KING VISHNU BHAGWANON KA BHAGWAN PARAMATMONKA PARATOMIC PARAMANU KASARVAMANVA...
Marko M. Skoric, Nathaniel Dunbar Poor: Barriers to Entry and Online Political Activism
1. Barriers
to
Entry
and
Online
Poli1cal
Ac1vism
The
Hopes
and
Fears
Around
Slack1vism
Marko
Skoric,
NTU,
Singapore
Nathaniel
Poor,
Brooklyn,
USA
2. The
Issues
Overlapping
Issues…
• Low
levels
of
youth
engagement
in
poli1cs.
• Young
people s
broad
use
of
social
media.
• Hopes
and
fears
projected
upon
(any)
new
media.
…which
underlie:
• Ci1zens
civic
and
poli1cal
engagement.
• Fear
of
slack1vism.
(slacker
+
ac1vism)
3. Slack1vism
in
Ac1on
• Voicing
opinions
online,
pos1ng
comments
and
links,
‘liking’
certain
groups
and
causes,
changing
avatars,
etc.
• Typically,
slack1vist
ac1vi1es
do
not
involve
significant
financial
or
personal
risks
– No
need
to
directly
confront
entrenched
norms
and
prac1ces
4. An
Example
• US
White
House s
digital
pe11on
site,
We
the
People.
• 5,000
votes
needed.
• 25,000…
• 100,000.
• Ex:
Build
a
working
death
star
from
Star
Wars
(25k).
5. The
Pre-‐Internet
Origins
of
Slack1vism
• Offline
slack1vism
– Bumper
s1ckers
– Lapel
s1ckers
– Poli1cal
bu^ons
– Rubber
wristbands
– T-‐shirts
• Since
1956,
ques1ons
on
campaign
bu^ons
and
bumper
s1ckers
included
in
ANES
surveys
– Widely
used
measures
of
poli1cal
interest
and
par1cipa1on
6. What
Mo1vates
Slack1vists?
• Selfish
and
narcissis1c
reasons
(Morozov,
2009)
• Construc1on
of
a
desirable
(online)
iden1fy
– hoped-‐for
possible
selves (Zhao
et
al.,
2008)
• Digital
cultural
objects
can
signal
to
others
who
we
are
or
who
we
want
to
be
– e.g.
Image
management
on
Facebook
• Desirable
friends
• Focused
on
self-‐
rather
than
poli1cal
expression?
7. Pros
and
Cons
of
Slack1vism
• Key
advantages:
– Lowering
the
barriers
to
par1cipa1on
– Reaching
a
large
number
of
people
quickly,
with
minimal
effort
and
at
low
cost
• Crea1ng
awareness
is
the
first
step
towards
solving
the
problem
– Offering
new
opportuni1es
for
engagement
to
ci1zens
disillusioned
with
tradi1onal
poli1cs
– Providing
a
space
for
prac1cing
civic
skills
8. Pros
and
Cons
of
Slack1vism
• Key
disadvantages:
– Slack1vist
ac1vi1es
have
li^le
or
no
impact
on
real-‐life
poli1cal
outcomes
– Emphasis
on
popularity,
membership
numbers
and
dona1ons
– Degrada1on
of
the
quality
of
ac1vism
– May
divert
ci1zens
from
more
produc1ve
and
meaningful
ways
to
par1cipate
– Usually
lacking
real
leadership
and
strategy
– Lacking
a
sacrificial
element
that
characterizes
tradi1onal
ac1vism
9. Does
Social
Media
Use
Promote
Engagement?
•
Meta-‐analysis
of
33
published
survey
based
studies
•
Types
of
use
à
social
capital/civic
&
poli1cal
engagement
•
Average
effect
size
(correla1on
coefficient
r)
Type of social
media use
Mean (SE) SD N
Expressive use 0.25 (0.10) 0.24 6
Informational use 0.16 (0.05) 0.18 11
Identity use 0.09 (0.03) 0.08 7
Relational use 0.08 (0.05) 0.15 10
Entertainment use -0.11 (0.06) 0.08 2