SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY WITHIN THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN COMMUNICATION DECEMBER 2014 By Kathryn Ranney Thesis Committee: Jenifer Winter, Chairperson Ann Auman Hanae Kramer Acknowledgements I would like to thank my family for their patience, support, and willingness to listen through this entire process, especially my sister. I would also like to thank my friends for understanding when I needed to disappear to work. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of my adviser, Dr. Jenifer Winter, who always pointed me in helpful directions. i Abstract Spurred by the actions in Arab Spring and calls for action in reaction to the housing crisis, the Occupy Movement started in the United States and spread globally, addressing a widening range of perceived institutional injustices. Members of the movement used social media to organize and connect with each other and sparked discussion about social media’s role in this potentially new era of social movements. This mixed-method study explores Occupiers’ sense of collective identity with the movement and the effect of social media use on their identity as well as the state of the Occupy Movement years after its genesis. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………. i Abstract…………………………………………………………………………. ii Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 1 Literature Review……………………………………………………………… 3 Social Media………………………………………………………………. 3 How SNS are used…………………………………………………. 5 Social Movements………………………………………………………… 7 What is a social movement? ……………………………………… 8 Four stages of a social movement………………………………… 9 New social movements……………………………………………. 13 Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement ……………………… 17 History of Occupy…………………………………………………. 19 What type of movement is the Occupy Movement? …………… 22 Internet/Social Media and Sense of Community……………………… 23 Collective Identity………………………………………………………… 29 Measuring collective identity……………………………………… 33 Variables…………………………………………………………………… 37 Research Questions………………………………………………………. 38 Methodology……………………………………………………………………. 40 Population………………………………………………………………… 40 iii Sampling and Data Collection………………………………………….. 41 Survey Instrument……………………………………………………….. 42 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………….. 46 Results…………………………………………………………………………… 48 Additional Analysis……………………………………………………… 50 Discussion………………………………………………………………………. 53 Sample Response………………………………………………………… 53 Effect of Collective Identity and Social Media Impact……………….. 54 Potential Impact of Social Media on Occupy Success………………... 55 Slacktivism…………………………………………………………. 59 Emergent Interview Themes……………………………………………. 61 Occupy Movement alive and successful………………………… 61 Generating awareness………………………………………. 63 Acceptable protests………………………………………….. 67 Building conversations and actions……………………….. 70 Successful Occupy as new social movement…………………… 72 Current Occupy Movement………………………………………. 73 Limitations………………………………………………………………… 77 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………. 78 Future Research…………………………………………………………… 79 Appendix A……………………………………………………………………… 81 iv Appendix B……………………………………………………………………… 82 Appendix C……………………………………………………………………… 105 Appendix D……………………………………………………………………… 116 Appendix E……………………………………………………………………… 135 Appendix F……………………………………………………………………… 156 Appendix G……………………………………………………………………… 197 Appendix H……………………………………………………………………… 201 Appendix I……………………………………………………………………….. 207 Appendix J……………………………………………………………………….. 208 References……………………………………………………………………….. 210 v I. Introduction In 2011, numerous protests in the Middle East, known as Arab Spring, as well as calls to action from a Canadian anarchist group inspired the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and sparked discussion about the state of social media and its effects on modern communication and activities. Political wonks and social activists pondered the widespread and publicized use of different social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, to spread ideas and organize protesters. Could the world be entering a new era of civic engagement where social media were the main tools of activists, free from traditional forms of oppression and open to the international forum? How were activists in modern social movements using social media? Were their protests different from previous social movements, such as those for labor unions? Could social media, disconnected from time and space on the Internet, bring people together so that they identify with each other and the values of the movement? The movement that started as Occupy Wall Street and became simply the Occupy Movement brought up many questions about the social, connective power of social media as it relates to the success or failure of a movement with a lofty goal: change how society functions. One factor that many social movement theorists have attributed to a social movement's success is its participants' sense of collective identity, a concept that ties individuals to the larger group's values and beliefs. Each member of the movement participates in the movement's activities, because it resonates with a part of that 1 member's identity, who they are fundamentally. This study proposes to explore the connection between social media use in relation to activities in the Occupy Movement, from information gathering to protest organizing to connection forming, and how much these participants would identify as an "Occupier", someone who is truly a part of the Occupy Movement regardless of their physical presence at Occupy sites. 2 II. Literature Review The literature explored in this chapter crosses several disciplines, but in the end centers on modern communication processes. Social movements and collective identity are studied more extensively in sociology, but social media are embedded in the field of communication and connect these sociological concepts. This chapter will explore these concepts as well as discover what has been said about the Occupy Movement, which has been a topic of interest in the communication field and popular discourse because of its fervent use of social media to organize without leaders and to advertise their activities. Social Media The terms "social media" and "social network sites", though ubiquitous in popular publications and everyday conversations, have rather ambiguous meanings. Many use them interchangeably, considering them conceptually equal. However, "social media" is a larger, more encompassing term under which "social network sites" can be placed. According to Howard and Parks (2012), social media are differentiated from other forms of media by the predominantly social aspect of their usage and design. They are "defined in three parts, consisting of (a) the information infrastructure and tools used to produce and distribute content; (b) the content that takes the digital form of personal messages, news, ideas, and cultural products; and c) the people, organizations, and industries that produce and consume digital content" (p. 362). In 3 other words, social media encompasses the structure, the people who use it, and the content they create on digital platforms for explicitly social purposes (i.e., building and maintaining relationships and forming communities). This term is, therefore, very broad and many different types of websites could be defined as part of social media. It also implies that social media have been present on the Internet for much longer than the popular media would make it appear. Mainstream interest only increased with the proliferation of social network sites in 2003, even though the first major social network site, known as SixDegrees.com, was launched in 1997 (boyd & Ellison, 2008). Usually, it is easier to think of social media in terms of individual social network sites (SNS). Instead of contemplating the entirety of social media, researchers seem to focus on one type of social network site, such as web logs (or blogs) or Facebook and Facebook-like sites (e.g., Orkut). This choice makes sense. Each site requires a different approach and highlights different aspects of people's social networks and their management. A blog allows for certain style of post-comment-reply interaction that differs from a more multi-faceted site that includes multiple ways to contact other users, such as LinkedIn. Unique cultures, with their own vocabulary and norms about what's acceptable (see for example, popular sites recommending how to write a "proper" Facebook status), emerge from the constraints of these different structures (Goodings, 2012). Despite their obvious differences, key features unite social network sites. boyd and Ellison (2008) define social network sites as "web-based services that allow 4 individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system" (p. 211). This definition not only makes the "social" aspect of social media more explicit and clear, but it also allows us to narrow down what it means for a website to be a "social network site." Not only can users of SNS present themselves online, as they can on many other websites, but they can also search out others and display their network of friends and acquaintances. It is the two latter features that make SNS unique. How SNS are used SNS offer a certain amount of