COLLECTIVE ACTION ON THE WEB

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) are credited with organizing protesters in Colombia and Guatemala, and mobilizing voters in the United States. With SNS increasingly used to mobilize collective action, this cross-cultural study surveyed activists in the United States and Latin America to examine how respondents perceived the usefulness and the potential of SNS for activism. This quantitative and qualitative research found that respondents from both regions use SNS to mobilize supporters both online and offline. Whether respondents' activism occurred mostly offline, mostly online, or equally offline and online, they all participated equally in offline activism. Countering previous research doubting the ability of online activism to inspire offline actions, results show respondents believe that online activism translates into offline activism, and that SNS play an important role in contemporary activism. Still, US activists were more likely than those in Latin America to use SNS for activism, or to say their activism occurred mostly online.

Keywords:

• social networks
• activism
• collective action
• computer-mediated communication

Notes

The survey was conducted in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi, but this analysis only considers answers from a US English-speaking population and the Spanish-speaking population in Latin America.

The survey asked about marital status, country of origin, and residence in urban, suburban, or rural areas, along with five socio-demographic variables – age, gender, income, education, and race.

Survey questions that answered this included: (a) Do you use SNS such as Facebook or MySpace for activism?; (b) Which SNS do you use for activism?; (c) What best describes how you use SNS for activism or advocacy?; (d) How often are you invited to join or become a fan of a SNS's group or cause?; (e) How many people have you met face-to-face because you joined a SNS's group or cause?; and (f) In your activist work, how important are SNS for any of the following activities: to send information to supporters or followers, to organize and plan, to attract new members or local support, to distribute petitions for others to sign, to fundraise, to mobilize supporters offline, to mobilize supporters online, to promote debate or discussion, to post information such as announcements or news, to put political pressure on elites and decision makers, and to communicate with journalists.

The questions included: (a) Where does you activism occur?; (b) How often do you access the Internet?; and (c) In the past month, approximately how many times have you participated in the following activities: attended a community meeting about an issue of importance to you, signed a petition, participated in a rally or demonstration, engaged in civil disobedience, contacted the media about an issue of importance to you, or contacted a public official about an issue of importance to you.

The questions included (a) How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly disagree: in my experience, offline activism translates into activism on SNS; in my experience as an activist, activism on SNS translates into activism offline; in my experience as an activist, SNS have contributed to dialogue about social issues that interest me; SNS have made me more politically/civically active; online activism is easier than offline activism; and (b) Describe, if possible, a successful case in which SNS aided you or your group's advocacy/activism efforts.

The other question used to answer this RQ was: (a) How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree: SNS CURRENTLY play an important role in social movements, and SNS SHOULD play an important role in social movements.

No statistical tests comparing the two regions for these questions yielded significant results.