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Publication Date

2015

Document Type

Honors Project

Department

Sociology

Keywords

Internet and activism, Social media, Social movements-Technological innovations, Communication in organizations, Internet, Social movements, Activism, Change organizations

Abstract

In this paper I use a number of theoretical perspectives to examine the ways in which social movement organizations are using the internet and social media. The overall framework for the research uses Resource Mobilization Theory. Additionally, this project employs a number of theories from work by Jennifer Earl (2011, 2013) and Laura Stein (2009) on social movements online including supersize theory, which explain how an organization's standard repertoires are simply expanded online and not fundamentally transformed. The unit of analysis for this study is the social movement organization. This project relies on case studies of 16 organizations in the Forge Mountain Region of New England, and includes 11 interviews and 16 content analyses of organizational websites. I argue that organizations supersize their standard repertoires online and that leadership's perceptions, organizational missions, goals, and target audiences greatly impact the ways that the internet and social media are employed as part of standard repertoires.

Language

English

Comments

92 pages : color illustrations. Honors project-Smith College, 2015. Includes bibliographical references (pages 76-81)

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