A brief power point highlighting the issues surrounding why some trending issues cause social change and others do not.

1. What’s Trending
#SocialChange
BY ANDREW ROSE, MSC. CANDIDATE CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND
EXTENSION, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, CONTENT IN THIS SLIDE SHARE IS LICENCED UNDER
A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-NODERIVATIVES 4.0
INTERNATIONAL (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

2. Overview of the Slide Share:
 Factors that impact an issue’s ability to trend
 Indicators that determine if trending social media will translate into social
change
 Case studies of social media trends
 Considerations for future understanding of social media

3. Is Social Media an Appropriate
Platform to Influence Social Change
 Social media is saturated with incoming data, yet much of this data can
be categorized as “noise”.
 Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) has grown its own
unique communications variable in the form of “hashtags” (#), and other
forms of abbreviated communication.
 Due to the high rate of evolution of social media platforms, an insider’s
perspective into these communities is beneficial.
 Is it possible for social change to emerge from web 2.0 platforms, which
were not purposed to act as facilitation tools for social change.

4. Can Social Media Cause Social
Change?
 Currently there is no consensus among the academic community as to
how or if it is possible that social media can facilitate social change.
 There are numerous examples of major issues gaining widespread support
on social media, often followed by a lack of change when individuals lose
interest.
 Other instances have occurred where an issue begins to trend and is
followed by tangible change based on the notoriety received on social
media.
 Why do some issues falter and some succeed in attaining change?

5. Emotional Horizons
 What kind of a connection exists between those encouraging a trend to
continue and the issue that is being targeted?
 Social media networks have been identified by many as groupings of people only
connected by weak ties. Weak ties typically are not successful in breaking through
apathetic interest.
 Factors such as geographic proximity and cultural relatability have a tangible
effect on the propensity of individuals to be emotionally engaged in social
media trends.
 If issues are trending without individual relatability, then there is decreased probability
of individuals becoming engaged in the process of change.

6. Level of Commitment to Participate
 The level of commitment has a negative relationship with a trend
achieving social change. The more that is required of an individual to act
on their values the less likely they are to become engaged.
 Petitions have a high success rate due to the fact that the extent of an
individuals commitment towards an issue is simply “Yes” or “No”.
 An example of this trend in human behaviour is when people are asked if
they think voting is important. The ratio of people who respond yes is
always higher than the percentage of the population who actually vote.

7. The ALS Ice
Bucket Challenge
This social media trend was an enormous
success in terms of funds raised for ALS.
Even though many people do not know
what ALS is, it can still be argued that we
all have the desire to help those who are
sick.
The commitment that had to be
produced in order to support ALS research
was creatively packaged to the point that
participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge
became a cool thing to do and was tied
to social status.
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/making-a-difference/striking-out-als-ice-bucket-challenge-brings-flood-donations-
n177896

8. On April 15th 2014,
276 Nigerian
Schoolgirls were
kidnapped
The #1 trending issue on social
media was #bringbackourgirls.
It is hard to imagine a crime that
is more upsetting than the
preying on innocent schoolgirls.
This issue entered the emotional
horizons of many of those in
social media.
Yet, what kind of action is
required of those using social
media that #bringbackourgirls
might actually transition into a
process of change?
http://mashable.com/2014/05/07/michelle-obama-nigeria-bring-back-our-girls/

9. In January the Charlie
Hebdo attack took
place at the same time
as the Boko Haram
massacre in Nigeria
There was a distinct lack of moral outrage
at the slaughter of 2000 Nigerians on social
media, yet the Charlie Hebdo attack
breached the emotional horizons of many
individuals gained in social media.
Je Suis Charlie became synonymous with
our right to free speech and the response
of support for social change was drastic
with demonstrations taking place across
the western world.
The action required to change policy in
Europe is much different than what is
required to change Boko Haram’s hold on
Nigeria.
http://www.boredpanda.com/charlie-hebdo-shooting-tribute-illustrators-cartoonists/

10. Concluding Remarks
 Social media continues to gain momentum, therefore the need to
understand how social media trends impact social change is becoming
increasingly important.
 As social media is an incredibly innovative mode of communication, the
methods of analysis used to study it in the future will need to be highly
adaptive.
 What other examples of social media trends can you think of that either
did or did not act as a catalyst for social change?
 Can you think of other factors (beyond emotional horizons and levels of
participation) that could be used to analyze examples of social media to
determine why they did or did not facilitate change?

11. References:
 Ahlquist, J. (2014). Trending Now: Digital Leadership Education Using Social Media and the
Social Change Modle. Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(2), 57-60.
 Cellan-Jones, R. (n.d.). Social Media Medallists. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19192395
 Gladwell, M. (2010, October 4). Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be
Tweeted. The New Yorker.
 He, W. (2013). Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the
pizza industry. International Journal of Information Management, 33(3), 464.
 LaRiviere, K., Snyder, J., Stromberg, A., & O'Meara, K. (2012). Protest: Critical Lessons of
Using Digital Media for Social Change.
 Small, T.A. (2011). “What the Hashtag? A Content Analysis of Canadian Politics on
Twitter.” Information, Communication and Society 14(6): 872-895.
 Snee, H. (2008). Web 2.0 as a Social Science Research Tool. ESRC and British Library.
 Taylor, H. (2012). Social Media for Social Change Using the Internet to Tackle
Intolerance. Institute for Strategic Dialogue.