#CeDEM13 Day 2 afternoon, Reflections, Main Hall, Chair: Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen

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

10.
Thank
you!