Building Theory from social media environments: Case study from

Facebook

Dr. Juan D Borrero

University of Huelva, Spain

Dr. Cathy Urquhart

Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Working paper

What puzzles?

1. Why do individuals spend their valuable time and effort on sharing knowledge with members in virtual communities?

2. How the Web 2.0 could facilitate the existing action forms making it possible to reach more people, more easily?

3. Building theory - for analysing, explanation and action - on social media environment.

Our Objective

How is social media used by potential activists for collective action?

Research Questions

1.  Can we consider FB activism as high-risk activism – activism that challenges the status quo?

2. Is FB activism strategic activism? Whay types of activism are supported by social media?

3. How does social media facilitates political action?

4. How action as manifested on a Facebook page?

5. What’s the role of mass media communication?