Social Media Activism: Affordances of Social Media Usage In Activism and Protest

Abstract

The emergence of the internet and varied social media networks have led to the transformation of how social movements mobilise and organise their acts of activism. Some of the communicative practices that leaders of social movements and activists make use of reflecting the ways technology is being rooted in the roles and functions appropriate to the campaign.

The objective of this thesis is therefore to analyse the affordances and influence of social media usage on social activism and social movements across various countries of the world. The objective is achieved by focusing on how social media usage has impacted the different activist movement across the globe.

The study makes use of a systematic literature review, and the findings are presented and discussed considering relevant literature. The combination of qualitative researches, conceptual and high-quality research papers are systematically evaluated and narrowed down to serve as the data for this research paper. The thesis focuses on 16 articles published about social media activism with each separately examining a social movement with a specific organisational purpose and style.

At the completion of the analysis, the research concludes that social media allows for the swift dissemination of information across borders, encourages and facilitates the formation of the global public by allowing for interconnections between movement actors in different places. The research also acknowledges that some activists also employ social media for harmful and destructive objectives and admits that as effective as social media can be in enhancing the activities of activists and protests, it is not sufficient in other cases as physical efforts are required alongside online activities to achieve full efficiency of social media affordances.