Barriers to Entry and Online Poli1cal Ac1vism
The Hopes and Fears Around Slack1vism
Marko Skoric, NTU, Singapore Nathaniel Poor, Brooklyn, USA
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)
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
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).
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
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?
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
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
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
Thank you!
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