This research paper explored the effectiveness and influence, or otherwise, that social media has had on activism and in particular that of the environmental movement.
Original Title
Social Media & the Environmental Movement... Substituting the Monkey Wrench for the Keyboard
This research paper explored the effectiveness and influence, or otherwise, that social media has had on activism and in particular that of the environmental movement.
This research paper explored the effectiveness and influence, or otherwise, that social media has had on activism and in particular that of the environmental movement.
Environmental Movement Substituting the Monkey Wrench for the Keyboard
By Mark McCormick BSc
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Abstract The aim of this research paper was to explore the effectiveness and influence, or otherwise, that social media has had on activism and in particular that of the environmental movement. A qualitative research method was used as it was felt that, in order to truly understand the impact social media has had on the environmental movement, in- depth discussion with practitioners and activists through the use of semi-structured interviews would be the most productive method. A literature review looked at the power and growth of social media, how it is used by activists in campaigning and targeting corporations and focussed on the use of social media within different strands of the environmental movement. Following the collection of data, the analysis and discussion of the results the research concludes that social media has changed, and is still changing, the way in which the environmental movement is carrying out campaigns, actions and activism. The result demonstrated that social media in isolation was not effective but when combined with offline traditional tactics it could then be highly effective and that within the environmental movement the more radical and activist based you are the easier it is to utilise social media.
Chapter Two: Literature Review The Power and Growth of Social Media 9 Online War Corporations vs. Activists 12 Social Media and the Environmental Movement 17
Chapter Three: Research Methodology Methodology 22 Construction of Semi Structured Interviews 29
Chapter Six: Conclusion Conclusion 75 Limitations and Future Research 76
Appendices Appendix 1: Invitation Letters to Participants 78 Appendix 2: Participant Informed Consent Form 81 References 83
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Acknowledgements I wish to thank my research supervisor Mr Andrew Purcell for his guidance, support and for ensuring my peace of mind for the completion of this thesis.
Also not forgetting the staff of the Political Lobbying and Public Affairs MSc for their teaching and knowledge. This was an encouraging and gratifying learning experience that strongly contributed to the writing of this thesis.
I would like to acknowledge the support and interest shown by my colleagues and close friends who shared their thoughts and encouragement throughout the completion of this thesis. Also I have to thank all my fellow students for their friendship and support.
Finally, I would like to thank my family for everything their reassurance, support and love which I couldnt have done without.
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Chapter 1: 1.1 Introduction ... A rapid evolution in media is taking place. Through the choices, made by millions every second of each day, to share and curate content, individuals the world over are engaging with each other on a scale unimaginable to most people just a decade ago. Previous modes of media allowed for the transmission of information, filling a human desire for knowledge, but could not cater for the human impulse to interact. This is changing... (Wilson, 2012, Foreword XI)
The above quote refers to, of course, the growth and power of social media in society today which Howell (2012, p4) has described as changing the way we, the people, are communicating and the way we are connecting, collaborating and building relationships. Hands (2011, p18) believes that the changes to society as a result of the digital, networked age... Lends itself to a horizon of dissent, resistance and rebellion, and is referring to the use of social media as a tactic and tool for campaigning, as summed up in the title of his book - @ is for Activism.
The aim of this research paper is to explore the effectiveness and influence, or otherwise, that social media has had on activism and in particular that of the environmental movement. The reason for focussing on the environmental movement is because according to (Donk et al, 2004, p15) the environmental movement is more prone to and sophisticated in using digital technologies due to the global scale of the 7
problems they are interested in, such as global warming and climate change, which demands more cross-national cooperation. Therefore, it was the researchers hypothesis that in order to truly explore the use of social media as a campaigning tool, amongst activist and campaign organisations, that the environmental movement would generate the most compelling case study on which to base the research study. The objectives of the study can be summarised as follows: 1. To undertake a literature review on the strength and growth of social media, the use of social media as a lobbying tool and social media use within different strands of the environmental movement.
2. To compare and contrast the effectiveness of online activism compared to offline direct action / demonstrations / protests.
3. Explore the impact that social media has had on the traditional mass media and whether or not this has altered dependence on traditional mass media within the environmental movement.
4. Carry out semi structured interviews with practitioners from the environmental movement to discuss their experience of social media as well as any perceived benefits or otherwise for campaigning and lobbying.
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1.2 Overview
Chapter two is the literature review in relation to the strength and growth of social media, the use of social media as a lobbying tool and social media use within different strands of the environmental movement. The research gained from the literature review was the basis for drafting and developing the interview questions shown in chapter three.
Chapter three describes the methodology used for the research. This includes the rationale for the research process, the reasons for utilising semi-structured interviews, the design of the questions, the methods employed to elicit the responses from potential research participants, and the analysis and demonstration of the data produced.
Chapter four demonstrates the findings of the research interviews with participants and provides an analysis of the responses.
Chapter five is a discussion on the researchers interpretation of the results, comparing and contrasting different participants views as well as contrasting these views with that of the literature review.
Chapter Six is the concluding chapter which provides a summary of the key findings and what can be concluded from these findings. The chapter also includes a section stating the limitations of the research and a section which suggests areas for future research. 9
Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1: The Power and Growth of Social Media The meteoric rise of social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube changed the communications landscape for ever. (Howell, 2012, p3) Social media is revolutionising the way we communicate and share information. It allows for file sharing, blogging and instant messaging or chat and often incorporates other platforms such as those that publish videos. Social media is not just highly popular in terms of the number of users that they have and there is a very high level of engagement with the sites. This is one of many reasons why social media has become of such interest to corporations, marketers and lobbyists. (Brown, 2009, p50) In the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Social Media Handbook for PR Professional Howell (2012, p3-4) describes the sheer scale and power that social media has gained throughout the world. Howell describes how, more than 70% of the internet population uses social networks in one form or another and the numbers are growing daily. Howell describes just how huge this is by stating that, one in 9 people on earth have Facebook, and if it was a country, it would be the third largest after China and India, (Howell, 2012, p4). So it is clear that social media has become a huge element in every day life of many people and Howell (2012, p4) also highlights how this spans across a number of 10
different demographics and age groups. The sheer number of people using social networks and the time spent online using them leads to a gigantic amount of information being created and circulated across the globe. Kumar and Mohd (2012, p2038) would share similar views stating that, Social Media has opened a new chapter in human beings freedom of speech and action in which people now freely collaborate, share videos, photos, news, reviews, opinions and stories using this media.
Every minute, 60 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube, 3000 images go up on Flickr and more than 700 YouTube links are tweeted There are 95 million Tweets a day, 85% of bloggers post more than once a week, and 57% of people talk more online than they do in real life (Howell, 2012, p4) Bennett (2005, p223) argues that large-scale transnational activism has displayed remarkable organisational capabilities in recent years to wage sustained protests against corporations and transnational organisations. Deegan (2001, p13) believes there is no doubt that this new form of activism has been a result of the power and growth of social media and states that, activists have taken to the internet like ducks to water. Brown (2009, p20) agrees and believes that activists are, taking matters into their own hands through their blogs and online networks and user generated content. They are organising political campaigns and building coalitions based around common interests. They are spreading news and information to one another on a scale never before thought possible. They are the masters now.
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Porta et al (2005, p8) believe that it is the internationalisation of the global environment as a result of the above point that produces opportunities for activists to engage in concerted collective action from all corners of the world. However they also highlight how globalisation alone, is not sufficient enough to produce a transnationalisation of collective action and that relational changes between actors must be the catalyst (Porta et al, 2005, p8). In other words activists have had to engage in globalisation by forming sustained networks on a transnational basis.
Porta et al (2005, p7) explain how this has developed by pointing to the development of electronic social media communications and the spread of inexpensive international travel as the basis for which formerly isolated activists and movements have now been able to communicate and collaborate with one another across borders, ultimately creating the transnational network of activists needed to combat the growing threat or power of transnational corporations.
There is also evidence to demonstrate how social media has been used by activists to coordinate and enhance their offline campaigning as well. Bennett (2005, p205-207) refers to the impact of communication and information technologies on the global Anti War protests in 2003 against the War in Iraq. Bennett believes that social media allowed for global activists to agree on simultaneous protests, deeper levels of coordination, sharing open source communication technologies, establishing web links, and agreeing on common messages that would encourage inclusiveness and maximize turnout (Bennett, 2005, p206). Bennett gives examples of certain tactics in the following statement:
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These technological links and social software common to many sites facilitated the diffusion of posters, banners, slogans, information about gathering points, transportation, computer matching of socially comfortable groups for different types of people to join, guides to protest tactics, and information and Internet news reports on the war and the pending protests. The result of this combination of on- and offline networking may well stand as the largest simultaneous multinational demonstration in recorded history. (Bennett, 2005, p207)
Even our Governments, political leaders and those in the corridors of power have realised the impact social media is having on activism and peoples ability to campaign. Brown (2009, p20) points to a speech made by George Osbourne MP, currently Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, in London; With all these profound changes the Googleization of the worlds information, the creation of online social networks bigger than whole populations, the ability of new technology to harness the wisdom of crowds and the rise of user-generated content we are seeing the democratisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange People are no longer prepared to sit and be spoon-fed. George Osbourne MP (cited in Brown 2009, p20)
2.2: Online War - Corporations VS Activists The internet has facilitated the formation of new global alliances, bringing together well-established NGOs, so called culture jammers, activists, and 13
ordinary citizens. Individual companies are targeted as examples or symbols of general problems. The internet is used to increase the capacity of activists and organisations to disseminate information and mobilise support for their cause. (Rosenkrands, 2004, p57)
The quote above demonstrates how activists globally are using the internet and social media as means to attack corporations which they feel are symbols of things they disagree with. In order to understand the significance of such attacks it is useful to consider the importance of corporate image and corporate reputations. Dowling (1994, p5) points to the advertising genius David Ogilvy who created the idea that corporate brands can have a personality or image which reflects the fact that people buy or use products and services not only for what they do but also for what they mean to people.
David Ogilvys successful approach to giving products a personality, and then advertising the brand rather than the product, provides a clue to how a company may use its reputation. If the organisation can create its own distinct personality, image or position in peoples minds, then it has differentiated itself from competitors. If this image fits the individuals values, then your organisations reputation will be a good one. Also research dealing with individuals self-concepts suggests that people will respond favourably to brands and companies they perceive to have an image which is consistent with their own self-concept. Hence, a good corporate image is 14
one that the target group of stakeholders can favourably relate to, and can use to form a good reputation. (Dowling, 1994, p14)
The point in the quote above, people will respond favourably to brands and companies they perceive to have an image which is consistent with their own self- concept, is key here in understanding why activists would target a corporations image. Ind (1992, p27) describes how a corporate image is identified as the picture a companys audience has of it and this is determined by a companys actions. With this in mind activists opposed to the actions of a corporation would attempt to influence the public to also share their viewpoint and to do this they will attack the corporations image (Deegan, 2001, p9). This is also the view of Bennett (2005, p223) who shows how highly effective this can be by pointing to successes in activists and campaign groups successfully targeting corporations and multinationals having won compliance with demands for new industry practices and social responsibility standards.
According to Deegan (2001, p7) these attacks on corporate image and reputation are a growing threat across the globe and she believes there is, no doubt that the advent of the Internet has seen and will continue to see a growing number of individuals becoming involved in activism as well as an increase in the number of special interest groups being set up.
Deegan (2001, p12) elaborates this point, on the power of the internet creating and amplifying an activist campaign, by stating that, the immediate global transmission of information combined with open access by all, including the media, means that 15
attacks can develop at such speed that they can appear to spring from nowhere. However corporations according to Ind (1992, p101), today employ lobbyists and PR agencies to try to create favourable impression of an organisation or an industry, so there is a line of defence against such activism.
Following on from Inds (1992, p101) point it seems only natural that Corporations would therefore also use social media as a means to enhance their corporate image and reputation. However Brown (2009, 51) would suggest that this may actually be playing into the hands of activists and campaigning organisations: Commercial interests that engage with social network sites should do so with great consideration and caution. This is an open environment where the audience can talk back and if they dont like what youre doing or saying they will say so. The most important thing to consider when planning a campaign that involves activity within a social network is whether you are able to give anything of any value to your audience through your participation. Simply promoting a commercial message will not be regarded as valuable. (Brown, 2009, p51) Activists will also be waiting for opportunities to attack corporations and as Deegan (2001, p130) highlights, corporate emergencies such as oil spills, explosions, chemical leaks etc. attract activist condemnation and coordinated attacks. Deegan (2001, p130) also highlights the use of orchestrated media campaigns by activists to damage corporate reputation. Social medias relationship with traditional media is 16
another element that is changing the impact activism can have on corporate reputation as highlighted by Bennett (2004, p141)
New media provide alternative communication spaces in which information can develop and circulate widely with fewer conventions or editorial filters than in the mainstream media. The gate keeping capacity of the traditional press is weakened when information appears on the internet, presenting new material that may prove irresistible to competitors in the world of 24/7 news channels that now occupy important niches in the press food chain. Moreover, journalists may actively seek story ideas and information from web sources, thus creating many pathways for information to flow from micro to mass media. (Bennett 2004, p141)
Bennetts point highlights how corporations can no longer rely on the editorial filters they were use to when all PR was done via printed media. Social media makes PR instant and as Brown (2009, p51) pointed out the internet and social media is an, open environment where the audience can talk back and if they dont like what youre doing or saying they will say so.
Donk et al (2004, p11) would agree and describe how social movements, as well as improving their movements capacity to act in coordinated ways, and to react quicker to external challenges, are becoming less dependent on established mass media to convey their messages and objectives to a large audience. Corporations would never 17
have had to deal with this before and it is clear from Deggans and Bennetts points that activists are certainly hijacking this opportunity to talk back.
Rosenkrands (2004, p60) highlights a quote from a personal interview he conducted with Kenny Bruno, who is a project coordinator at CorpWatch, who stated that, I think the lesson gets sent to other companies when one company is hurt (by activism). I am sure that Shell is not the only company that has reacted to Shells own problems. Other companies see that and say: Oh my gosh, that better not happen to me. So I think it is worthwhile for our movement to target companies to make them examples.
Ultimately it would seem that sports clubs, music, fashion, leisure even politics will be better suited to participation in social networks than oil companies or banks (Brown, 2009, p51).
2.3: Social Media & the Environmental Movement According to Donk et al (2004, p4) organisations within the Environmental Movement, such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, have used the internet to be highly effective in shaping public opinion. Donk et al (2004, p4) would then go further and state that in particular environmental organisations, such as those mentioned, are especially attractive to younger generations and therefore it is obvious that the internet is an effective tool to foster this strength.
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There is also an argument that social media helps level the playing field between the environmental movement and the vast resources of corporates and multinationals. Matthews (2010 online) points out how this new form of media is helping environmental activists to combat the powerful propaganda and immense resources of the fossil fuel industries and polluting corporations. He states that although the environmental movement can never outspend or overcome the well- established economic interests of these corporations, the adoption of social media actually levels the playing field despite a lack of financial resources. Matthews (2010 online) sums this up by stating that social media democratises the environmental debate. It is important to note however that there a number of different strains within the environmental movement and each one might incorporate social media into their campaigning in different ways. Donk et al (2004, p14) would highlight this by describing how several observers have distinguished between three major strands of environmental movements: an apolitical conservationism, a political but mainly pragmatic environmentalism, and a more radical and fundamentalist political ecology. Donk et al then state that they believe the pragmatic environmentalists would be the most prone to using ICTs and social media because they are, used to thinking in terms of instrumental rationality and are more open to any kind of organisational and technical innovation concerning their own operations.
Donk et al (2004, p15-16) give examples such as the large and powerful organisations such as the Sierra Club in America which they described as being, very quick in recognising and exploiting the advantages of ICTs and digital communications to facilitate internal communication, to keep their members 19
informed, to present themselves to outsiders via their online presence and to communicate with others. Donk et al would stress however that the larger more powerful organisations have the larger resources and can therefore purchase the necessary hardware and the hiring of human resources to professionalise their online presence and use of online communication beyond what many within the environmental movement could afford.
Secondly Donk et al (2004, p16) describe how organisations and networks spanning large territories, even if poor in resources, are likely to implement online campaigning and ICTs simply because these approaches are much cheaper than distributing letters, papers, leaflets, and action calls by paper-based mail. Therefore Donk et al (2004, p16) are not surprised that groups such as Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth International and the World Wide Fund for Nature are among those who were early adopters of these techniques and continue to use them widely.
Social media has also had an impact on another element of the environmental movement which is the more radical and militant groups involved in property destruction and sabotage commonly referred to as Ecotage or Monkeywrenching. According to Plows et al (2010, p1), ecotage is sabotage carried out by environmental activists that is intended to cause material damage to their opponents, and is used rather than engaging in negotiation or peaceful campaigning.
The development of groups involved in Ecotage or Monkeywrenching in the UK was according to Plows et al (2010, p12) due to, the disappointment of a young 20
generation of activists in the weakness and moderation of the existing green groups in the UK. There is also a view among radical environmentalists that, when resources are low, then ecotage is viewed as the most effective way of getting results and also when living in an area where there are few other activists and the costs of overt mobilisation are too high (Plows et al, 2010, p9).
Plows et al (2010, p16) refer to the research of (Gamson 1990) who describes that radical environmentalists use of property destruction and sabotage has been in decline due to what he believes to be the use of new media and the spread of education which provided more activists with, the resources and repertoires to protest within the system (Plows et al, 2010, p16).
The view that the increase in new media and education would very much compliment the view of Matthews (2010 online) who proposes the view that social media democratises the environmental debate. In other words activists who may have taken part in ecotage can now join with activists online and they may no longer feel isolated and resort to more militant tactics. Matthews (2010 online) also highlighted how social media has levelled the playing field making environmental groups more effective which gives more backing to the views of Plows et al (2010, p12) that ecotage developed due to their ineffectively before the emergence of social media.
As mentioned Donk et al (2004, p4) believe that the environmental movements use of social media makes them more attractive to younger generations. Plows et al believed it was a younger generation of activists that developed the use of ecotage so 21
it could be suggested based on the combined views of Donk et al (2004, p4) and Plows et al (2010, p12) that social media could be de-radicalising younger generations within the environmental movement away from ecotage. Very much substituting the monkey wrech for the keyboard.
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1 Methodology The goal of most qualitative researchers... is to understand the world of lived experience from the point of view of those who live and work in it. They are concerned with subjective reality, that is, what events, objects and others mean to other people. (Daymon et al, 2002, p12) Qualitative interviewing begins with the assumption that the perspective of others is meaningful, knowable, and able to be made explicit. We interview to find out what is in and on someone elses mind, to gather their stories. (Patton, 2002, p341) This is a qualitative study looking at Social Media and the Environmental Movement with the purpose of establishing the benefits or otherwise of social media, in particular its influence and effectiveness as a campaigning tool for the environmental lobby. To meet the research objectives it was decided that the most effective use of data collection would be to use semi-structured face-to-face interviews with practitioners and activists from organisations and groups within the Environmental Movement and other campaigning organisations.
As Tesch (1990, p55) states, qualitative data is any information the researcher gathers that is not expressed in numbers. This research study will gather its data from semi-structured face to face interviews and as Woods (2006, online) suggests a 23
substantial amount of qualitative data can come from talking with people and interviews can tap into the depths of reality of the situation and discover subjects' meanings and understandings.
It was felt that in order to truly understand the impact social media has had on the environmental movement that in-depth discussion with practitioners and activists would be the most productive method for the reasons that Daymon et al (2002, p6) highlight when they explain that, qualitative researchers are interested in deep exploration in order to provide rich, detailed, holistic description as well as explanation. This deep exploration would birth far greater understanding than a quantitative questionnaire would have as expressed by Patton:
The purpose of qualitative interviewing is to capture how those being interviewed view their world, to learn their terminology and judgements, and to capture the complexities of their individual perceptions and experiences. This openness distinguishes qualitative interviewing from the closed questionnaire or test used in quantitative studies. Such closed instruments force respondents to fit their knowledge, experiences, and feelings into the researchers categories. (Patton, 2002, p348) This is important because this research is not setting out to test and prove a hypothesis. It is attempting to understand the subjective experience of interviewees from the environmental movement, rather than attempting to define variables numerically to test a particular theory on social media or activism. Therefore interviewing is the best key to understanding because as Rubin et al (2005, p33) 24
explain, the low key and open ended way in which interviewing is conducted encourages the conversational partners to suggest topics, concerns, and meanings that are important to them.
This is why a semi-structured interview is being employed to gather the research rather than a structured interview. This tends to be common practice in the qualitative research field as highlighted by Daymon et al (2002, p169) for the reason being that, structured interviews tend to stifle the flexibility that is so valued in qualitative research. However Daymon et al (2002, p171) do highlight the need for some control over the interview, so that the topic can be explored the purpose of study achieved, which is why semi-structured is being used. This is further explained by Wengraf:
Semi structured interviews are designed to have a number of interviewer questions prepared in advance but such prepared questions are designed to be sufficiently open that the subsequent questions of the interviewer cannot be planned in advance but must be improvised in a careful and theorised way. (Wengraf, 2001, p5)
There are of course challenges with this method of data collection due to the open- endedness and improvisation as Patton (2002, p432) explains:
There are no formulas for determining significance. No ways exist of perfectly replicating the researchers analytical thought processes. No straightforward tests can be applied for reliability and validity. In short, no 25
absolute rules exist except perhaps this: Do your very best with your full intellect to fairly represent the data and communicate what the data reveal given the purpose of the study. (Patton, 2002, p432)
Wengraf (2001, p5) would agree with the views of Patton (2002) and states therefore that in order for qualitative semi structured interviews to be successful they require, as much preparation before the session, probably and certainly more discipline and more creativity in the session, and certainly more time for analysis and interpretation after the session. However Kvale et al (2009, p100) believe the absence of this prescribed set of rules for interviewing does and can create an open ended field of opportunities for the interviewers skills. Therefore the quality of the research and information obtained during the interviews is very much dependent on the interviewer (Patton, 2002, p341).
In preparation for the interviews the researcher followed the Seven Stages of an Interview Inquiry as explained by Kvale et al (2009, p102). Kvale et al (2009, p99) would point out that in a qualitative semi-structured research interview there are no agreed standard procedures or rules that exist for the preparation, execution and analysis of the interviews. However they do point to seven standard choices of approach and technique that were used for this research which are listed and explained as follows:
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1. Thematising - Thematising is formulating the purpose of an investigation and the conception of the theme to be investigated before the interviews start. Thematising for this research was conducted in the literature review.
2. Designing Designing really considering all seven stages and formulating interview questions before interviewing with regard to obtaining the intended knowledge and moral implications of the study. Rubin et al (2005, p39) describe the design stage of a research project as picking the appropriate topic, formulating the research question, choosing the interviewees and deciding what questions to ask them. The designing of the research was conducted through the Risks and Ethics forms and also within this methodology.
3. Interviewing This is the actual act of conducting the interviews based on the designed interview questions with a reflective approach to the knowledge sought and the interpersonal relation of the interview situation, (Kvale et al, 2009, p102).
4. Transcribing This is the preparation of data collected for the purpose of analysing the completed interviews which requires the transcription of the interview from the oral recordings to written text. Flick (2006, p290) believes that, precise transcription of data absorbs time and energy, which could be invested in the interpretation of the interviews instead. In other words transcription is of course an important element of the research study but should not dominate the process with an unnecessary exactness of wording. 27
5. Analysing This stage is to gather the meaning and nature of the material gained by employing the most appropriate mode of analysis. For this research a number analytical methods were used such as Meaning Condensation whereby long statements are compressed into briefer statements without necessarily transforming the data into quantitative expressions and also Meaning Interpretation where the meaning of the interview goes beyond a structuring or what is said to more critical interpretations of the text (Kvale et al, 2009, p205).
6. Verifying This stage ascertains the validity, reliability, and generalisability of the interview findings (Kvale et al, 2009, p102). The researcher looks for consistencies or inconsistencies and whether the research findings meet in the intention and objectives of the research study.
7. Reporting This stage is turning the data you have collected and communicating it into a readable product making sure it lives up to academic criteria with all the ethical aspects taken into consideration. Seven Stages of an Interview Inquiry (Kvale et al, 2009, p102)
Nine organisations were contacted first via an email (see appendix) and then a follow up phone call. Six organisations responded positively but due to various unforeseen circumstances two planned interviews fell through leaving the researcher with four organisations to interview. 28
The time taken for each individual interview varied from between thirty minutes to one hour - there were four carried out in total. One interview was with an organisation within N. Ireland whilst the other three were conducted with organisations operating on a European wide basis. Each of their roles consisted of a Public Relations Officer, Press Officer, Web Editor and Project Assistant all of which had active roles in the use of social media in their organisations. Open-ended questions were designed to ascertain interviewees personal experience of social media and the perceived benefits or otherwise for campaigning and activism. The participant from N. Ireland was interviewed in person whereas the rest of the participants were interviewed via the use of Skype and webcams to retain the value of face-to-face interviews.
Focus groups and questionnaires were considered as options for carrying out the research however both were considered to be unsuitable. Focus groups were ruled out because such a method would have compromised the confidentiality individual interviews would offer and possibly encouraged participants to stick to standardised organisational lines rather than responding from their own personal perspective which would be far more valuable to this research. Questionnaires were also discounted because although they may prove useful in particular circumstances and potentially able to offer a degree of anonymity, they were considered to be too impersonal and too limited in terms of providing sufficient qualitative information for the purposes of this study. This view was influenced by Rubin et al (2005, p35) who believe that in order to get a depth of understanding from interviews your interview design must remain flexible to accommodate new 29
information, to adapt to the actual experiences that people have had, and to adjust to unexpected situations.
3.2 Construction of Questions for semistructured interviews Interviews should be conducted in a collaborative way with the intent that interviewees are freely able to articulate the topics and experiences that are of interest to them. (Daymon et al, 2002, p166)
Seven questions were formulated for use in the interviews and attempted to be as open ended as possible to generate discussion and more in depth and content from the interviewee hoping to for unexpected data as described by Daymon et al (2002, p6) as exploring new and often surprising avenues that emerge as informants reveal their understandings and interests.
The questions where formulated with the hope of gaining insight into specific case studies from each organisation on how social media has impacted on their campaigning, how much time is dedicated to social media in their roles, social medias relationship to offline campaigning, impact on engagement with different demographics, relationships with traditional media, how social media could be better utilised within the environmental movement and also seeking to gain views on 30
piracy and censorship laws that some groups feel could impact on the use of the internet as a campaigning tool.
The questions were finalised as follows:
Q1 - To what extent does your organisation use social media to achieve campaign objectives and can you provide example case studies of your organisations best use of social media as a campaigning tool?
Q2 On average how many hours of each day would you spend using social media for the benefit of your organisations aims and objectives?
Q3 - In your experience do you feel that social media is more effective at achieving campaign objectives compared to offline direct action / protests / demonstrations?
Q4 Do you feel your organisations use of social media makes it easier to engage with younger generations compared to offline communication methods?
Q5 Has social media lessened your organisations dependence on traditional forms of mass media?
Q6 - Do you feel that your organisation could better utilise social media and if so in what ways? And in your personal opinion what other organisations show best use of social media?
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as a researcher, you have the freedom to prompt for more information if something interesting or novel emerges because you are not restricted to a pre-planned, rigid list of questions. (Daymon et al, 2002, p167)
Throughout each of the interviews the researcher prompted interviewees to elaborate more on certain statements they made and once all questions had been covered invited the interviewee to say anything else that he or she thought might be relevant to the topic or the interview process that had not yet been mentioned as also recommended by Wengraf (2001, p205).
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Chapter 4: Results and Analysis 4.1: Question 1 To what extent does your organisation use social media to achieve campaign objectives and can you provide example case studies of your organisations best use of social media as a campaigning tool?
Key statements made by participants in response to Question 1 were as follows:
We had just about 100 FB members in October 2010 and now we have 700 members which shows the increase in our use of social media and its relevance and importance
It is very difficult to fit into the news agenda so social media is important because it takes away those editorial blockages that are there and lets us communicate with people directly.
I would manage the FB page for the group but our leader manages his own twitter account. I dont think twitter should be used by a press officer as twitter is more personal, it is a person to person form of communication which is why we use 33
Facebook having our organisations page and our twitter is more about communication from an individual from within our organisation.
When I post something to FB I would also post it to members individual pages so that we dont just talk to people that already agree with us, it is important not to fall into the echo chamber trap. I would post to members pages so that their friends can see what we are interested in and hopefully follow the links to our page for more information, which we have seen they do.
We have used FB for petition signing. We supported another group with a petition which we supported and gained 5000 signatures over 4 days. Now if you were to replicate that by going out with a pen and clipboard it would involve a lot of man hours and people wont stop on the street as they will think you are trying to sell them something making it very difficult to engage with people. They might just sign it to get away from you and thats not what you want, you want to actually engage with people. However when using social media we could actually see the effectiveness of Facebook by gaining over 5000 signatures in a matter of days.
To me, and I dont mean this in a negative sense, social media is like a virus, in other words you pass it on to other people and they either pick it up or they dont. We seen this with our sharing of the petition, it spread and spread and it went viral very quickly going national and international... how could we ever do that without the use of social media? 34
You know that when the multi-nationals start launching money at social media that our campaigning must be working.
We organised an event recently which we had no budget for and so it was completely marketed on Facebook. We put an ad up on Facebook for people or other organisations who wanted to book stalls and within a week we had 25 people wanting a stall, just from a post on Facebook! And during the event so many people said they heard about the event from Facebook.
Its a really valuable tool but it is not something you should solely rely on. The real caveat with social media is that if you have say 2000 friends or followers... well that doesnt actually translate into support. It means that they just might be interested in hearing what you have to say and so you have to keep them engaged and interested but at the same time not over bombard them with information.
Some days I would maybe put up 5-6 Facebook posts, some days none at all, because I want it to have a bit of impact. Twitter is more of a faster moving conversation whereas Facebook is more like a magazine and so if you keep bombarding people they are simply not going to read it. People read things different on line compared to on a page. People will buy a newspaper and read the article whereas online it is a lot more difficult to grab that attention from people. Thats why twitter is useful with the limit of 140 characters. 35
I trained in journalism and there is a very different way to write articles for newspapers and how you write for online publication.
We have used social media extensively for petitioning and for events and it has worked successfully for both.
Our organisation is different because we arent explicitly a campaigning organisation, we are more of a think tank and education centre on the European platform, we dont campaign to change laws, and our campaign is more to do with education in order to make our movement stronger. We put together publications, studies and guides which we then publish online as well as having web resources such as an online journal so ultimately we are reliant on social media to communicate these aspects of our work as well as our websites.
Our websites gain most of our visitors from social media. The main reason for that is it is the easiest way to contact people, there is no real European level media so we dont really send out press releases and there is no daily newspaper that most Europeans read so we are uniquely reliant on social media to get across what we are doing and that goes the same for advertising events and for promoting publications.
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We do hold offline events but it is the online aspect that is pretty crucial in communicating them and getting the message out. We use Facebook and Twitter to do this.
It is probably our main element in campaigns especially at the moment. We have a unique position where we are campaigning at an environmental and political level in Europe but we are doing this in a space where people dont really pay attention at the European level so the usual avenues of communication that other organisations might use are not really open to us and so social media has been pushed to the forefront.
In theory our social media was really just meant to back up and promote the website but in practice it has actually been overshadowing the attention we should be giving the website.
We have some members of staff that are very enthusiastic about social media but there are some, in which I might be included, who are big fans of social media but doubt that it has the level of impact that people say it has. Nonetheless it is a key focus of our campaigning.
Social media helps us act as conduit for getting information, images and actions to our members. 37
Social media is instantly gratifying and can create a sense of being effective but whether it is or not is another question.
Our insites or statistics for our website clearly show that the vast majority of hits on our website come from social media.
We try to use social media in all our campaigns but there is a great variation in how successful it is and what we can do with it. For instance we found it very successful when campaigning on the Internet Piracy law ACTA, it really exploded in the last 6 months because it effected the internet and so it made sense to campaign against it using social media. ACTA was all to do with the internet and digital rights and so people who were interested in these things got involved through the medium of the internet. We found that social media was extremely effective with this campaign especially the use of Twitter.
Our most active presence is on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, we used all three of them with this campaign, but by far the most effective was Twitter. It was fantastic at galvanising people, getting together, organising protests and the most important for us was disseminating information because there was very little information about ACTA out there. The campaign was successful because it affected people on the internet who then emailed their MEPs in large numbers and most of the things we do work on dont affect that constituency of people to the same extent so you cant expect the same result with every campaign. 38
We have used social media during events. Like if we have a big event with important speakers we would stream the whole thing online and let people ask questions or comment via the use of social media. But that wasnt actually that successful. For one event we had figures that showed at different points a few hundred people watching to a thousand watching at another time yet we only received about three questions altogether! So there is a huge disconnect between those who are watching and those actually engaging or getting involved.
Most of our followers on social media are lobbyists or supporters and if they like one of our posts, well thats great! Its always good to get that positive feedback, but its not all that useful. Whereas if somebody shares it and has friends that are not environmental or green then thats great because you might actually get someone that disagrees with you and they are people we really need to be speaking to.
We produce a lot of videos which we post on YouTube, many of which few people would watch. But again it depends on the topic because one of our spokespersons made a speech which hit a nerve. It was recorded and put online and within 24 hours we had over 50,000 hits compared to the few hundred hits we might have on other videos.
When looking at the impact Social Media has on attendance at our events... I would say little, definitely not. We would post events online on one hand for transparency, 39
so people know what events we are running, and on the other hand... well maybe one day it will change and does impact on increased attendance at our events so we are looking at the long term. The vast majority of people that do come to our events learn about them from our email mailing list, which is still online, but not social media.
4.2: Question 2 On average how many hours of each day would you spend using social media for the benefit of your organisations aims and objectives?
Key statements made by participants in response to Question 2 were as follows:
I normally have FB running in the background constantly and I am constantly checking it and you get other stories and a lot of the time you would get things quicker via social media than you would via traditional media. Of course you have to take it with a pinch of salt because it doesnt have that editorial process of traditional media and so you have to be careful what you read.
During designated office hours I would maybe spend about 1 hour a day dedicated to social media but when I go home I would actually spend more time on social media, about 2-3 hours worth, so about 3 hours on average every day. I do this because the timing of your posts on social media is important. During the day a lot of 40
people could be at work etc so are unlikely to read any lengthy post on Facebook whereas in the evening a lot more people, when at home, are online and so I would say our social media presence is tailored based on the time of day.
Looking at what other organisations do I actually think our presence on social media is fairly basic. I spend an hour or two a day posting articles or information about events and scanning it for info and other event details. I also use it to find out what other foundations or actors are doing. But that is just me personally, other members of our small team also use social media during the day so collectively I would say 3- 4 hours a day using social media.
I would be on social media all day, it is a constant thing because I wouldnt just use it to get our own information out there, I use it as a source of information for myself and our own campaigns. Im seeing information and giving out information.
Some days it could be an hour or two hours but other days it is continuous throughout the day. We are constantly monitoring it.
I would probably only be on social media for about an hour each day when something comes up where I think Oh we should post that on Facebook or if we havent posted anything that day. We purposely only post one thing a day on Facebook because we dont want to bombard people with material. On Facebook 41
you run the risk of being hidden or un-liked and people will never see what you are saying again. With Twitter though you can just keep on going and going posting a far greater variety of topics. You see Twitter is fantastic for immediate dissemination of very immediate breaking information. So Facebook and Twitter are two very different mediums and we treat them that way.
4.3: Question 3 In your experience do you feel that social media is more effective at achieving campaign objectives compared to offline direct action / protests / demonstrations? Key statements made by participants in response to Question 3 were as follows:
The two (online and offline activism) if managed properly can work effectively together and the reason being is that you can test the temperature of what people think online to see how many people are interested.
Where I think the two work together is that you can reach a critical mass with your message gaining interest and although you might get a lot of people interested not everyone might want to go and take part in a protest. But for those who are going to protest knowing that you have support of thousands online will actually empower the 42
activists... so the online support can hugely boost the morale for on the ground protest.
Chaining yourself to the gates of an oil distillery will not stop the flow of oil but it will gain the attention of traditional media to you. Protests are ultimately press stunts for the traditional media and so you can reach that audience that might not use social media. But from this presence and attention of traditional you can then post photos and coverage of the protest on your Facebook page and post your own press release without the editorial filter of the traditional media.
There is a hope that when people read about a protest or event in traditional media that that link will be made and they will then go onto our social media site for more information. 95% of them likely wont, but there will be that core amount of people that will go onto the Facebook page or website and it is here that we have that opportunity where the editorial gate does not exist and where we can present our side of the story without that dissenting voice saying that we are just lunatic environmentalists. If you want an example of why this is important look at the Greenham Common Protests. The protesters were described as unemployed lunatic lesbians with nothing better to do by a lot of traditional media. The editorial filter rarely took into account of the actual reasons for the protests being that America is storing weapons on British soil.
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We have had more new members this year than we have had over the past three years combined and that has a lot to do with our increased social media presence. I can see a direct correlation because I have found a number of cases when I post something and someone then likes that post or page... I then find we get an email saying that individual wants to join.
Being able to sign people up online has a lot to do with our increased membership when combined with social media. If someone reads something in a magazine they might think oh that issue is awful! I should do something about it... well an hour later that emotion might be gone whereas online social media makes it so much easier to capture that emotion and sign people up to get involved. The speed of social media and the internet allows us to capture that moment of engagement and passion with just two clicks of a mouse. Getting people to join when everything was paper based was so much more difficult when trying to capture that often fleeting moment of passion or engagement.
We dont do a lot of protest or direct actions we instead would organise seminars or workshops. We need both this and social media to be successful. I need content and information from events in order to post content on social media instead of just random posts. So I rely on people on the ground that are at events to take photos etc. Social media is really a means of promoting the rest of our work or promoting future events and our publications so its kind of a case of one versus the other. Its a tool to increase attendance at an event or increase hits on our website.
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My short answer would be no. There are a number of problems with social media. For instance you might post something on Facebook and get a lot of likes but this requires little effort or engagement and doesnt really lead to any action being taken so it is non committal. I think therefore social media can exaggerate the level of active support you have.
If you are marching down a street you are going to engage people who didnt know what you were campaigning for whereas people who follow you on Facebook tend to be your own supporters so you are only really engaging people who already know your message, in other words preaching to the converted.
The more traditional act of marching means that people cant avoid your message and you can then better reach that demographic that might not be represented on Facebook, Twitter or other forms of social media.
Social media can take activists and turn them into arm chair activists. People like or share something and think thats enough. What social media should be used for is to promote the actions of activists that have taken part in traditional forms of action. The danger is that social media is replacing these traditional forms of activism rather than promoting and that is not good.
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When you strike that balance and social media is used to promote events and traditional forms of activism then I think it can be very useful, but its striking that balance.
I would say no unless it is followed up by some form of offline action. The two of them have to go hand in hand. I think you can actually effect change just by doing say street protests without using any social media at all, but with social media you have to follow it with offline action, it really needs to be a means to mobilise people to do offline actions in order to be effective.
You can focus too much on social media and you can end up getting caught up in an echo chamber. Things get retweeted and shared by people who already agree with you and so you tend to be preaching to the converted rather than reaching new audiences.
There isnt any such thing as a good social media campaign that isnt part of an overall good campaign. Social media cant be in isolation when campaigning.
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4.4: Question 4 Do you feel your organisations use of social media makes it easier to engage with younger generations compared to offline communication methods? Key statements made by participants in response to Question 4 were as follows:
Absolutely! Young people tend not to read newspapers and any newspaper survey will tell you that demographically young people do not read newspapers for the most part. We want to engage young people because at the end of the day the issue of the environment is directly linked to their future. Getting ourselves into the mainstream media is great of course but I just dont think we are really reaching the people that we most importantly need to reach.
Being able to mobilise and discuss issues with younger people online and having that two way discussion with young people is absolutely essential... otherwise you do the one thing you dont want to do which is preach at them. With social media people can reply, people can challenge you and people can ask questions.
The likes on our Facebook page are mostly from young people so yes we can connect with them more easily through it. But does it make it easier to actually engage with them? I guess so... but its difficult to know exactly how effective this is.
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Yes that is unequivocal. The engagement with younger people is probably the greatest strength of social media. That age bracket of say 18-24... not many of them are newspaper readers and they are not politically engaged so being able to reach them via social media is critical.
Im not sure how deep that connection and engagement with young people really is... but it definitely helps yes.
We held an big event in Paris not so long ago with members from all over Europe attending and id say over a third of the attendees were in the 18 to 30 age bracket which I think was pretty phenomenal and I do think that social media played a part in that.
Yes absolutely, the amount of time young people spend on things like Facebook is phenomenal, they spend more time on it than watching TV adverts. I dont think there has been any campaign, excluding in the USA, where even TV adverts have been hugely effective anyway so for the 18-30 age group social media is the best way to go.
I think if young people share our posts and messages across Facebook it can be highly effective and probably the most effective way of reaching this demographic. I 48
think as well the younger you are the more time you actually spend on social media and this is increasing so it could become even more influential in the future.
4.5: Question 5 Has social media lessened your organisations dependence on traditional forms of mass media? Key statements made by participants in response to Question 5 were as follows:
The two go hand in hand... we have trouble gaining access to the traditional media but we do have the benefit of having a very good media spokesperson who always performs well and is good in interviews whether radio or TV. So journalists do know we can provide a good interviewee but we always find that we really have to bang at the door to become part of the discussion.
We would never turn down the opportunity to engage in mainstream media because one feeds into the other. Some people only use social media and the internet for news whereas some people just use mainstream media and so you have to hit both effectively.
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From my own personal perspective I think people maybe do put more trust in traditional media because of the checks and balances but on the flip side of that I have noticed news articles on the BBC which, as a Journalist, I just knew something wasnt right with it. So by then going on social media I was actually able to find out information which proved the information on the BBC to be wrong. So social media can actually become a check and balance for traditional media and it is never really thought of as that, most people would see it as the other way around.
For many people social media is becoming peoples primary source of getting news.
For us what we put up on social media is propaganda, lets be honest and call a spade a spade, its propaganda. Its what we want, its ours views, its our actions with our own editorial applied but when people look at something on say the BBC, which has gone through legal filters, checks and balances and editorials, it obtains a sense of gravitas which it doesnt gain on social media.
We wouldnt really use the traditional forms of media that other groups can use because there isnt really a European wide traditional media. However we would use other methods like going to events and conferences promoting our brand with one on one interaction, networking in other words. We would sometimes get coverage in local newspapers where we hold events in different parts of Europe but this is these papers covering our events rather than us going to them with a press release. 50
I do feel it has led to a decline in those aspects of traditional media which I do find worrying. But we do still engage and do send out press releases and do appear in traditional media especially when we comment or engage on an issue of national importance.
We are starting to find that twitter has become useful in actually connecting with traditional forms of mass of media. For instance if we posted a comment on twitter and a politician or commentator retweets us we tend to get maybe 5-10 more followers and we are finding that more and more of these followers are actually journalists. This is important because it is liberating our tweets from that echo chamber and are instead actually being read and considered by journalists from traditional forms of media which is highly valuable.
There is this idea that social media is going to supersede traditional media and on a personal level I really hope that doesnt happen because I feel that is extremely dangerous. On social media there are a lot of biased and untrained people and the idea of them replacing journalists is not progress at all. You have full time professional journalists who are trained and aware of the issues and counter issues and it is their job to be informed and of course they dont always get it right but they have a much greater chance of getting it right than activists and people on Twitter who are just political tourists who can drop in and out.
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Twitter as a tool for journalists? Great! But Twitter as a replacement for journalists? Disaster! That would be an absolute disaster for democracy and a disaster for political debate.
The answer is definitely not. We have more people working on press work than on social media. Social Media is pretty much me and another employee working on it a little bit each week whereas we have three people and an assistant working on press work whose jobs are to making links with journalists, create contacts and send out press releases.
We still get excited about getting our photos in papers say for instance the Financial Times. I think the ACTA campaign is the only exception to the rule where we were more dependent on the use of social media than traditional forms of media.
Social media in general can work well with traditional media. Our press officer would run our Twitter and he has good experience of how to use it but also most importantly has links with a number of journalists which makes our use of it more effective. This is important because more journalists are now using Twitter as a way to access information. We have talked to a number of journalists who would say that when they are at events or press conferences they are actually on Twitter constantly during these events.
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Journalists use of Twitter helps with the problem of the echo chamber because most of the people following us are lobbyists and supporters so the increase in journalists following us is great because it helps us to access a different demographic of people by using social media to speak to traditional media.
4.6: Question 6 Do you feel that your organisation could better utilise social media and if so in what ways? And in your personal opinion what other organisations show best use of social media? Key statements made by participants in response to Question 6 were as follows:
The Greenpeace Arctic Campaign is wonderful, it combined everything! They put the polar bear out in London, traditional media picked it up, people shared the photographs online and it took off massively. They had a run up teaser campaign on what they were going to do, they then did the event itself, they produced photos that mainstream media simply could not resist, some really striking images came from that event in London, and people online shared it widely and then people who might not consider themselves environmentally minded were engaged by the images and read the articles. It was a fantastic duel campaign that shows you what you can do when you have the human resources to do it.
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The European Parliament Website is extremely effective at using social media and has a huge team to do this and they do it well.
I think its important to look at cost benefit analysis of social media. For instance if my organisation got me to go full time with social media Im sure we could use it more effectively. You have to ask yourself how much can you gain, will you get a return on your investment. Some organisations I feel almost spam people with their social media presence which puts people off, so maybe its better just to have someone doing it part time and then using your other time better to communicate your message in other ways such as brand recognition, networking relationships etc.
I think people can fall into the trap of the ease of social media so they would sit on Facebook all day and miss the whole other aspect of communication such as building your brand recognition and networking.
Greenpeace really use social media well. Their recent Shell Arctic campaign was highly effective and extremely well constructed.
The Sea Shepherd Organisation does really good work with social media. I think it is easier for them though as they are not really a policy driven organisation, they are not trying to change laws... for them its all about direct action and confrontation. They use social media to promote this direct action and engage with activists which 54
is an easier thing to do than trying to promote policy change and change of law like we do.
I think we could less rely on Facebook and focus more on Twitter because the echo chamber effect is less dominant on Twitter than it is on Facebook. On Facebook there is greater chance that you are just preaching to the choir whereas on Twitter there is more chance of different people dropping by to see what we are saying and more chance of journalists observing what we are doing. More and more journalists are becoming enthusiast about Twitter so it is important we reach them at this level.
One thing we have been discussing would be the use of live tweeting at meetings, seminars, conventions and at other groups events we would be attending. I think we could definitely increase the effectiveness and frequency of this because it is a great way of demonstrating our attendance and presence.
Friends of the Earth Ireland I really look up to because they use their social media to effectively get people to take an action by sending letters or emails to their locally elected representatives. They really reduce the barrier of entry for users and make it incredibly easy for people to take an action and do something constructive and I think that is highly important, reducing those barriers to allow people to easily take action.
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I think it is a question of resources in particular human resources. If you look at Greenpeace International and their Arctic Campaign... it can be surprisingly cheap to actually create the websites and templates for us on social media so its not really a question of money its about having the people there to make it interactive. They would have a number of people there working on it so when someone leaves a comment or asks a question they are there constantly to answer them. And I really think this is the key to making social media work well because you want social media to be attractive, you dont want it to be a one way thing where you are posting information but not interacting, and at the moment we only have the human resources and the time to make it a one way thing.
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Positive 68% Negative 32% 4.7: Analysis of Results Question 1 Responses to the use of social media as a campaigning tool
In total for question 1 there were 25 responses that could be categorised as positive or negative with 17 (68%) responses expressing a positive view on social media as a campaigning tool and 8 (32%) responses expressing a negative view.
Table 1 57
1-2 hours 57% 3-4 hours 14% Constant use 29% Question 2 Hours spent each day using Social Media
In total there were 4 responses (57%) which estimated they spent 1-2 hours using social media each day and 1 response (14%) expressed that 3-4 hours was spent each day. Note that one interviewee also expressed the hours spent by his colleague which was included in the analysis chart above. Two respondents also expressed that although they may have only spent 1-2 / 3-4 actively working on social media that it was constantly on in the background. The results showed that 2 respondents (29%) expressed this statement.
Table 2 58
Positive Response 12% Negative Response 41% Combined Use 47% Question 3 - Social media is more effective at achieving campaign objectives compared to offline direct action / protests / demonstrations
In total for Question 3 there were 17 responses. 2 responses (12%) expressed a positive statement and 7 responses (41%) expressed a negative response. Another response developed during the interviews which expressed how both could complement each other with combined use. 8 responses (47%) expressed a preference for combined use of both.
Table 3 59
Positive 80% Negative 20% Question 4 Social media and easier engagement with younger generations
In total for Question 4 there were 10 responses. 8 responses (80%) expressed a positive statement and 2 responses (20%) expressed a negative statement.
Table 4 60
Agree 29% Disagree 47% Neutral 24% Question 5 Social media lessening dependence on traditional forms of mass media
For Question 5 there were a total of 17 responses which could be categorised as Agreeing, Disagreeing or expressing a Neutral response. 5 responses (29%) expressed views agreeing with the question and 8 responses (47%) expressed views disagreeing with the question. 4 responses (24%) expressed neutral viewpoints e.g. Both can complement each other.
Table 5 61
Agree 67% Disagree 33% Question 6 a) Can your organisation better utilise social media?
There were a total of 9 different responses to Question 6. 6 responses (67%) believed their organisation could improve and better utilise the use of social media within their organisations campaigning and 3 responses (33%) felt they didnt need to increase their use of social media and were content with their current use.
Table 6 62
b) Ways to improve use of social media and examples of other organisations who express best use of social media.
The table below has taken the key examples given from interviewees as to how they feel they could better utilise social media within their organisations and what other organisations interviewees felt demonstrated best way of social media.
Ways use of social media could be improved Best use of social media examples More use of Twitter over Facebook More engagement with Journalists on Twitter Increasing use of live tweeting at events Reducing the barrier of entry for users More human resources Make it more interactive i.e. responding as well as posting. Making social media more of a two way conversation. Greenpeace Shell Artic Campaign x3 European Parliament Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Friends of the Earth Ireland
Table 7
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Chapter 5: Discussion
The primary purpose of this research was to examine and explore social media and the environmental movement with the purpose of establishing the benefits or otherwise of social media, in particular its influence and effectiveness as a campaigning tool for the environmental lobby. The first question asked of participants was to gain an insight into the extent of use of social media within each of their organisations. The question was asked in an open ended way to offer as much freedom of discussion as possible for the interviewees. A majority 68% of responses to this question demonstrated a positive impact that social media has had on the ability campaign.
One interviewee pointed out how since October 2010 his / her organisation had increased their online presence and use of social media demonstrating how they went from 100 Facebook supporters to over 700 now. When probed further on what sort of impact this online presence has had the interviewee explained his / her organisations used of social media to generate support for petitions and gave the example of one petition where over 5000 signatures were gained over a four day period. The interviewee highlighted how if they had used offline tactics of going with a pen and clipboard there would have been little chance of gaining such support.
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There was a response which explains this point effectively by describing social media as a virus in which with social media you can pass something on to other people who might pick it up and then pass it on to their friends and this continuous facilitating the snowballing of issues as described by Deggan (2001, 13). A respondent also highlighted how this virus effect can gain an international platform for what might only be a local issue.
32% of responses expressed a negative view on the use of social media as a campaigning tool. A number of these negative responses referred to some interviewees scepticism regarding the real impact social medias have. One interviewee pointed out how having 2000 friends on Facebook does not necessarily translate into support. Other respondents referred to the echo chamber which highlights the view that most of their followers or friends on Facebook or Twitter are supporters and already agree with what they have to say. Respondents believe this is not useful because they end up preaching to the converted rather than reaching new audiences.
Looking comparatively at interviewees responses to question one, when probed about use of social media to promote events, there was disagreement on how effective this is. One respondent expressed how they recently organised an event completely via social media and it proved to be very successful whereas another said promoting events on social media has had little impact on attendance with most attendees finding out about the event via their email mailing list.
It was pointed out by one response that at one event they had up to 1000 people watching online from a stream. These viewers where asked to question or comment 65
on the event via social media and out of this number only three questions were asked. The interviewee believes this shows a disconnect between those who are watching online and those who are actually engaging and getting involved.
Based on these responses it would appear that different organisations have had varied success in the use of social media to promote events. One interviewee spoke further on this explaining how even though his / her organisation had not had much success in using social media to promote events that they still continue to do so because it creates transparency on what they are doing and they also hope that things could change and it will become more relevant to event attendance in the future.
When asked how many hours each interviewee spent using social media each day the responses diverse with some highlighting how their time spent on social media can vary. A majority of responses stated that on average 1-2 hours would be spent on social media each day with one respondent stating 3-4 hours. Some interviewees highlighted how although they might only spend 1-2 or 3-4 hours on social media each day that they would tend to have social media constantly on in the background constantly monitoring and gaining information.
One respondent expressed that he /she was wary of bombarding followers with information on social media and so would not spend that much time on it and would only post something if it is truly relevant rather than posting for the sake it. This could explain why although respondents did express that social media was being constantly monitored that they only maybe spent 1- 2 hours actively engaging with it. 66
One respondent also made the interesting point that his / her organisations social media presence varies depending on the time of day citing that they find they get more interaction in the evening rather than during the day and so cater their activity to this time.
The purpose of Question 3 was examine the impact social media can have on the environmental movements offline campaigning and activism such as protests and demonstrations. This question was specifically asked to gain interviewees perspectives on the views of Bennett (2005, p205-207), highlighted in the Literature Review, who provides evidence to demonstrate how social media has been used by activists to coordinate and enhance their offline campaigning as well.
The results here clearly showed that a majority of interviewees did not feel that, on its own, social media was better at achieving campaign objectives compared to offline tactics with only 12% of responses demonstrating positive statements in regard to this viewpoint. 41% of interviewees highlighted negative statements against the use of social media as a sole campaign tactic however the most interesting result here was interviewees highlighting how a combined use of both offline and online tactics could be very successful with almost half of the statements made suggesting this (47%).
The results here would complement the views of Bennett (2005, p205-207) demonstrating that organisations within the environmental movement do feel that social media can be used to good effect in their campaigning however only when incorporated with traditional offline campaigning. 67
The main points made by those agreeing with the viewpoint expressed in Question 3 included how social media made it easier to recruit new members to their organisation because the speed of social media made it easier to capture that moment of engagement and passion which would empower people to want to join and do something about an issue. It was argued that the old paper based methods of recruitment would not have captured these moments of engagement and passion as effectively. This point made would support the views of Brown (2009, p50) who highlights the very high level of engagement with social media. The ability to communicate press releases without the editorial filters of traditional media was also mentioned however this point was addressed separately in Question 5.
The main elements of the arguments presented against the sentiment of Question 3 highlighted again the problem of the echo chamber of engagement on social media. Interviewees made similar statements like you tend to be preaching to the converted rather than reaching new audiences and people on Facebook tend to be your own supporters so you are only really engaging people who already know your message. When comparing this with the impact of offline actions there was a pattern of statements that stated how when marching down a street you engage people who dont know about your campaign and therefore each a more varied demographic.
Donk et al (2004, p18) have stated that, the internet may facilitate the traditional forms of protest such as rallies, demonstrations, and collection of signatures, but it will hardly replace these forms. Interestingly once interviewee did not share this view and stated that social media can actually turn activists into arm chair activists and is in danger of replacing traditional forms of action rather than promoting them. 68
As stated however 47% of comments pointed to the combined use of offline and online tactics. One commented highlighted that the online support expressed before a protest can empower activists during the protest and another highlighted how photos taken at protests and demonstrations can then be shared online to further galvanise this support. This was the sentiment of most combined use comments social media should be used to promote the actions of on the ground activists and shouldnt be used in isolation.
Question 4 was developed in response to the views of Donk et al (2004, p4) who believe that environmental organisations can be attractive to younger generations and so social media should be used to foster this strength because a large demographic of young people use social media.
The large majority of responses from interviews agreed with the sentiment of the question being that their organisations use of social media makes it easier to engage with younger generations compared to offline communication methods. 80% of responses made give a positive response with 20% offering negative responses.
The reasoning behind this positive majority of responses discussed how many younger people do not read printed media and so social media is the easiest way of communicating with them. One interviewee highlighted that this is highly important because the issue of the environment is directly linked to young peoples futures and so they are the most important audience that environmental organisations need to be engaging.
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The 20% of negative comments didnt necessarily disagree with social media as a tool to communicate with younger generations. Instead these responses focussed more on a scepticism of how effective this engagement through social media really is and is summed up by one response which stated, Im not sure how deep that connection and engagement with young people really is... but it definitely helps yes. This seems to be similar to the scepticism of one interviewee in a response to Question One when he / she highlighted how there is a disconnect between those who are watching online and those who are actually engaging and getting involved.
Question 5 was motivated by the views of Bennett (2004, p141) in his discussion of how, New media provide alternative communication spaces in which information can develop and circulate widely with fewer conventions or editorial filters than in the mainstream media. It was felt that investigating this idea further, by asking interviewees if their organisations dependence on traditional media has been impacted by the growth of social media, would help elaborate on the use of social media for public relations and press engagement.
Responses from interviewees produced no clear majority of opinion agreeing or disagreeing with the question however more disagreed (47%) than agreed (29%). Another 24% of responses gave neutral responses mostly highlighting that social media has not lessened their dependence on traditional media but has certainly influenced their use and engagement of traditional media.
This influence social media has had on engagement with traditional media is highlighted in a number of responses most evident in how journalists from the 70
traditional media are now using Twitter more and more to get information. A number of responses expressed the importance of this with one response in particular summing it up well - it is liberating our tweets from that echo chamber. Interviewees found that traditional media is actually adapting to social media and they are connecting more and more with journalists online.
29% of responses agreed that social media has lessened their organisations dependence on traditional media. One interviewee explained that his / her organisation can find it difficult to gain media attention and so social media can bypass that block, but despite this would never turn down a media opportunity from traditional sources of media. Another response highlighted how for many people social media has now become their primary resource of news and so it makes sense to follow that trend.
What was interesting in the responses to Question 5 were the similar views of some interviewees in which they demonstrated a real concern about the lessening influence of traditional media as a result of social media. One interviewee made a passionate response about this when stating, Twitter as a tool for journalists? Great! But Twitter as a replacement for journalists? Disaster! That would be an absolute disaster for democracy and a disaster for political debate. The reasoning for this response is that it was the interviewees view that social media contains a lot of biased and untrained people whereas a journalist is a trained professional who has a much greater chance of getting it right than activists and people on Twitter who are just political tourists who can drop in and out. This viewpoint is also shared by other interviewees, for example one interviewee who states that a press release 71
which makes its way onto the BBC website tends to obtain a sense of gravitas compared to something posted on Facebook.
Question 6 was aimed at gaining a perspective of interviewees opinion on other organisations use of social media or if they could improve their own use. The researcher felt this could expand on the examples of social media used within the environmental movement and explore certain case studies of individual social media campaigns which couldnt be properly discussed within the interviewees own organisations as it could compromise their confidentiality.
The first element of Question 6 asked interviewees to express whether or not their organisation could better utilise social media and if so in what ways. A majority 67% of responses indicated that they could better utilise social media with 33% disagreeing expressing that they were content with their current use of it.
In the responses agreeing with the question some interviewees believed that better use of Twitter in particular is something they would like to utilise. One response stated that the echo chamber is less dominant on Twitter than on Facebook and so there would be more chance of them reaching a larger demographic and reaching journalists and thus traditional media. The use of live tweeting at their own events and events they are attending was also mentioned as it is felt that this could better demonstrate their organisations attendance and participation in events.
A number of statements agreed that social media could be better utilised however it was more a question of resources, in particular human resources, as to how this could be addressed. One interviewee pointed to the use of social media of Greenpeace 72
International highlighting how they might have a number of people working on social full time meaning these could make their use of it more interactive i.e. answering questions posted by followers on Twitter. The interviewee felt this makes a campaign much more attractive and would like to see more of this in his / her organisation however this is unlikely due to the limited resources his / her organisation has, its about having the people there to make it interactive.
Greenpeace Internationals use of social media was referred to on number of occasions in response to Question 6, more than any other organisation, and so it could be suggested that a their use of social media is most admired within the environmental movement. One interviewee stated that:
The Greenpeace Arctic Campaign is wonderful, it combined everything! They put the polar bear out in London, traditional media picked it up, people shared the photographs online and it took off massively... It was a fantastic duel campaign that shows you what you can do when you have the human resources to do it.
This response shows how a combination of offline direct action and online social media can have a very successful result when campaigning as proposed by Bennett (2005, p205-207).
An interview with Greenpeace was unable to be obtained for this research however a number of statements on Greenpeaces use of social media have been made by the organisation. Kumi Naido, Director of Greenpeace International, stated in a CNN interview on the 24th May 2010 that: 73
We (Greenpeace) learned the power social media has in the hands of an empowered and active supporter base to create change... Through online campaigning individuals can move past the media, they can move past politics, and tell companies directly what they want: We want them to clean up their act. (Naido, 2010, online)
This statement clearly demonstrates Greenpeaces confidence in their use of social media and statements in response to Question 6 clearly shows that they are right to be confident as there was a sense of admiration from interviewees towards Greenpeaces use of social media.
Interviewees who disagreed that they could better utilise social media pointed out how people can fall into a trap of social media in which they would sit on Facebook all day and miss the whole other aspect of communication such as building your brand recognition and networking. Another interviewee made a similar point and stated that he / she feels that within his / her own organisation that it is better to just work part-time on social media and spend the rest of the time working on more face to face communication and building relationships.
An interesting observation was made by one interviewee which would suggest that it is easier for more radical or direct action organisations to utilise social media compared to more policy and politically driven organisations. This observation was made when one interviewee was commenting on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Societies use of social media and stated that: 74
... For them its all about direct action and confrontation. They use social media to promote this direct action and engage with activists which is an easier thing to do than trying to promote policy change and change of law like we do.
What is interesting is that Greenpeace is also very much a direct action organisation as evident from recent cases of Greenpeace orchestrating a nationwide shut down of 74 Shell petrol stations across the UK (Tuffrey, 2012, Guardian Online). It could be argued based on this observation of the interviewee, and that most responses to Question 6 suggested more radical organisations as having better use of social media, that within the environmental movement the more radical you are the easier it is to utilise social media.
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Chapter 6 6.1 Conclusion This research has provided an insight into the use of social media as a campaigning tactic or tool within the environmental movement. The research results were based on the views of professionals within environmental organisations who use social media regularly as a means to meet the aims and objectives of their organisations. All of those interviewed gave a clear message that social media has changed and is still changing the way in which the environmental movement is carrying out campaigns, actions and activism. A majority of statements and viewpoints expressed that this change has been positive for the environmental movement and that they feel social media could be utilized even more to further achieving their campaigning goals. The results also demonstrate the view that social media is bridging that gap in engagement with younger generations. The majority of results did not concur with the view that social media is lessening the movements dependence on traditional forms of media but they did clearly show an impact on the way in which traditional media is gathering information, with journalists now using Twitter more and more. The results would show that social media is not as effective as offline traditional tactics, such as direct action, protest and demonstrations. What was highlighted was that when you combine both social media and the traditional tactics the organisations interviewed felt social media could then be highly effective. The majority of results 76
demonstrated that social media was not effective in isolation when campaigning. This viewpoint was demonstrated even further in response to Question 6 when a number of responses referred to Greenpeaces fantastic duel campaign which effectively combined online and offline campaigning. Another development was that the organisations interviewed suggested more radical organisations as having better use of social media. 6.2 Limitations & Future Research Even though all participants were professionals within the environmental movement, using social media daily in their roles, the sample chosen is relatively small with just one organisation based in Northern Ireland and the other three working on a European level. This research would have been much more representative if many more organisations were interviewed from a global audience taking in organisations within the environmental movement from a more varied geographic sample which should be a strong consideration for future studies. As stated in Chapter 5, the discussion, an interview with Greenpeace International was not achieved which definitely limited the results especially due the nature of the results in which a sense of admiration from interviewees towards Greenpeaces use of social media was clearly evident. This research focussed on the use of social media by professionals or employees within the environmental movement and most of the results were relating to social media as a means to engage activists and promote their activism. For future studies it would be useful to gain a better perspective on the views of grassroots activists 77
views on the use of social media by the organisations the campaign for. There could be differences in opinion of what grassroots activists see as good use of social media compared to that of those within the organisations. A comparative study of these views could gain valuable insight into the effectiveness of social media for campaigning. The use of quantitative surveys would be useful here as conducting qualitative interviews with grassroots activists would be highly time consuming if the researcher was to gain representative results from an international activist audience.
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Appendix 1: Invitation Letters to Participants Dear I am writing to request your participation in a study concerning Social Media and the Environmental Movement as part of an MSc in Political Lobbying & Public Affairs at the University of Ulster (UU). The purpose of this study is to consider the benefits or otherwise of social media, in particular its influence and effectiveness as a campaigning tool for the environmental movement. Aims of the project: I plan to 1. To undertake a literature review on the strength and growth of social media, the use of social media as a lobbying tool and social media use within different strands of the environmental movement. 2. To compare and contrast the effectiveness of online activism compared to offline direct action / demonstrations / protests. 3. Explore the impact that social media has had on the traditional mass media and whether or not this has altered dependence on traditional mass media within the environmental movement. 4. Carry out semi structured interviews with practitioners from the environmental movement to discuss their experience of social media as well as any perceived benefits or otherwise for campaigning and lobbying.
I would like for you to participate in a one-off semi structured interview at your earliest convenience lasting on average 30 minutes to a maximum of one hour. 79
As I am based in Northern Ireland it would be easier and more eco-friendly to conduct the interview via telephone or most preferably using Skype. I f you would be willing to participate please respond to this email. Your responses will be kept strictly confidential and destroyed on completion of the research. You and your organisation will not be identified or identifiable in the study report. A consent form is attached for the interviewee to sign confirming all of this. This consent form can be signed and posted to me or scanned and emailed.
I will contact you and follow up with email instructions and information in advance of the interview. Just before I begin the interview I will again confirm the purpose of the study, format of the interview and benefits of participating. If you are happy at this stage and fully agreeable to proceeding with the interview, I will invite you to confirm this by signing the research consent form (attached).
The advantage of the semi-structured format is that it allows a level of flexibility which enables participants to more fully share their experiences in their own words. A series of pre-determined open ended questions will be explored during the interview. The questions are developed from research literature and focus on social media in respect of your organisations campaigning methods.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at any time. Also if you would like confirmation of this research on behalf of the University of Ulster you can contact my supervisor of research Mr Andrew Purcell:
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Mr Andrew Purcell Lecturer in Communication Room 17E07 School of Communication University of Ulster Jordanstown Campus Shore Road Newtownabbey Co. Antrim BT37 OQB
+44 28 90368853 a.purcell@ulster.ac.uk
Thank you for your time. With best wishes, Mark McCormick University of Ulster Jordanstown
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Appendix 2: Participant Informed Consent Form Participant Consent Form
Title of Research Project: Social Media and the Environmental Movement Substituting the Monkey Wrench for the Keyboard Name of Researcher: Mark McCormick I freely and voluntarily consent to be a participant in the above titled research project to be conducted by Mark McCormick a postgraduate student at the University of Ulster. I have been asked to participate in a one to one interview and I understand that I will be asked questions concerning my knowledge and experience of social media and perceived benefits or otherwise for campaigning and lobbying. The interview will last a maximum of one hour. 1. I confirm that I have read and understood the aims of this research project
2. I have been given the opportunity to ask questions, and any questions I have raised have been satisfactorily answered.
3. I agree to the audio-taping of the interview. In addition I have been informed that the data will be stored electronically and securely and will be destroyed on completion of the research. I understand that I will receive a copy of the final research document.
4. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time without giving any reason and without negative consequences. In addition, should I not wish to answer any particular question or questions, I am free to decline.
5. I understand that my responses will be kept strictly confidential. I have been assured that my name or organisation will not be linked with the research materials and I will not be identified or identifiable in any report subsequently produced by the researcher. 82
6. I have been provided with the contact details of the key people involved in this study.
I agree to take part in the above research project. My signature is not a waiver of any legal rights. I understand that I will be able to keep a copy of the informed consent form for my records
________________________ ________________ ____________________ Name of Participant Date Signature
_________________________ ________________ ____________________ Name of Researcher Date Signature
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Rubin, H & Rubin, I (2005). Qualitative Interviewing - The Art of Hearing Data. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Surman, M & Reilly, K (2003) Appropriating the Internet for Social Change: Towards the Strategic Use of Networked Technologies by Transnational Civil Society Organisations. New York: Social Science Research Council Tesch, R (1990). Qualitative Research - Analysis Types and Software Tools. Basingstoke: Burgess Science Press. Tuffrey, L. (2012). Greenpeace activists shut down 74 UK Shell petrol stations. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/16/greenpeace-activists- shell-petrol. Last accessed 10th Sept 2012. Wengraf, T (2001). Qualitative Research Interviewing. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Wilson, J. (2012). Foreword. In: Waddington, S, Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 0. Woods, P (2006). Qualitative Research. Faculty of Education, University of Plymouth available at: http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/Qualitative%20methods%202/qualrshm.htm . Last accessed 10th Sept 2012.