Beyond Slacktivism: Examining the Entanglement between Social Media Engagement, Empowerment, and Participation in Activism

ABSTRACT

Assessing the connection between social media engagement and activism for strategic communication is tricky. Although social media facilitate protests, they may also create a lazy form of activism known as slacktivism, potentially weakening the strength of a social movement. This dichotomy suggests the need to develop a theory to understand the connection between social media engagement, empowerment, and protest participation. We explore this connection via in-depth interviews with those who used social media in a case of social media-driven protest. Rather than limit analysis to outcomes like social media analytics, this research suggests the need to consider a model-based understanding of engagement, namely that social media activism proceeds from engagement antecedents and is supported by engagement attributes, towards, ultimately, engagement outcomes. Additionally, data suggest that this process is mediated by factors that include communicative competence, empowerment, and social stake.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.