroups could give social movement organizations an edge in recruitment and mobilization efforts. But do they engage in this strategy? We analyze the content of 70 social movement organizations’ websites, across seven different issue sectors, to determine the presence and form of customized, age-tailored material across the youth spectrum: children, teens, and young adults. We find that many organizations disseminate youth-targeted website content, and they are creative in the ways they do so. Analysis indicates organizations use customized frame packaging, defined as the act of tailoring the presentation of the frame for a specific audience, as well as tactic customization, defined as action opportunities designed for a specific demographic subgroup. Frame packaging strategies include fun, easy-to-read material for youth and reaching youth through education materials. Customized tactics include attempts to empower youth to be the drivers of action and to gain access to arenas that otherwise may be hard to breach (i.e., schools).

KEYWORDS:

• social movements
• framing
• tactics
• life course
• youth

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mark Beaven, Dhruba Das, and Meagan Sanders for their assistance with data collection and coding checks, and Jeffrey Beebe for his data collection work on an earlier version of this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Organizations were selected based on income information listed in the database in April 2015.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kelly Bergstrand

Kelly Bergstrand is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington. She specializes in social movements, environmental sociology, and social psychology. Her current research projects include examining environmental threats and whether some types of issues or social problems are inherently more powerful in attracting resources, activists and public support. Recent publications include articles in Social Problems, Social Psychology Quarterly, Socius, Social Science Research, Sociological Forum, Mobilization, and Nature Climate Change.

Monica M. Whitham

Monica M. Whitham is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. Her primary research interests are social psychology, group processes, social networks, and community sociology. Broadly, her research agenda examines the effects of social connections, such as social capital and social identity, on processes and outcomes that require cooperative collective input, including community success and generalized exchange. Her work has been published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Social Psychology Quarterly, Sociological Forum, Sociological Perspectives, and City & Community.