Cultural activism : A content analysis of popular culture petitions on Change.org Spain

Authors

Abstract

The digital platforms for citizen mobilisation host a multitude of protest petitions with different purposes and intentions. In this complex and pluralistic context, this study analyses the success of citizen-driven initiatives on Change.org Spain, as this platform appears to have become one of the most consequential participative websites in Spain, especially for petitions that are related to popular culture. To this end, this study used a quantitative content analysis method to examine a total of 304 petitions. The main results reveal some communication weaknesses of Change.org Spain as an important platform for cyber-activism. Specifically, troll petitions—joking messages that adulterate the seriousness of fan dynamics—are as impactful as fan or antifan initiatives; as a result, Change.org Spain has certain communicative deficiencies as a model cyber-activist channel. On the other hand, there are a significant number of non-diegetic petitions: the fandom profile is more concerned with issues outside popular culture than about modifying or changing the content. Finally, our findings show that, in general, the most successful popular culture initiatives are better written and include a longer title and text than closed initiatives, regardless of whether they were part of fan or antifan movements. In short, this study concludes that the length and linguistic correctness are relevant and meaningful elements that determine the success or failure of popular culture petitions on Change.org Spain, while all other variables (addresser, audiovisual elements, popular culture community type and type of actions) were not significant in determining the success or failure of the e-petition. In general, most of the petitions are not successful, typically use images, usually address issues related to music, are extradiegetic, contain linguistic errors and are addressed to an individual.

Keywords

cyber-activism, cultural activism, popular culture, fans, antifans, civic participation

References

BENNETT, L. (2014). “Tracing textual poachers: Reflections on the development of fan studies and digital fandom”. The Journal of Fandom Studies, 2 (1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1386/jfs.2.1.5_1

BROUGH, M. and SHRESTHOVA, S. (2012). “Fandom meets activism: Rethinking civic and political participation”. Transformative Works and Fan Culture, 10. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2012.0303

CASERO-RIPOLLÉS, A. (2017). “Producing political content for web 2.0: Empowering citizens and vulnerable populations”. El profesional de la información, 26 (1), 13-19.

CHANGE.ORG (2018). Informe de impacto. Available at: https://bit.ly/36UVsoz

COHEN, J. (1992). “A power primer”. Psychological Bulletin, 1 (112), 155-159.

COVER, R. (2006). “Audience inter/active: Interactive media, narrative control and reconceiving audience history”. New Media & Society, 8 (1), 139-158.

DUFFETT, M. (2013). Understanding fandom: an introduction the study of media fan culture. New York: Bloomsbury.

ELNOSHOKATY, A. S.; DENG, S. and KWAK, D. H. (2016). “Success Factors of Online Petitions: Evidence from Change.org.” 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 1979-1985. https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2016.249

GIL DE ZÚÑIGA, H.; COPELAND, L. and BIMBER, B. (2013). “Political consumerism: Civic engagement and the social media connection”. New Media & Society, 16 (3), 488-506.

GRANDÍO, M. M. (2016). Adictos a las series. 50 años de lecciones de los fans. Barcelona: UOC.

GRAY, J. (2005). “Antifandom and the Moral Text: Television Without Pity and Textual Dislike”. American Behavioral Scientist, 48 (7), 840-858.

GUERRERO-PICO, M. (2017). “#Fringe, Audiences and Fan Labor: Twitter Activism to Save a TV Show From Cancellation”. International Journal of Communication, 11, 2071-2092.

HEMMATI, M. (2002). Multi-stakeholder Processes for Governance and Sustainability: Beyond Deadlock and Conflict. Londres: Earthscan.

HERNÁNDEZ-SAMPIERI, R.; FERNÁNDEZ-COLLADO, C. and BAPTISTA-LUCIO, P. (2014). Metodología de la investigación. México: McGraw Hill.

HERNÁNDEZ-SANTAOLALLA, V. and RUBIO-HERNÁNDEZ, M. M. (2017). “Fandom político en Twitter: La Cueva y los partidarios de Alberto Garzón en las elecciones generales españolas de 2015 y 2016”. El profesional de la información, 26 (5), 838-849.

HERRERO-DIZ, P.; LOZANO-DELMAR, J., DEL-TORO, A. and SA?NCHEZ-MARTI?N, M. (2017). “Estudio de las competencias digitales en el espectador fan español”. Palabra Clave, 20 (4), 917-947.

HUANG, S.; SUH, M.; HILL, B. M. and HSIEH, G. (2015). “How Activists Are Both Born and Made: An Analysis of Users on Change.org”. CHI ‘15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 211-220. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702559

HUMANES, M. L. (2005). “Herramientas informáticas para el análisis de datos. Aplicaciones básicas del programa SPSS”. In: M. R. BERGANZA CONDE and J. A. RUIZ SAN ROMÁN (eds.). Investigar en Comunicación. Guía práctica de métodos y técnicas de investigación social en Comunicación. Madrid: McGraw Hill, 149-173.

KUHN, A. and WESTWELL, G. (2012). Dictionary of film studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

JAKOBSON, R. (1960). Las funciones del lenguaje. La Haya: Siglo XXI.

JENKINS, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Nueva York: New York University Press.

JENKINS, H. (2012). “‘Cultural acupuncture’: Fan activism and the Harry Potter Alliance”. Transformative Works and Fan Culture, 10.

JENKINS, H.; FORD, S. and GREEN, J. (2013). Spreadable media: Creating value and meaning in a networked culture. New York: New York University Press.

KAUN, A. and ULDAM, J. (2018). “Digital activism: After the hype”. New Media & Society, 20 (6), 2099-2106.

KIM, Y. C. and BALL-ROKEACH, S. J. (2006). “Civic engagement from a communication infrastructure perspective”. Communication Theory, 16 (2), 173-197.

MARQUÉS, J. (2015). “Los criterios de noticiabilidad como factor de éxito del clickactivismo. El caso de Change.org”. Estudios del Mensaje Periodístico, 21 (2), 883-898.

MCLUHAN, M. and BARRINGTON, N. (1972). Take today. The executive as dropout. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

MINOCHER, X. (2018). “Online consumer activism: Challenging companies with Change.org”. New Media & Society, 21 (3), 620-638. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818803373

PÉREZ-ESCOLAR, M. (2017). Understanding political and citizen participation on digital platforms for civic mobilization. Analysis of cyber-activism in Spain through Change.org [doctoral thesis]. Universidad Católica de Murcia, Murcia, Spain.

POUTANEN, P.; BOTERO, A.; MARTTILA, S. and VILLI, M. (2015). “Everyday self-organising social movements and the role of social media in citizen engagement”. Sphera Publica, 15, 2-20.

RAYMOND, W. (2008). Historia y cultura común. Madrid: Los libros de la Catarata. Colección Clásicos del pensamiento crítico.

SZEMAN, I. and O’BRIEN, S. (2017). Popular Culture: A User’s Guide. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

TAYLOR, L. (2015). “Investigating fans of fictional texts: Fan identity salience, empathy, and transportation”. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4 (2), 172-187.

TOFFLER, A. (1980). La tercera ola. Bogotá: Plaza & Janes.

VAN LAER, J. and VAN AELST, P. (2009). “Cyber-Protest and Civil Society: the Internet and Action Repertoires in Social Movements”. In: Y. JEWKES and M. YAR (eds.). Handbook on Internet Crime. Portland, Oregon: Willan Publishing, 230-254.

VAN ZOONEN, L. (2005) Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics and Popular Culture Converge. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher.

Author Biographies

Marta Pérez-Escolar, Universidad Loyola Andalucía

Departamento de Comunicación y Educación

Alejandro Tapia-Frade, Universidad Loyola Andalucía

Departamento de Comunicación y Educación.

Javier Lozano-Delmar, Universidad Loyola Andalucía

Departamento de Comunicación y Educación

Published

24-12-2020

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.