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R@D: The Digital Activism Survey Report

The purpose of Research@DigiActive (R@D) is to produce applied, thought-provoking, actionable research at the cutting edge of Digital Activism. It seeks to highlight and disseminate studies in the new academic field of digital activism by publishing short papers by promising scholars. To submit a paper or get more information, please contact our Director of Applied Research, Patrick Meier, at Patrick AT Digiactive.org.

Title: The Digital Activism Survey Report 2009

Authors: Kate Brodock, Mary Joyce, Timo Zaeck

Data Set: download spreadsheet (.xls)

Abstract:  Our goal in creating this survey was to collect the first international demographic data on the new group we call “digital activists”: people who use digital technology as part of grassroots campaigns for social and political change.

From late mid-February to mid-April of 2009, DigiActive collected 122 responses through an open online form, followed by three rounds of qualitative and quantitative analysis.  Despite the challenges of researching the world’s digital activists we felt a need to record – in some rough way – this evolving demographic.  Our original data set is available for download above and we welcome comments below through survey@digiactive.org.

Key Findings:

Age: Of the survey’s 122 respondents, 28% were between the ages of 26 and 30, with 10% above age 50 and only 2% below the age of 20. The low activism rates of these young “digital natives” may be explained by political apathy and entertainment preferences online.

Gender: Outside North America, male respondents outnumbered female respondents by a margin of 7 to 3. If this gap holds true for digital activists in general, this further challenges the gender-neutral identity of technology.

Geography: Geographic representation was largely consistent with global Internet access but should not be used as representative of the true distribution of digital activists around the world.

Economics: Digital activists, particularly in developing countries, are much more likely than the population at large to pay a monthly subscription fee to have Internet at home, to be able to afford a high-speed connection, and to work in a white-collar job where Internet is also available. In short, digital activists are likely to be prosperous.

Access: Intensity of use, rather than simple access, is critical as to whether or not a person is a digital activist. This high use is only possible for people with the ability to pay for it. The Internet may be democratizing, but its effects are felt most strongly in the global middle class.

Mobiles: Respondents with more features on their mobile phone – such as Internet, video, and GPS – are more likely to use their phones for activism. This is another indicator of the importance of financial resources for digital activists, both quantitatively, in terms of greater technology access, and qualitatively, in terms of better (mobile) hardware.

Causes: Across regions, “rights” emerged as the most popular cause, with 21 different types identified by respondents.

Broadcast: The plurality of respondents (37%) believe digital technology’s greatest value for activism is one-way communication. What makes social media useful for digital activism may not be its interactivity but rather the fact that these technologies collapse the barrier to broadcast.

Platforms: Social networks are the most common “gateway drug” into digital activism.

Design: None of most popular activist tools – social networks, blogs, and email – were specifically made for activism. It is likely a combination of their open and agnostic architecture, as well as their high user base, that has made them popular with activists.

Skills: Findings on technology and advocacy skills acquisition challenge the assumption that those who have a facility with technology are more likely to become digital activists and gives encouragement to programs that seek to teach technology skills to traditional activists.

Offline: Older activists in the respondent group are most likely to use digital technology to increase the efficiency of offline activities, such as training and evidence collection, and less likely to participate in activities which have gained popularity because of the availability of online tools, such as posting original content on web sites.

Read the report…

R@D: Mobile Phones as a Tool for Civil Resistance – Case Studies from Serbia and Belarus

The purpose of Research@DigiActive (R@D) is to produce applied, thought-provoking, actionable research at the cutting edge of Digital Activism. It seeks to highlight and disseminate studies in the new academic field of digital activism by publishing short papers by promising scholars. To submit a paper or get more information, please contact our Director of Applied Research, Patrick Meier, at Patrick AT Digiactive.org.

Title: Mobile Phones as a Tool for Civil Resistance – Case Studies from Serbia and Belarus

Author: Fabien Miard

Abstract: The recent so-called “Twitter Revolutions” in Moldova and Iran have created a renewed interest in the role of new communication technologies in civil resistance and social protest activities. It is a new example in a growing list of events where such technologies played an important role in facilitating protests. Twitter and other microblogging platforms represent a new phenomenon because they easily work across different types of communication technologies such as instant messaging, blogging, and text messaging. This convergence also draws attention to the wide-spread use of mobile phones in civil resistance, a factor often overlooked by Internet enthusiasts. This R@D product summarizes some key insights from interviews with civil activists in both Serbia and Belarus that were part of a master thesis project on mobile phone usage in protest movements, and it links them to insights gained from the recent “Twitter Revolutions”. Although the cases of Serbia and Belarus might initially seem similar because of their geographic proximity, struggles with dictatorial leaders, and historical Communist dominance, mobile phone use by activists in these countries is markedly different. Mobile phones were a critical tactical tool in bringing down Milosevic in 2000. However, only 8 years later, mobiles are less useful to anti-Lukashenka Belarusian activists in the present day because of the state’s increasingly effective surveillance of mobile communication.

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R@D: Mobile Activism in African Elections – a Comparative Case Study

The purpose of Research@DigiActive (R@D) is to produce applied, thought-provoking, actionable research at the cutting edge of Digital Activism. It seeks to highlight and disseminate studies in the new academic field of digital activism by publishing short papers by promising scholars. To submit a paper or get more information, please contact our Director of Applied Research, Patrick Meier, at Patrick AT Digiactive.org.

Title: Mobile Technology in African Elections: a Comparative Case Study

Author: Rebekah Heacok

Abstract: The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa is transforming the political and social landscape of the developing world, empowering people to source and share their own information and to have a greater say in what comes to international attention. This R@D product compare the use and impact of mobile technology in three recent African elections: Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

In Nigeria’s April 2007 presidential election, a local civil society organization used free software to collect over 10,000 text message reports from voters around the country, boosting citizen participation in a political process many Nigerians doubted. In Sierra Leone’s August-September 2007 elections, trained local monitors used mobile phones to collect data from designated polling sites, enabling the independent National Election Watch to compile and release an accurate, comprehensive analysis of the election almost two weeks before the official report. And in Kenya’s December 2007 election, a group of local digital activists developed and implemented a citizen reporting platform to allow Kenyans to report and track post-election violence during a month-long media blackout, collecting and publishing a comprehensive account of riots, displacement and human rights abuses that serves as one of the best available records of the crisis.

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R@D: Facebook and the anti-FARC Rallies

The purpose of Research@DigiActive (R@D) is to produce applied, thought-provoking, actionable research at the cutting edge of Digital Activism. It seeks to highlight and disseminate studies in the new academic field of digital activism by publishing short papers by promising scholars. To submit a paper or get more information, please contact our Director of Applied Research, Patrick Meier, at Patrick AT Digiactive.org.

Title: Facebook for Protest? The Value of Social Software for Political Activism in the Anti-FARC Rallies

Authors: Christina Neumayer, Celina Raffl
ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg, Austria

Abstract: How do real and virtual spaces influence on another in the field of political activism? This R@D research product draws on the Facebook-mediated anti-FARC protests in Colombia to assess the potential of the Internet in globalizing geographically specific political contests. One of the key factors used in quantifying this relationship is access: who has the ability to express themselves politically in a virtual space?

In order to bring quantitative analysis to bear on this question, this research cross-references rally locations to rankings on the Human Development Index and finds a high correlation between the incidence of rallies and high ranking on the index, implying that Internet-mediated activism is to some extent contingent on economic class (a proxy for technology access, among other things). The paper concludes by reaffirming that the use of social software for political protest is dependent on the ideologies and the cultural and political contexts of its users and developers.

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