Can "slacktivism" work? Perceived power differences moderate the relationship between social media activism and collective action intentions through positive affect

Abstract

2019). Can "slacktivism" work? Perceived power differences moderate the relationship between social media activism and collective action intentions through positive affect. AbstractWe argue that the often-used critique of social media activism as merely a 'feel-good' mechanism can be countered by conceptualizing social media activism as a necessary type of collective action (i.e., consensus mobilization), incorporating theory on the benefits of positive feelings for activism, and by examining how power may affect these relationships. Women from two different samples (MTurk and university) were randomly assigned to recall a highversus low-power experience, view real-world events of sexism, and then complete questionnaires assessing endorsement of social media activism, positive affect, and collective action intentions. A dual moderated mediation analyses at the second stage of mediation showed equivalency across two samples, at which point the single moderated mediation model was tested on the combined sample. The model was significant, such that among those in the high-power condition, endorsing social media activism was associated with greater positive affect, which in turn predicted greater collective action intentions. Among those in the low-power condition, however, this indirect effect was not significant. This study provides counter-evidence to the 'slacktivism' critique, contributes to theories of collective action, power and their integration, and identifies a possible intervention to enhance the effectiveness of social media activism.

Tweeting about sexism motivates further activism: A social identity perspective

“…Most research showing a positive link between on-and offline activism has focused on collective action intentions rather than behavioural collective actions Foster et al, 2019;Schumann et al, 2012;Vaccari et al, 2015). Indeed, according to the theory of planned action (Ajzen, 1991;Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), intentions are an important proximate precursor of action.…”

“…Given larger data samples are susceptible to progressively smaller p-values, the robustness of this effect was tested on a smaller subsample using a sample size that will not reduce the p-value beyond what is consistent with the topic/discipline (Lin, Lucas, & Schmueli, 2013). Based on past work in social media activism (e.g., Foster et al, 2019;Kende et al, 2016;Wilkins et al, 2019), n = 300 was chosen so that the p-value would not be driven below p=.01. Consistent with the full sample data, the indirect effects of tweeting on BCA through gender identity alone, B = 0.01, SE = .03, %95 CI [−0.04, 0.08], and of tweeting on BCA through collective action intention alone, B = 0.05, SE = .09, % 95 CI [−0.14, 0.24], were not significant, but the serial mediation indirect effect was again significant, B = 0.07, SE = .03, 95% CI [0.02, 0.14].…”

Mind the Like-Minded. The Role of Social Identity in Prosocial Crowdfunding

“…Calls to action disseminated through social networks have been shown to increase mobilisation in the virtual world (Thomas et al, 2022). Mutual reinforcement between offline and online community activities has been demonstrated repeatedly (Foster et al, 2019). What is crucial is that collective engagement for the benefit of the group is directed by similar motivations on the Internet and in the real world.…”

Evolution of digital activism on social media: opportunities and challenges

“…Emotions, especially positive ones (Berger;Milkman, 2012), are key to promoting mobilisation and sustaining activism insofar as it is these types of emotions that move the subject to repeat patterns of behaviour and involvement (Foster et al, 2019) Papacharissi (2016) proposed the convenience of analysing the affective processes that help to communicate and raise awareness in the online context and proposed the notion of "affective publics": networked publics with a strong sense of agency that are mobilised by sentimental expressions. Affect thus contributes to establishing and maintaining feelings of community that can reflexively drive a movement in the context of social media (Papacharissi, 2016), constituting a starting point for social change (Castells, 2015).…”