Online Collective Action: Dynamics of the Crowd in Social Media

243 Pages·2014·5.33 MB·English

by  Nitin Agarwal

Lecture Notes in Social Networks
Nitin Agarwal
Merlyna Lim
Rolf T. Wigand Editors
Online
Collective
Action
Dynamics of the Crowd in Social Media
Lecture Notes in Social Networks
(LNSN)
Series Editors
Reda Alhajj
UniversityofCalgary
Calgary,AB,Canada
Uwe Gla¨sser
SimonFraserUniversity
Burnaby,BC,Canada
Advisory Board
CharuAggarwal,IBMT.J.WatsonResearchCenter,Hawthorne,NY,USA
PatriciaL.Brantingham,SimonFraserUniversity,Burnaby,BC,Canada
ThiloGross,UniversityofBristol,UnitedKingdom
JiaweiHan,UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana-Champaign,IL,USA
HuanLiu,ArizonaStateUniversity,Tempe,AZ,USA
Rau´lMana´sevich,UniversityofChile,Santiago,Chile
AnthonyJ.Masys,CentreforSecurityScience,Ottawa,ON,Canada
CarloMorselli,UniversityofMontreal,QC,Canada
RafaelWittek,UniversityofGroningen,TheNetherlands
DanielZeng,TheUniversityofArizona,Tucson,AZ,USA
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/8768
.
Nitin Agarwal (cid:129) Merlyna Lim (cid:129) Rolf T. Wigand
Editors
Online Collective Action
Dynamics of the Crowd in Social Media
Editors
NitinAgarwal MerlynaLim
DepartmentofInformationScience SchoolofJournalismandCommunication
UniversityofArkansasatLittleRock CarletonUniversity
LittleRock Ottawa,Ontario,Canada
Arkansas,USA
RolfT.Wigand
DepartmentsofInformationScience
andBusinessInformationSystems
UniversityofArkansasatLittleRock
LittleRock
USA
ISSN2190-5428 ISSN2190-5436(electronic)
ISBN978-3-7091-1339-4 ISBN978-3-7091-1340-0(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-7091-1340-0
SpringerWienHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014946576
©Springer-VerlagWien2014
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Preface
Contemporary collective actions, from the 2011 Egyptian Tahrir uprising to the
2013 Turkish protest in Gezi Park, cannot be separated from the uses of social
media.Invariousrecentprotests,socialmediaaredescribedasimportanttoolsfor
thedisparatecrowdtocommunicate,coordinate,organize,andmobilizeitself.How
do social media influence, change, or shape (or not) the ways in which people
collectivelymobilizethemselves?
The new phenomenon called “online collective action,” a collective action
that emerges in a networked online environment, has led to the emergence of
a new scholarship. In the last few years, there has been a surge in research
devoted to deepening our understanding of online collective action, including our
own National Science Foundation-sponsored study entitled “Cyber-collective
Movements” (website: http://onlinecollectiveaction.lab.asu.edu/), a project that
led to the origin of this book. Analysis of online collective action is a relatively
newandfast-movingfieldduetotherapiddevelopmentofthetechnologiesinuse
ontheground.Largegapsinourunderstandinginevitablyremain.
The contemporary use of social media, in particular, has unavoidably linked
collectivebehaviorwithsocialnetworks.Asindividualsandgroupsbecomemore
networked through social media, real-time communication can take place in the
vast social network instantaneously. How does this new way of communication
influence and shape the formation ofcollective action? Is there a need toreassess
collective action theory to provide deeper insights for successful contemporary
collectiveactioneffortsleveragingthenewwayofcommunication?Arethereany
fundamentalaspectsofcontemporarycollectiveactioneffortsthatcanbeidentified
and explained using existing collective action theory or do we need innovative
approaches and methodologies to reframe and reconceive collective action theory
inonlineenvironments?
The book aims to contribute to our understanding of contemporary collective
action in the age of the Internet and social media by approaching it from various
perspectives rooted in diverse disciplines. By carefully selecting a number of
qualitativeandquantitative studies fromcomputationalandsocial sciencesfocus-
ing on online collective actions, through this edited volume we aim to promote a
v
vi Preface
symbioticandsynergisticadvancementofthemultiple,interconnecteddisciplines.
More specifically, we intend to illuminate several fundamental and powerful yet
theoretically undeveloped and largely unexplored aspects of collective action in
socialmedia.
The book consists of three distinctive parts: (1) concepts, theories, and
methodologies; (2) applications; and (3) case studies. The first part consists of
high-level discussions on concepts, theories, and methodologies. Five chapters
have been grouped under this category. The authors of these chapters have
proposed, developed, and evaluated the models to advance our understanding of
onlinecollectiveactionsbeyondanecdotalevidences.Themodelspresentedinthe
chaptershaveconceptualandtheoreticalunderpinnings frommultipledisciplines,
including computational sciences, social sciences, mathematics, and statistics to
understand,evaluate,andmeasureonlinecollectiveactions.
In the chapter entitled “Sentiment Analysis in Social Media,” Georgios
Paltogloudiscussesmethodologies,theories,andtechniquesfromadiversesetof
scientific domains, ranging from psychology and sociology to natural language
processing and machine learning for sentiment analysis and its contributions to
understanding the online collective action phenomenon. The author argues that
such actions are motivated by intense emotional states, and sentiment analysis
couldofferinsightstounderstandtheentirelifecycleofonlinecollectiveactions.
Leveraging the notions of natural language processing, Dipankar Das and
Sivaji Bandyopadhyay, in their chapter entitled “Emotion Analysis on Social
Media:NaturalLanguageProcessingApproachesandApplications,”consider
collective actions as events, and the emotional change with respect to events is
represented using the graphical notion of sentiment-event tracking. The authors
mainlyfocusonblogusersandtheirtopicsofdiscussionforidentifyingemotional
changes with respect to time. They have considered the social interactions of the
bloggers as collective actions, and their emotional changes based on such actions
have been measured from the perspectives of topic and time. Goldina Ghosh,
SoumyaBanerjee,andVasilePalade,intheirchapterentitled“DiscoveringFlow
of Sentiment and Transient Behavior of Online Social Crowd: An Analysis
ThroughSocialInsects,”however,havestudiedthesentimentflowinacrowdas
expressedonsocialmediasitesduringacrisiseventusinganagent-basedparadigm
knownasswarmintelligence.
Further, Anna Chmiel, Julian Sienkiewicz, Georgios Paltoglou, Kevan
Buckley, Marcin Skowron, Mike Thelwall, Arvid Kappas, and Janusz
A. Holyst, in their chapter entitled “Collective Emotions Online,” demonstrate
therelevanceofnegativeemotionsinsustainingtheonlinediscussionsinavariety
of web platforms, including blogs, discussion forums, IRC channels, and Digg
communities.Moreover, the findingssuggestindividual and collectivepatternsof
emotionalactivitiesamongwebforumusers.
ThelastchapterinthiscategorybyAlanKellerGomesandMariadaGrac¸a
Campos Pimentel, entitled “Evaluation of Media-Based Social Interactions:
LinkingCollectiveActionstoMediaTypes,Applications,andDevicesinSocial
Networks,” presents a technique for capturing, representing, and measuring
Preface vii
collectiveactionsinsocialnetworks.Itusesusedataminingprocedurestomeasure
behavioral contingencies in the form of if-then rules and identify links among a
variety of platforms for social interactions, such as actions (e.g., like), media
objects (e.g., photo), application type (web or mobile), and device type (e.g.,
Android).
The second part of the book comprises discussions of three applications, each
extractinganddistillinguniqueanglesandperspectivesofcollectiveaction.These
rangefromasociologicalperspectiveofinformationsharingresultingincollective
knowledge and action to computer-mediated communication in virtual citizen
science and to crowdsourcing methods of pro-environmental collective action.
All of these application chapters demonstrate how unique outcomes can be
achievedusingnewerinformationandcommunicationtechnologies(ICT)coupled
withsocialmediatoachievepreviouslyunachievablelevelsandformsofcollective
action.
The chapter “The Studies of Blogs and Online Communities: From
Information to Knowledge and Action” by Emanuela Todeva and Donka
Keskinovaisthefirstamongthreeinthisapplicationcategory.Thiscontribution,
whiletakingasociologicalperspective,addresseswhethertheriseofblogsasarich
informationmediummaygeneratenewopinionleaderswhointurntransformand
challengetraditionallyheldEuropeanpublicviewsonpharmaceuticalsandhealth
care.Todeva’sfindingsrevealthatinspiteoftherelativelyhighvolumeofblogsfor
theinvestigatedperiod,surprisinglyonlyasmallnumberareinterlinkedbymutual
referrals.Theresultingnetworkconfigurationdemonstratesasmallcorecomponent
withmanydyads,orshorttails,representingaratherfragmentedcommunityspace.
TheauthorconcludesthatinspiteofhightechnicalInternetconnectivity,commu-
nity interaction is relatively limited, and there is no evidence of online crowd or
collectiveaction.
The next chapter by Jason T. Reed, Arfon Smith, Michael Parish,
and Angelique Rickhoff, entitled “Using Contemporary Collective Action to
UnderstandtheUseofComputer-MediatedCommunicationinVirtualCitizen
Science,” looks at how virtual citizen science creates Internet-based projects
involving volunteers collaborating with scientists in authentic scientific research.
This chapter describes how virtual citizen science can be understood asa form of
onlinecollectiveaction.Computer-mediatedcommunicationplatformssupportall
aspectsofprojectactivityandinteraction.Usingcollectiveactiontheoryallowsfor
thecreationofacollectiveactionspacebasedonacombinationofvariousformsof
interactionandprojectresponsibilitiesavailabletovolunteers.
The third and last chapter in this category of applications authored by Janis
L. Dickinson and Rhiannon L. Crain is entitled “Socially Networked Citizen
Science and the Crowd-Sourcing of Pro-Environmental Collective Actions.”
Theauthorspositthatthesocialwebhaschangedthenatureofhumancollaboration
with new possibilities for massive-scale cooperative endeavors such as scientific
research and environmentally important collective action. “Next generation” citi-
zensciencepracticenetworkscombinecrowdsourcing,ajointsenseofpurpose,and
softinstitutionalgovernancewiththedistributedintelligenceandefficacyofonline
viii Preface
socialnetworks.Theauthorstapintoevolutionarytheoryandsocialpsychologyto
generate hypotheses for how such “next generation” citizen projects can best
support pro-environmental behaviors such as habitat restoration and energy con-
servation. Finally, the authors explore how properties of social networks them-
selvesenhancethespreadofbehaviorsthroughthethreedegreesrule,homophily,
socialcontagion,andthestrengthofweakties.
The third part of the book, the case studies, provides rich and well-studied
illustrations of the ways in which activists and citizen groups in various contexts
use online media to collectively organize themselves into political actions.
The four chapters included in this category represent four case studies from
Spain, Egypt, Morocco, and the United States. The four case studies examine
exemplarymovementorganizationsandnetworkswhereonlinetoolsandpractices
arewovenintothefabricofsocialmovements.
Thechapterentitled“TheSpanish‘Indignados’Movement:TimeDynamics,
GeographicalDistribution,andRecruitmentMechanisms”presentsthefirstof
the four case studies included in this book. Analyzing Twitter data from the
Indignados, Javier Borge-Holthoefer, Sandra Gonza´lez-Bailo´n, Alejandro
Rivero, and Yamir Moreno investigate the mechanisms involved in the emer-
gence,development,andstabilizationofthemovement.Trackingcentralissuesin
thesocialnetworkliterature,suchasrecruitmentpatternsandinformationcascades,
this study offers an empirical test to help us answer some sociological questions
about collective action and better understand the connection between online net-
worksandsocialmovements.
The second case study continues to deepen our understanding of the usage of
Twitterincollectiveactions.Inthechapterentitled“TheStrengthofTweetTies,”
Rob Schroeder, Sean F. Everton, and Russell Shepherd explore how Egyptian
activists utilized Twitter to frame grievances in ways that resonate with their
targetedaudience.UsingTwitterdatacollectedduringthe2011Egyptianprotests,
the authors examine whether the Twitter usage helped to diffuse the Arab Spring
frame across Egypt and generate greater social cohesion around their messages.
Analyzing counts of complete triads, which are regarded as an indicator of cohe-
sion, the authors conclude that activists occupy the position of brokerage in the
Twitternetwork,andthisnetworkpositionhasenabledthemtoframegrievancesin
waysthatbroughtpeopletogetherandhelpedmobilizethemforaction.
In “The Arab Spring in North Africa: Still Winter in Morocco?” Rebecca
S.RobinsonandMaryJaneC.Parmentierpresentarichlynuancedcasestudyof
the use of blogs for political activism in Morocco. Focusing on the Blogoma, the
Moroccan Blogosphere, the authors utilize collective action literature to examine
thenatureofonlinepublicnarrativesinlightofseveral“ArabSpring”proteststhat
occurred in Morocco. They argue that online collective actions through the
Blogoma fail to reflect social and political divisions within the society and, thus,
are disconnected from the majority of Moroccan citizens. However, this online
activism does contribute to a larger and freer civic sphere in the country by
providing a space for Moroccan bloggers to exercise their freedom of expression
Preface ix
and converse,socially and politically, with each other without an overt control of
thegovernment.
The last case study of the book discusses how two groups of American
Muslims,theCouncilofAmerican-IslamicRelations(CAIR)andtheHijabifashion
community,addresstheissueofhijabanddiscriminationintheworkplacethrough
online collective actions. In “Online and Offline Advocacy for American
Hijabis: Organizational and Organic Tactical Configurations,” Rebecca
S. Robinson analyzes the divergent tactics of these two groups by utilizing the
conceptsoforganizationalandorganic,wherethelatterisemployedtodelineatethe
non- or less hierarchical, self-organized nature of collective action. While neither
one can be said to be superior, the author argues that the organic tactics are more
grounded in a shared sense of identity and context and are embedded in the
experiencesofhijabis“ontheground”asopposedtotheorganizationaltactics.
These12chaptersofthebooktogetherprovideaninterdisciplinaryplatformfor
researchers,practitioners,andgraduatestudentsfromdifferentdisciplinestoshare,
exchange, learn, and develop preliminary results, new concepts, ideas, principles,
andmethodologies,aimingtoadvanceanddeepenourunderstandingofcollective
action in social media to help criticaldecision and policy making. The developed
methodologies will be a valuable companion and comprehensive reference for
anyone interested in newer ICT, examining their role in decision and policy
making; understanding the dynamics of interaction, communication, information
propagation,andopiniondiffusion;andresearchinginsocialnetworksforyearsto
come.Thebookalsoservesasanextensiverepositoryofdatasetsandtoolsthatcan
be used by researchers leading to a perpetual and synergistic advancement of the
discipline.
RecentadvancementsinWeb2.0haveprovidedvastopportunitiestoinvestigate
thedynamicsandstructureofweb-basedsocialnetworks.Throughthepublication
ofthiseditedvolume,wehopetofacilitatedisseminationofthesenewlydeveloped
methodsaswellastheinvestigationsandtheiroutcomes.
LittleRock,AR NitinAgarwal
Ottawa,ON MerlynaLim
LittleRock,AR RolfT.Wigand