---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lewis, Kevin <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 2:43 PM Subject: [berkmanfriends] online activism To: "[email protected]" <[email protected] >
Dear friends, I wanted to share with you a recent publication that some members of this community might find interesting- due to the nature of both the substance and the journal. The substance is that my co-authors and I examined, to our knowledge, the first available dataset containing comprehensive economic and social data (on donations and recruitment ties, respectively) on a massive online social movement- the "Save Darfur Cause" on Facebook between 2007 and 2010. We position this piece in the ever-growing body of literature which tends to sing from the rooftops the ability of social media to revolutionize political engagement; and instead, we find that the vast majority of Cause members are both socially and economically inactive. In short, they don't do anything else beyond the basic act of clicking the button to join the Cause (we also run some more complex multivariate analyses about the patterning of recruitment and donation behavior). I realize this finding will be unsurprising to many; but again, we fear that the optimism that often surrounds the transformative potential of social media too seldom checks in with the facts of how common "successful" online movements actually are and when, where, and why they are likely to take root (as opposed to just pointing out THAT they take root and arguing that this is important). The journal is a new journal called Sociological Science- which explicitly aims to combat some of the less pleasant tendencies of mainstream publishing (in particular, it promises rapid review times; a review process that is evaluative, not developmental; rigorous and relevant scholarship; and unlike all other prominent sociology journals, it is open access). In addition to this, the journal encourages active dialogue with readers, and has a set-up on its website where readers can submit "reactions" to articles much like blog comments. So this is both an advertisement for the work and a solicitation for feedback- we would welcome any comments on the article! Whether positive or (hopefully constructively) critical. (One member of the Berkman community has already led the way in initiating a helpful exchange.) Article: http://www.sociologicalscience.com/structure-online-activism Press release: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/raising_an_army_of_armchair_activists Thanks and have a great day! -Kevin Kevin Lewis Assistant Professor of Sociology University of California, San Diego ---------- You are subscribed to the BerkmanFriends discussion list. Mailing list options: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/lists/info/berkmanfriends Mailing list members: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/lists/review/berkmanfriends Reminder: emails sent through this list are considered on-record unless otherwise noted. -- *Carolina Rossini* *Project Director, Latin America Resource Center* Open Technology Institute *New America Foundation* // http://carolinarossini.net/ + 1 6176979389 *[email protected]* skype: carolrossini @carolinarossini
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