Individual and Collective Empowerment in Online Communities: The Mediating Role of Communicative Interaction in Web Forums

Abstract

The role of online communities in empowerment has received only limited attention in theory-based empirical research, with the focus predominantly on individual empowerment of people in online support groups. This article proposes that to analyze the empowering opportunities of online communities, both individual and collective dimensions of empowerment need to be taken into account, considering the suggestion that the relationship between the two can be an opposing one. The empowerment theory developed in community psychology allows the analysis of empowerment outcomes in the realm of online communities on the psychological level; however, to understand the conditions of congruency between individual and collective empowerment, we introduce the mechanism of communicative interaction. Hypotheses deduced from empowerment theory are contested with the hypotheses of our complementary approach and tested on a convenience sample of online community members. Results indicate that the psychosocial understanding of empowerment processes in the field of community psychology might get new insights by considering a communication perspective for such processes.

Keywords:

• individual empowerment
• collective empowerment, online communities
• communicative interaction
• Web forums

APPENDIX: CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS OF INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL VARIABLES USED IN MULTILEVEL MODELS

Table

Notes

¹This is a critique of much of the empowerment research in general (Masterson and Owen 2006; Rieger 1993).

²The behavioral component includes actions that overcome structural barriers and lead to needs satisfaction (Zimmerman 1995). Since our analysis is focused on individual and collective empowerment, the behavioral component is not further discussed and applied herein.

³According to the official statistics for 2011, 66% of regular Internet users aged 10–75 years in Slovenia read Web forums, while 27% actively posted messages (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia [SURS] 2011).

⁴In order to carry out a representative analysis, we would have to obtain a list of all members of each online community and send invitations to a random sample of them. This was impossible, as the majority of online communities have formal or informal rules that disapprove of sending mass personal messages.

⁵The results of the pilot study are available upon request from the authors.

⁶The error covariances suggest that some other common factors between the indicators might exist.

⁷Considering the values reported by van Udeen-Kraan et al. (2008), the lower value of coefficient alpha in this study might be due to the revision of two scale items. Nevertheless, the subscale still shows a good reliability.

⁸Items were selected from a set of 7 to 10 items per subscale that had been tested in the pilot study.

⁹This item measures absence of reciprocity and was adequately recoded for the analysis.

¹⁰This item measures absence of sincerity and was adequately recoded for the analysis.

¹¹Coders had to code three dichotomous items that refer to the existence of a top thematic category that is dedicated to (a) political, social, and economic issues; (b) general everyday topics, such as humor, music, sports; and (c) “other” issues. Multifunctionality refers to a sum of these items.

¹²Correlations among all individual-level variables that were used in hypotheses testing are presented in the appendix.