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Role of Social Media in Social Protest Cycles: A Sociomaterial Examination

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  • Monideepa Tarafdar

    (Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 01003)

  • Deepa Kajal Ray

    (Wholesale Asia Pacific Data and Analytics, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Global Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Hong Kong)

Abstract

Contemporary social media fueled social protest is self-organized, rapidly dynamic, and decentralized, constitutes vast populations, and is shaped by multiple and concurrent channels of information flows. Such protest activity is captured in the concept of social protest cycles , which are short periods of intense and contentious protest activity characterized by temporal dynamics, a large repertoire of protest action, confrontation and potential violence, and possible institutional action. Social protest cycles are the microfoundations of long-term social movements. They contain the seeds of potential societal transformation because their intense collective action can be constructively harnessed toward change. This paper examines the role of social media in social protest cycles. Drawing from the theoretical concept of sociomaterial assemblages, we conceptualize the social media enabled social protest cycle as an assemblage having social (e.g., people, elected leaders, police, judges) and technical (e.g., social media applications, online petition applications) components. We analyze how the social protest cycle transforms through performative intra-actions. The empirical context for the study is a social media enabled social protest cycle that emerged after a fatal rape incident in New Delhi, India. Data pertaining to the social protest cycle over the period December 17–25, 2012, were collected from social media activity on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, online blogs, and newspaper websites. Through mixed methods analysis we identify three intra-actions, consolidation, expansion, and intensification, and theorize how they transform the social protest cycle over time. The paper contributes to the information systems literature that studies social media–enabled social protest action. As theoretical contributions, it develops (1) the notion of intra-actions as organizing mechanisms and (2) a relational ontology for social media–enabled social protest action. Through these contributions, we suggest that the power of social media lies in its socially produced and emergent relationships with other entities in the social protest cycle.

Suggested Citation

  • Monideepa Tarafdar & Deepa Kajal Ray, 2021. "Role of Social Media in Social Protest Cycles: A Sociomaterial Examination," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 1066-1090, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:32:y:2021:i:3:p:1066-1090
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2021.1013
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Aron Lindberg & Nicholas Berente & James Gaskin & Kalle Lyytinen, 2016. "Coordinating Interdependencies in Online Communities: A Study of an Open Source Software Project," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 751-772, December.
    2. Emmanuelle Vaast & Geoff Walsham, 2013. "Grounded theorizing for electronically mediated social contexts," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 9-25, January.
    3. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    4. Anastasia Kavada, 2016. "Social Movements and Political Agency in the Digital Age: A Communication Approach," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 8-12.
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    1. Nils Augustin & Andreas Eckhardt & Alexander Willem Jong, 2023. "Understanding decentralized autonomous organizations from the inside," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-14, December.

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