Social Media and Protest Participation: Evidence from Russia (original) (raw)
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The Role of Internet Based Social Networks in Russian Protest Movement Mobilization
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies , 2017
One of the unmistakable characteristics of Russia’s ‘White House’ uprising that led to the regime change in August of 1991 was its broad popular support. The political upheaval that initially found a buttress in Muscovite urban middle classes soon transcended all social strata and geography ending dominance of the Communist Party in Russia. However, the mass protests in opposition to authoritarian rule that gained energy in 2011has failed to generate the same momentum necessary to unite diverse social and political classes and topple the ruling regime. In both cases, social Networks of communication played an important role in the evolution of contentious politics because they connected actors across space, facilitated communication, exchanged information on tactics and strategies, and produced new knowledge. However, it is not clear exactly how such social networks interacted with other contextual factors to bring about a national protest movement of su cient proportions to topple an authoritarian regime. Drawing on evidence from the popular protests in the Russian Federation between 2011 and 2014, surveys conducted among quiescent citizens, participants in popular protest and digital activists, this paper argues that social media (1) allowed a “digital activists” to form personal networks that initially circumvented the national media narrative by brokering information for outside mainstream media; (2) helped to overcome the “free rider” problem of collective action by catalyzing anger-frustration and reporting the magnitude of protest events; and (3) contributed in the formation of a collective identity supportive of protest activity that transcended geographical and socio-economic disparities by providing a shared, mobilizing element of emotional grievance; (4) the internet based social networks have failed to produce results exemplified by Twitter and Facebook revolutions of the Arab Spring, and eject regime change in the Russian Federation or make tangible impact on domestic policies.
Role of social media in political mobilization in Russia
Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government
In today's world, we are empowered by information and communication technologies. Transparency and access to information, new ways of interacting with government and democratic institutions, and Internet-based, decentralized grassroots activism have caused profound changes to the way states are run and society functions. Social media and new dimensions of social activity, including individualized and collective content generation, collaboration and sharing as well as the emergence of spontaneous multilevel networks change our understanding of how to run countries and companies. Governmental and private internet services have increased the citizens' independence and flexibility; but have allowed for more control. Now is the time to look at the reality of why promising ideas and projects sometimes fail to bear fruits. That technology is only the basis for new forms of organisation and interaction but does not guarantee optimal results is one reason. Others will be squarely in the centre of this conference. CeDEM13 critically analyses present and future developments in e-democracy and open government. We welcome your papers on these connected issues.
The Role of the Internet in the December 2011 Moscow Protests
At the end of 2011, thousands of Moscow citizens protested against the December 4 election results for the 450-member Russian State Duma, the lower legislative chamber. In the months leading up to the election, an increasing number of Russian citizens had become angry and frustrated over rampant corruption and a worsening socio-economic situation. The flawed elections were the final straw, in making many Russians realize their lack of power and influence in the political process. Such Internet resources as LiveJournal and Facebook raised public awareness of the rigged elections in a new way. For several years prior to 2011, Russians with access to the Internet had been engaging in online discussions about their discontent with the ‘power vertical’ regime and its inability to address many social problems-- the most acute of which is rampant corruption. For the first time in Russian history, politically engaged citizens used the Internet and, more specifically, Web 2.0 to mount large-scale and highly successful protests. In a country in which media is highly censored, the Moscow protests, point directly to the crucial role of a free Internet in mobilizing the middle class. To have an objective and unbiased opinion of the role of new technologies in social protests within the Russian society, there needs to be an understanding of the fact that Russian protests of the middle class occurred within a ten year system of ‘managed democracy’. This period of time must be examined within the context of Russia’s thousand year history. Any study of the technology’s penetration into the society, without an exploration of the social processes taking place in such a country, will inevitably create a distorted picture.
Capabilities and Limitations of Protest Mobilization Through the Social Networks
The subject of this research is the effect of Internet-based social networks upon the emergence, dynamics, and specificity of the process of protest mobilization. The object of this research is the mass mobilization during the course of revolutionary processes and massive antigovernment campaigns. The author examines the possibilities of political mobilization through the social networks in Russia based on the conducted research of user behavior of the popular Russian social network VK. A special attention is given to the problem of spontaneous occurrences of mass protests, as well as the modern dynamics of the events of “Arab Spring” and appearance of the “Occupy” movement within the context of political science. The empirical part of the research is conducting using the descriptive method and statistical analysis of media behavior of the VK users. The theoretical analysis relies on the results of modern research in the field of media and communication studies, social movements, and conflict politics. The main conclusions of this research is firstly, affirmation of limited influence of the social network VK upon involvement of the youth into a mass protest in Russia; secondly, the general supplemental role of the social networks into the process of protest mobilization in the cases of typical political conflicts. On the other hand, the conducted analysis allows us to substantiate the possibility of a quality influence of social networks upon the dynamics of mass protests in the case of emergence of exceptional events that are transgressive for public consciousness, where the “new media” instruments are able to rapidly synchronize local demands, change their scale, and involve broad social groups into the message of protest and the culture of social opposition. The novelty of this research consists in refutation of the thesis of exceptionally high influence of social networks onto the forming of mass protest the ideal-political perceptions within youth. Alternatively, the results of this analysis allow defining the future directions of research on the causes and dynamic characteristics of the mass protests. Use URL below to see references
In democratic political regimes, media have prolongedly been identifying flaws of the system and fostering active participation of citizens. Authoritarian governments—on the contrary—have been using the same communication means for the purposes of propaganda distribution and minimisation of public disagreements. However, the ability of media to influence social and political life in both regime types has been arguably increasing with the development of new technologies. This essay attempts to confirm the aforementioned argument and claims that new media indeed generate greater public activism. Firstly, the paper provides definitions of the potentially vague terms ‘new media’ and ‘political activism’ to eliminate the possibility of the research misinterpretation. Secondly, it inspects the confronting theoretical models which underpin the considered discussion. Thirdly, this essay introduces the case studies of the 2011 protests ‘For Fair Elections’ and 2017 anti-corruption demonstrations in Russia to illustrate by their examples in what ways new media can increase political activism. Fourthly, the essay considers the two major limitations of the Russian new media in generating political activism, which are their generally low popularity and disproportion in the age of the followers. Finally, the conclusive paragraph summarises the conducted analysis and provides recommendations for the further research.
Online social networks and offline protest
Large-scale protests occur frequently and sometimes overthrow entire political systems. Meanwhile, online social networks have become an increasingly common component of people's lives. We present a large-scale longitudinal study that connects online social media behaviors to offline protest. Using almost 14 million geolocated tweets and data on protests from 16 countries during the Arab Spring, we show that increased coordination of messages on Twitter using specific hashtags is associated with increased protests the following day. The results also show that traditional actors like the media and elites are not driving the results. These results indicate social media activity correlates with subsequent large-scale decentralized coordination of protests, with important implications for the future balance of power between citizens and their states.
Post-Soviet Affairs, 2022
During moments of nationwide mass mobilization, what distinguishes the towns and cities that rise in the first week from those that do not see protest? Taking the case of nationwide protests in Belarus in August 2020, this study employs an original protest event catalogue to investigate what drives mobilization in early-rising localities. I test hypotheses in the protest literature relating to whether pre-existing social networks, or pre-election campaign rallies, influence subsequent protest mobilization. The innovative use of Telegram data demonstrates the platform's value for social scientists studying protest. My results suggest that pre-existing social networks help drive mobilization in localities by facilitating communication, coordination, and engagement prior to protest onset, priming people to be ready when the moment of protest arrives. This article also highlights the impressive scale of nationwide mobilization in Belarus in 2020, and demonstrates that local networks were engaging in widespread opposition activity even before mass mobilization.
Information, Communication & Society, 2017
Over the past decade, an extensive body of literature has emerged on the question of how new communication technologies can facilitate new modes of organizing protest. However, the extant research has tended to focus on how digitally enabled protest operates. By contrast, this study investigates why, how, and with what consequences a heavily digitally enabled 'connective action network' has transitioned over time to a more traditional 'collective action network' [Bennett, W. L., Segerberg, A. (2013). The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 47]. Specifically, the article scrutinizes the trajectory of the Russian protests 'For Fair Elections.' This wave of street protests erupted after the allegedly fraudulent parliamentary elections of December 2011 and continued into 2013. As is argued, the protests were initially organized as an 'organizationally enabled connective action network.' However, after eight months of street protests, Russian activists reorganized the network into a more centralized, more formalized 'organizationally brokered collective action network.' In order to implement this transition, they deployed 'Internet elections' as a cardinally new digital tactic of collective action. Between 20 and 22 October 2012, more than 80,000 activists voted online in order to create a new leadership body for the entire protest movement, the 'Coordination Council of the Opposition.' As the study has found, activists implemented this transition because, within the specific Russian socio-political context, enduring engagement and stable networks appeared crucial to the movement's long-term success. With regard to achieving these goals, the more formalized collective action network appeared superior to the connective action form.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020
In 2017, the anticorruption #rezist protests engulfed Romania. In the context of mounting concerns about exposure to and engagement with political information on social media, we examine the use of public Facebook event pages during the #rezist protests. First, we consider the degree to which political information influenced the participation of students, a key protest demographic. Second, we explore whether political information was available on the pages associated with the protests. Third, we investigate the structure of the social network established with those pages to understand its diffusion within that public domain. We find evidence that political information was a prominent component of public, albeit localized, activist communication on Facebook, with students more likely to partake in demonstrations if they followed a page. These results lend themselves to an evidencebased deliberation about the relation that individual demand and supply of political information on social media have with protest participation.
Social Image, Networks, and Protest Participation
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017
Social motivation plays an important role in electoral participation, political contributions, and charitable donations. We examine the role of social image concerns in the decision to participate in political protests. We develop a dynamic model of protest participation, where sociallyminded individuals use protest participation to signal their type to the peers. We test predictions of the model using individual and city-level data from 2011-2012 political protests in Russia. We report several findings. First, list experiment results imply that social signaling motives indeed were important for the decision to participate in protests. Second, consistent with the model, protest participation was declining over time. Third, participation in online protest groups increased offline protest participation. Fourth, participation in protests was higher in cities with higher social capital. Finally, the importance of both online social networks and offline social capital for protest participation diminished over time, consistent with predictions of the model. Words: 10771. 1 We are grateful to Tiburon Research for invaluable help with conducting our survey, and to Sergey Chernov, Aleksander Malairev, and Natalya Naumenko for their kind assistance with data collection. We also thank