Tweeting Taksim communication power and social media advocacy in the Taksim square protests
Pages 499 - 507
Abstract
Influence from the perspective of the social media user has been under-examined.This study content analyzes 770 Tweets from the Taksim Square Protests.Information dissemination and personal commentary were more common than calls to action.Results suggest content ownership is a central consideration for influence on social media. The extent to which social media empower individuals represents a fruitful yet untapped area of communication research. This study explores the phenomenon whereby individuals exert their influence and seek change in a particular case of social media engagement-the Taksim Square protests in Turkey in 2013. Building from literatures in social media engagement and empowerment, and using Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, we content analyzed 770 Taksim-related messages on Twitter. Results suggest that efforts to seek change in social media are realized through information dissemination more than through calls to action and social organization. Namely, social media users seek influence through vicarious experience-representation of the experience of others-than direct personal experience. From these findings, we argue that social media is used to effect change from a distance, and that content ownership and online reputation are driving forces of online participation in an issue.
References
[1]
A. Baka, A. Garyfallou, Collective identity and empowerment in the December 2008 protests in Greece: A socio-psychological approach, Journal of Critical Studies in Business & Society, 2 (2011) 30-50.
[2]
Bakshy, E., Hofman, J., Mason, W., Watts, D. (2011) Proceedings of the fourth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining. (65-74). Retrieved Nov. 2, 2012, from <http://research.yahoo.com/pub/3369>.
[3]
A. Bandura, Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change, Psychological Review, 84 (1977) 191-215.
[4]
E. Botha, A.J. Mills, Managing the new media: Tools for brand management in social media, in: Online consumer behavior: Theory and research in social media, advertising and E-Tail, Taylor & Francis, New York, 2012.
[5]
R.L. Briones, B. Kuch, B.F. Liu, Y. Jin, Keeping up with the digital age: How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships, Public Relations Review, 37 (2011) 37-43.
[6]
B.J. Calder, E.M. Malthouse, U. Schaedel, An experimental study of the relationship between online engagement and advertising effectiveness, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23 (2009) 321-331.
[7]
M. Castells, Communication power, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009.
[8]
A.M. Chiles, T.E. Zorn, Empowerment in organizations: Employees' perceptions of the influences on empowerment, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 23 (1995) 1-25.
[9]
M. Cho, T. Schweickart, A. Haase, Public engagement with nonprofit organizations on Facebook, Public Relations Review, 40 (2014) 565-567.
[10]
M. Conroy, J.T. Feezell, M. Guerrero, Facebook and political engagement: A study of online political group membership and offline political engagement, Computers in Human Behavior, 28 (2012) 1535-1546.
[11]
H.G. de Zúñiga, L. Copeland, B. Bimber, Political consumerism: Civic engagement and the social media connection, New Media & Society, 16 (2013) 488-506.
[12]
J. Dewey, The public and its problems, Holt, New York, NY, 1927.
[13]
M.W. DiStaso, T. McCorkindale, D.K. Wright, How public relations executives perceive and measure the impact of social media in organizations, Public Relations Review, 37 (2011) 325-328.
[14]
D.M. Dozier, M.M. Lauzen, Liberating the intellectual domain from the practice: Public relations, activism, and the scholar, Journal of Public Relations Research, 12 (2009) 3-22.
[15]
C. Fieseler, M. Fleck, The pursuit of empowerment through social media: Structural social capital dynamics in CSR-Blogging, Journal of Business Ethics, 118 (2013) 759-775.
[16]
C. Fuchs, Social Media: A critical introduction, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2014.
[17]
A. Giddens, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1985.
[18]
R.L. Heath, Management through advocacy: Reflection rather than domination, in: The future of excellence in public relations and communication management, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 2007, pp. 41-65.
[19]
M. Kang, Understanding public engagement: Conceptualizing and measuring its influence on supportive behavioral intentions, Journal of Public Relations Research, 26 (2014) 399-416.
[20]
R.M. Kanter, The change masters: Innovation for productivity in the American corporation, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1983.
[21]
Kates, G. (2013a). In Turkey, penguins become symbol of how media missed the story. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty. Retrieved online 21.08.14, <http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey-protests-penguins-symbol/25008120.html>.
[22]
Kates, G. (2013b). Smart-Phone tool lets Turkish protesters know WhatsApp. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty. Retrieved online 21.08.14, <http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey-protests-whatsapp/25010226.html>.
[23]
B. Latané, The psychology of social impact, American Psychologist, 36 (1981) 343-356.
[24]
Letsch, C. (2013). Turkish protest takes root in Istanbul square after security forces withdraw. The Guardian. Retrieved online 21.08.14, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/01/turkey-istanbul-erdogan-demo-protests>.
[25]
L. Leung, Generational differences in content generation in social media: The roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism, Computers in Human Behavior, 29 (2013) 997-1006.
[26]
W.G. Mangold, K.T. Smith, Selling to Millennials with online reviews, Business Horizons, 55 (2012) 141-153.
[27]
R.S. Mano, Social media, social causes, giving behavior and money contributions, Computers in Human Behavior, 31 (2014) 287-293.
[28]
L.R. Men, Exploring the impact of employee empowerment on organization-employee relationship, Public Relations Review, 37 (2011) 435-437.
[29]
L.R. Men, W.S. Tsai, How companies cultivate relationships with publics on social network sites: Evidence from China and the United States, Public Relations Review, 38 (2012) 723-730.
[30]
L.R. Men, W.S. Tsai, Towards an integrated model of public engagement on corporate social network sites: Antecedents, the process, and relational outcomes, International Journal of Strategic Communication, 7 (2013) 257-273.
[31]
M. Miller, C. Brunner, Social impact in technologically-mediated communication: An examination of online influence, Computers in Human Behavior, 24 (2008) 2972-2991.
[32]
Oh, J., Bellur, S., & Sundar, S. S. (2010, June). A conceptual model of user engagement with media. Paper presented to the Mass Communication division at the 60th annual conference of the international communication association, Singapore.
[33]
B.P. Ozdemir, Social media as a tool for online advocacy campaigns: Greenpeace Mediterranean's anti-genetically engineered food campaign in Turkey, Global Media Journal-Canadian Edition, 5 (2012) 23-39.
[34]
P. Pai, D.C. Arnott, User adoption of social networking sites: Eliciting uses and gratifications through a means-end approach, Computers in Human Behavior, 29 (2013) 1039-1053.
[35]
Pearson, M. & Tuysuz, G. (2013). Turkish authorities arrest social media users; calls for Erdogan to resign continue. CNN World, Retrieved online 21.08.14, <http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/world/europe/turkey-protests/index.html?iref=allsearch>.
[36]
W.D. Perreault, L.E. Leigh, Reliability of nominal data based on qualitative judgments, Journal of Marketing Research, 26 (1989) 135-149.
[37]
Phillips, S., & Orsini, M. (2002). Mapping the Links: Citizen Involvement in Policy Processes. Canadian Policy Research Networks. Retrieved September 26, 2013 from http://cprn.org/documents/ACFRJK8po.PDF.
[38]
G.D. Pires, J. Stanton, P. Rita, The internet, consumer empowerment, and marketing strategies, European Journal of Marketing, 40 (2006) 936-949.
[39]
M.C. Powell, M. Colin, Meaningful citizen engagement in science and technology: What would it really take?, Science Communication, 30 (2008) 126-136.
[40]
A.J. Saffer, E.J. Sommerfeldt, M. Taylor, The effects of organizational twitter interactivity on organization-public relationships, Public Relations Review, 39 (2013) 213-215.
[41]
G.D. Saxton, R.D. Waters, What do stakeholders like on Facebook? Examining public reactions to nonprofit organizations' informational, promotional, and community-building messages, Journal of Public Relations Research, 26 (2014) 280-299.
[42]
B.G. Smith, Socially distributing public relations: Twitter, Haiti, and interactivity in social media, Public Relations Review, 36 (2010) 329-335.
[43]
B.G. Smith, Public relations identity and the stakeholder-organization relationship: A revised theoretical position for public relations scholarship, Public Relations Review, 38 (2012) 838-845.
[44]
S.P. Smith, R.B. Johnston, S. Howard, Vicarious experience in retail and e-commerce taxonomy of product evaluation support features, Information Systems and e-Business Management, 3 (2005) 21-46.
[45]
G.M. Spreitzer, Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation, The Academy of Management Journal, 38 (1995) 1442-1465.
[46]
C. Stavrositu, S.S. Sundar, Does blogging empower women? Exploring the role of agency and community, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17 (2012) 369-386.
[47]
C. Valentini, D. Kruckeberg, K. Starck, Public relations and community: A persistent covenant, Public Relations Review, 38 (2012) 873-879.
[48]
R.D. Waters, E. Burnett, A. Lamm, J. Lucas, Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook, Public Relations Review, 35 (2009) 102-106.
[49]
Williams, S. (2013). Is that all there is? A literature review and potential approach to measuring influence in social media. Paper presented at the Institute of Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, Fl.
[50]
Zakaria, F. (2013). Why Turkey protests are a good thing. CNN World. Retrieved online 21.08.14, <http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/14/why-turkey-protests-are-a-good-thing/?iref=allsearch>.
Recommendations
College students social media use and communication network heterogeneity
This study examined whether and how the usage of social media can influence college students' level of network heterogeneity and how network heterogeneity is associated with levels of bridging/bonding social capital and subjective well-being. In ...
A motives framework of social media website use: A survey of young Americans
Social media is increasingly important in daily life and is an especially important social interaction mechanism for young people. Although research has been conducted evaluating user types based on motives for using social media, no such framework has ...
Are social media emancipatory or hegemonic? societal effects of mass media digitization in the case of the SOPA discourse
Mass media digitization is an unfolding phenomenon, posing novel societal opportunities and challenges that researchers are beginning to note. We build on and extend MIS research on process digitization and digital versus traditional communication media ...
Comments
Information & Contributors
Information
Published In
Copyright © Elsevier Ltd.
Publisher
Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.
Netherlands
Publication History
Published: 01 September 2015
Published in COHB Volume 50, Issue C
Author Tags
Qualifiers
- Research-article
Contributors
Other Metrics
Bibliometrics & Citations
Bibliometrics
Article Metrics
- 0Total Citations
- 0Total Downloads
- Downloads (Last 12 months)0
- Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 15 Sep 2024
Other Metrics
Citations
View Options
View options
Get Access
Login options
Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Sign in