Collective Action Frames, Advocacy Organizations, and Protests Over Same-Sex Marriage

Authors

  • Lauren Copeland Baldwin Wallace University
  • Ariel Hasell University of Pennsylvania
  • Bruce Bimber University of California, Santa Barbara

Keywords:

collective action, social media, same-sex marriage, boycott, political consumerism, Twitter

Abstract

Although new theories of collective action in the contemporary media environment have provided an expanded view of the structure of action, important questions remain. These questions include how action frames flow between advocacy organizations and individuals on social media, especially in cases in which organizations do not initiate collective action. To address this question, we used Granger tests to analyze roughly 800,000 tweets about a competing boycott and buycott campaign that occurred in 2012. We found that the conversation about the campaigns began postbureaucratically (i.e., through citizen networks). Although organizations’ involvement was associated with increased citizen attention to the campaigns, the organizations neither adopted nor influenced citizen frames on the issue. We view this as an illustration of the variable and sometimes unpredictable role of organizations in communication about collective action today.

Author Biographies

Lauren Copeland, Baldwin Wallace University

Lauren Copeland is Assistant Professor of Political and Associate Director of the Community Research Institute at Baldwin Wallace University.

Ariel Hasell, University of Pennsylvania

Ariel Hasell is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Bruce Bimber, University of California, Santa Barbara

Bruce Bimber is Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. (805)694-8386

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Published

2016-07-27

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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