Messengers of justice: social network analysis of public relations support for migrants

ABSTRACT

This article applies Social Network Analysis (SNA) to illuminate the task forces created by US-based activists undertaking public relations on behalf of migrant caravan participants that travel from Honduras through Mexico toward the US. Four functional roles – influencers, messengers, support groups, and founding members – are identified and described in detail. When taking into account the characteristics of the individuals involved, these roles facilitate “bridge-actions”: the mobilization of support across distinct political structures such as Native American tribal governments, international human rights venues, and US political parties. The result is a flexible public relations venture that has ability to influence diverse audiences – and extend beyond this particular mobilization effort. This has been most useful in the current American debate concerning restrictive US immigration policies and border security measures.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Nemo Siqueiros for his work building the matrix for SNA.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ For an early example of the spillover effect in social movement studies see Meyer and Whittier (1994).

² Vía Crucis represents the “Stations of the Cross” depicting the trials of Jesus Christ as he was about to be crucified.

³ Interviews were conducted during the summer and fall of 2019, as part of a project entitled “Explaining the Causes of U.S.-bound Migration in an Era of Migrant Caravans” [IRB approved July 25, 2019, #1459720-1].

⁴ This reservation extends into South Dakota as well.

⁵ This information can be found in the following link: https://www.wyso.org/post/antioch-word-explores-border-support-network.

⁶ The interview with Lilith Sinclair, a BSN member who provided details about this network and its project, can be found here: https://www.wyso.org/post/antioch-word-explores-border-support-network.

⁷ This figure is a reproduction of the diagram that the members of the BSN used in their presentation at Antioch College..

⁸ On these movements and some of their activities and communications see: https://www.facebook.com/AbolishICEPortland/; https://www.facebook.com/occupyice/; https://twitter.com/occupyicepdx?lang=en; https://womensmarch.com/; https://www.codepink.org/.

⁹ Dewey is married to Deborah Parker, an important political actor affiliated with the Democratic Party.

¹⁰ Mancias is closely affiliated to the American Indian Movement (AIM) and other groups providing security for indigenous movements.

¹¹ Vanessa Dundon also participated in Standing Rock, being one of the severely injured during a confrontation between protesters and law enforcement on November 20, 2016.

¹² Evan K. Duke III, for example, was present in the city of Tijuana supporting the migrant caravan formed in the last months of 2018.

¹³ Wong has been related to groups or movements such as Occupy Wall Street, #AsianAmericansForBernie, ActBlue, #AbolishICE and TYT, among others.

¹⁴ Ponti is connected with diverse groups or networks such as #OccupyInauguration, #Our Resistance, Activate Now and TYT.

¹⁵ Moveon.org is a movement or Political Action Committee (PAC), which promotes social causes and has helped to raise funds to support political campaigns of liberal candidates.

¹⁶ #BankExit campaign encouraged citizens to withdraw their money from banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and HSBC. These actions meant a symbolic punishment against institutions that decided to fund the Dakota Access pipeline, a massive infrastructure project that would affect the environment and predate strategic natural resources in indigenous peoples’ lands.

¹⁷ Kane is also related to The People for Bernie Sanders and formed part of the board of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Charlotte, NC.

¹⁸ On social network analysis, see Borgatti, Everett, and Johnson (2018).

¹⁹ We used mainly Facebook because the particular set of actors we chose – actually most of those belonging to the BSN – communicate essentially through this social media platform.

²⁰ This database was cleaned up in order to avoid repetition. All interactions were unique and included distinct information.

²¹ The majority of the interactions that are considered in the matrix to perform the SNS (Figure 3) occur on Facebook, which is the preferred media outlet utilized by the BSN members.:

²² When we say “persons,” we could also be talking about the organizations to which these persons are affiliated or to which they are linked.

²³ This article could have been shared by one of the actors in the network or by any other group or organization.

²⁴ The authors thank Nemo Siqueiros for his work building the matrix for SNA.

²⁵ Each number in the matrix is supported by a copy of the media story or screenshot of the interaction (reaction or emotion) in social media.

²⁶ This means that Gutierrez is connected with all other actors in the network except for one.