DOCSLIB.ORG

Social Media's Impact on College Student Activism: Senior Student Affairs Professional's Perspectives

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Social Media's Impact on College Student Activism: Senior Student Affairs Professional's Perspectives Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications Spring 2020 Social Media's Impact on College Student Activism: Senior Student Affairs Professional's Perspectives Louis Soltysiak Eastern Illinois University Follow this and additional works at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses Part of the Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Soltysiak, Louis, "Social Media's Impact on College Student Activism: Senior Student Affairs Professional's Perspectives" (2020). Masters Theses. 4803. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/4803 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Social Media's Impact on College Student Activism: Senior Student Affairs Professional's Perspectives By Louis Soltysiak THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Science in College Student Affairs Eastern Illinois University Charleston, Illinois 2020 College Student Activism 1 Abstract Activism has been an ever present on college campuses throughout history. The student activist has been a part of some of the biggest movements in American history, such as, the Anti-Vietnam War movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Kent State Massacre, and the #MeToo movement. This study seeks to understand student activism on college campuses and how activism has changed in our new digital era. The internet’s social media platforms have created new meeting places and areas for idea sharing for college activists. These social media platforms mean that students can remotely plan, organize, and execute their protests, demonstrations, or movements quicker than ever before. This has led to a relatively new idea of activism called slacktivism. This study interviewed student affair professionals about college student activists on their campuses and how they perceive students organizing and executing their movements. College Student Activism 2 Dedication This study is dedicated to all student activists across the country on college campuses. Continue to question life and fight for the rights of others and yourself. Activists must continue to push forward the conversation on political and social issues that the world faces. This study is also dedicated to Miguel Cabrera, the greatest right-handed hitter of his generation and beloved Detroit Tiger. Lastly this study has been dedicated to 2 Chainz, the coldest in the game. College Student Activism 3 Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................1 Dedication ...........................................................................................................................2 Chapter I .............................................................................................................................5 Introduction ......................................................................................................................5 Purpose of Study...........................................................................................................6 Research Questions ......................................................................................................7 Significance of the Study..............................................................................................8 Limitations ....................................................................................................................9 Definition of Terms ....................................................................................................10 Summary.....................................................................................................................10 Chapter II .........................................................................................................................12 Literature Review ...........................................................................................................12 Defining Activism ......................................................................................................12 Evolution of Activism ................................................................................................15 Impact on Family ........................................................................................................16 Civil Rights Movement ..............................................................................................19 Activism, Demonstrations, and Protests .....................................................................22 Slacktivism .................................................................................................................30 Slacktivism pros vs. cons ...........................................................................................32 Summary.....................................................................................................................37 Chapter III ........................................................................................................................39 Methods ..........................................................................................................................39 Design of Study ..........................................................................................................39 Participants .................................................................................................................40 Research Site ..............................................................................................................41 Instrumentation ...........................................................................................................41 Interview Protocol ......................................................................................................42 Data Collection ...........................................................................................................42 Data Analysis..............................................................................................................43 Treatment of Data .......................................................................................................43 College Student Activism 4 Summary.....................................................................................................................44 Chapter IV ........................................................................................................................45 Analysis ..........................................................................................................................45 Changes in activism on the college campus from the perspective of senior level administrators .............................................................................................................45 Apathy and Lacking leaders .......................................................................................46 Engaging in Civil Discourse .......................................................................................49 Defining Slacktivism ..................................................................................................53 How Social Media has Changed Activism on College Campuses .............................53 Use of Social Media ...................................................................................................53 Social Media Activism ...............................................................................................54 Institutional Use of Social Media ...............................................................................55 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................................57 Chapter V .........................................................................................................................59 Discussion ......................................................................................................................59 Evolution of Activism from Student Affairs Professional’s Perspective ...................59 Administrators’ Definition of Slacktivism .................................................................62 Activism on college Campuses Today .......................................................................64 Implications for Student Affairs Professionals...........................................................66 Recommendations for Future Research......................................................................67 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................69 References .........................................................................................................................72 Appendix A .......................................................................................................................80 Appendix B .......................................................................................................................83 College Student Activism 5 Chapter I Introduction Activism has been a large part of America’s history, starting with civil disobedience during the Revolutionary War to women’s suffrage to Vietnam War and the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Student Activism, Diversity, and the Struggle for a Just Society
    Journal of Diversity in Higher Education © 2016 National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education 2016, Vol. 9, No. 3, 189–202 1938-8926/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000039 INTRODUCTION Student Activism, Diversity, and the Struggle for a Just Society Robert A. Rhoads University of California, Los Angeles This introductory article provides a historical overview of various student move- ments and forms of student activism from the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement to the present. Accordingly, the historical trajectory of student activism is framed in terms of 3 broad periods: the sixties, the postsixties, and the contem- porary context. The author pays particular attention to student organizing to address racial inequality as well as other forms of diversity. The article serves as an introduction to this special issue and includes a brief summary of the remainder of the issue’s content. Keywords: student activism, student movements, student organizing, social justice, campus-based inequality During the early 1990s, as a doctoral student campus, including in classrooms and residence in sociology and higher education, I began to halls. The students also participated in the 1993 systematically explore forms of activism and March on Washington for lesbian, gay, and direct action on the part of U.S. college stu- bisexual rights. I too joined the march and re- dents. My dissertation work focused on gay and corded many of the students’ experiences and bisexual males, including most notably their reflections, some of which are included in Com- coming out experiences and the subsequent en- ing Out in College.
    [Show full text]
  • From Clicktivism to Hacktivism: Understanding Digital Activism
    Information & Organization, forthcoming 2019 1 From Clicktivism to Hacktivism: Understanding Digital Activism Jordana J. George Dorothy E. Leidner Mays Business School, Texas A&M University Baylor University ABSTRACT Digital activism provides new opportunities for social movement participants and social movement organizations (SMOs). Recent IS research has begun to touch on digital activism, defining it, exploring it, and building new theory to help understand it. This paper seeks to unpack digital activism through an exploratory literature review that provides descriptions, definitions, and categorizations. We provide a framework for digital activism by extending Milbrath’s (1965) hierarchy of political participation that divides activism into spectator, transitional, and gladiatorial activities. Using this framework, we identify ten activities of digital activism that are represented in the literature. These include digital spectator activities: clicktivism, metavoicing, assertion; digital transitional activities: e-funding, political consumerism, digital petitions, and botivism; and digital gladiatorial activities: data activism, exposure, and hacktivism. Last, we analyze the activities in terms of participants, SMOs, individuals who are targeted by the activity, and organizations that are targeted by the activity. We highlight four major implications and offer four meta-conjectures on the mechanisms of digital activism and their resulting impacts, and reveal a new construct where participants digitally organize yet lack an identifying cause, which we label connective emotion. Key Words Digital activism, social activism, political participation, social movements, connective emotion, literature review 1.0 Introduction Not long ago, activism to promote social movements was relegated to demonstrations and marches, chaining oneself to a fence, or writing to a government representative. Recruiting, organizing, and retaining participants was difficult enough to ensure that often only largest, best supported movements thrived and creating an impact often took years.
    [Show full text]
  • Health Slacktivism on Social Media: Predictors and Effects
    Health Slacktivism on Social Media: Predictors and Effects Chih-Wei Hu Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, USA [email protected] Abstract. The present study examined predictors, moderators, and effects of health slacktivism, which is characterized as individuals’ effortless acts in supporting health causes primarily through Internet and social media. Findings revealed that issue-involvement and self-presentation were two underlying predictors of slacktivism. Specifically, ingratiation self-presentation was found to be a significant predictor of slacktivism among slacktivists, while enhancement self-presentation predicted slacktivism among activists. Results imply that strategic impression-management types were associated with health slacktivism among particular sub-groups. It is also found that health slacktivists and activists differed by relational connection. Slacktivists tended to be people who were remotely related to the health issue advocated, while activists were people who had closer relational connection to the health issue. Health consciousness, however, was not a significant predictor of slacktivism nor a differentiating factor between slacktivists and activists. Consistent with the Transtheoretical Model, slacktivism was found to have positive effects among participants in terms of awareness, psychological wellbeing, behavioral intention and behavior adoption. Individuals’ low-threshold engagement as slacktivism also predicted their high-threshold engagement (activism), implying that getting involved in slacktivism does not substitute for offline forms of participation but may increase the possibility of offline engagement instead. Keywords: slacktivism, activism, social media, health campaign, health consciousness, issue-involvement, self-presentation. 1 Introduction Web 2.0 has changed the way people engage in social activism in that the Internet have opened up a new world for quick access and connection to online campaigns of various social causes [1-2].
    [Show full text]
  • Blacklivesmatter—Getting from Contemporary Social Movements to Structural Change
    Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2021 #BlackLivesMatter—Getting from Contemporary Social Movements to Structural Change Jamillah Bowman Williams Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] Naomi Mezey Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] Lisa O. Singh Georgetown University, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2387 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3860435 California Law Review Online, Vol. 12, Reckoning and Reformation symposium. This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Law and Society Commons #BlackLivesMatter— Getting from Contemporary Social Movements to Structural Change Jamillah Bowman Williams*, Naomi Mezey**, and Lisa Singh*** Introduction ................................................................................................. 2 I. Methodology ............................................................................................ 5 II. BLM: From Contemporary Social Movement to Structural Change ..... 6 A. Black Lives Matter as a Social Media Powerhouse ................. 6 B. Tweets and Streets: The Dynamic Relationship between Online and Offline Activism ................................................. 12 C. A Theory of How to Move from Social Media
    [Show full text]
  • The Commune Movement During the 1960S and the 1970S in Britain, Denmark and The
    The Commune Movement during the 1960s and the 1970s in Britain, Denmark and the United States Sangdon Lee Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History September 2016 i The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement ⓒ 2016 The University of Leeds and Sangdon Lee The right of Sangdon Lee to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ii Abstract The communal revival that began in the mid-1960s developed into a new mode of activism, ‘communal activism’ or the ‘commune movement’, forming its own politics, lifestyle and ideology. Communal activism spread and flourished until the mid-1970s in many parts of the world. To analyse this global phenomenon, this thesis explores the similarities and differences between the commune movements of Denmark, UK and the US. By examining the motivations for the communal revival, links with 1960s radicalism, communes’ praxis and outward-facing activities, and the crisis within the commune movement and responses to it, this thesis places communal activism within the context of wider social movements for social change. Challenging existing interpretations which have understood the communal revival as an alternative living experiment to the nuclear family, or as a smaller part of the counter-culture, this thesis argues that the commune participants created varied and new experiments for a total revolution against the prevailing social order and its dominant values and institutions, including the patriarchal family and capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Poking the Bear: Feminist Online Activism Disrupting Conservative Power
    DSJ, 5(Fall 2019/2020), 28-44 ISSN: 2578-2029 Copyright © 2020 Research Articles Poking the Bear: Feminist Online Activism Disrupting Conservative Power Rusa Jeremic University of Toronto INTRODUCTION his is the time for a critical digital pedagogy that simultaneously recognizes both the potential inherent in social media to challenge power and build movements and the dangers T lurking in a fake news era that spreads hate, division, and distraction. This paper explores how Canadian digital feminist activists challenged conservative power over three federal elections with innovative creativity using critical pedagogical humour that resulted in an impromptu online social movement focused on ousting the Prime Minister. CHALLENGING AUTHORITARIAN POWER WITH A SMILE efore Trump, Canadian Conservative Party member Stephen Harper sat as Prime Minister from 2006-2015. Although Harper might appear a stark contrast to the bombastic Trump, B while in power, he enacted policies that were nothing short of a slow erosion of Canadian democracy. He ruled by stealth through a steady and consistent attack on fundamental Canadian values. Harper refused to speak to the media, enacted policies that violated and eroded women’s rights, and vowed to create a “barbaric cultural practices” (Andrew-Gee, 2015, para 1) snitch line targeting immigrants, amongst other inflammatory acts. His actions signalled a turn toward authoritarianism and a battle of competing ideologies. Parallel to Harper’s time in power, the emergence of Web 2.0 social media tools created the opportunity for all kinds of people to engage in online activism as content producers/educators. A good number of those people were women.
    [Show full text]
  • Hashtag Activism and Why #Blacklivesmatter in (And To) the Classroom
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Brooklyn College 2016 Hashtag Activism and Why #BlackLivesMatter In (And To) the Classroom Prudence Cumberbatch CUNY Brooklyn College Nicole Trujillo-Pagán Wayne State University How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bc_pubs/189 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] ISSN: 1941-0832 Hashtag Activism and Why #BlackLivesMatter In (and To) the Classroom by-Prudence Cumberbatch and Nicole Trujillo-Pagán PROTEST MARCH IN RESPONSE TO THE SHOOTING OF PHILANDO CASTILE, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA ON JULY 7, 2016 (IMAGE: FIBONACCI BLUE) RADICAL TEACHER 78 http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu No. 106 (Fall 2016) DOI 10.5195/rt.2016.302 n the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin and the not only transform people's self-understandings but also acquittal of George Zimmerman, the hashtag contest the legitimacy of received cultural codes and points I #BlackLivesMatter was started by Alicia Garza, of view” (Carroll and Hackett 2006, 87). A critical part of PatrisseCullors and Opal Tometi. 1 The case led to this discursive struggle involves social media, which multiracial protests across the country and Twitter became creates a virtual space to challenge, reframe, and a way of organizing and discussing these experiences. The reinscribe representations of who is victimized. subsequent media attention to the murders of unarmed Communities like Black Lives Matter (BLM) challenge the black and brown people encouraged further protest using legitimacy of an ostensibly “colorblind” judicial system.
    [Show full text]
  • Rebel Girls This Page Intentionally Left Blank Rebel Girls
    Rebel Girls This page intentionally left blank Rebel Girls Youth Activism and Social Change across the Americas Jessica K. Taft a New York University Press New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2011 by New York University All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Taft, Jessica K. Rebel girls : youth activism and social change across the Americas / Jessica K. Taft. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–8147–8324–5 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–8147–8325–2 (pb : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–8147–8337–5 (ebook) 1. Teenage girls—Political activity—America. 2. Youth—Political activity—America. 3. Social action—America. I. Title. HQ799.2.P6T35 2010 305.235’2097—dc22 2010024128 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America c 10987654321 p 10987654321 For all the girls fighting the good fight in their schools and communities. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction: Growing Up and Rising Up 1 Part 1: Building the Activist Identity 2 We Are Not Ophelia: Empowerment and Activist Identities 23 3 We Are Not the Future: Claiming Youth Authority 47 4 We Are Not Girls: Escaping and Defining Girlhood 71 Part 2: Making Change Happen 5 The Street Is Our Classroom: A Politics of Learning 99 6 Join the Party: A Politics of Participation 123 7 We’ve Got Spirit: A Politics of Hope 151 8 Conclusion: Still Rising 177 Methodological Appendix 193 Demographic Tables 201 Notes 205 Index 229 About the Author 241 | vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Several amazing political and intellectual communities have sus- tained and inspired me throughout the process of research and writing this book.
    [Show full text]
  • Twitter and the #Bringbackourgirls Campaign by Chelsey
    The Technology of Hope: Twitter and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign by Chelsey Smith A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In Intercultural and International Communication Royal Roads University Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Supervisor: Dr. David Black August 29, 2015 • Chelsey Smith, 2015 Committee Approval The members of Chelsey Smith’s Thesis Committee certify that they have read the thesis titled The Technology of Hope: Twitter and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication: Dr. David Black, Associate Professor [signature on file] School of Communication & Culture Royal Roads University Dr. Chaseten Remillard, Professor [signature on file] School of Communication & Culture Royal Roads University Dr. Merlyna Lim, Assistant Professor [signature on file] School of Journalism and Communication Carleton University Final approval and acceptance of this thesis is contingent upon submission of the final copy of the thesis to Royal Roads University. The thesis supervisor confirms to have read this thesis and recommends that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements: Dr. David Black [signature on file] 2 Creative Commons Statement This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/. Some material in this work is not being made available under the terms of this license: • Third-Party material that is being used under fair dealing or with permission.
    [Show full text]
  • Student Activism As Labor
    "A Student Should Have the Privilege of Just Being a Student": Student Activism as Labor Chris Linder, Stephen John Quaye, Alex C. Lange, Ricky Ericka Roberts, Marvette C. Lacy, Wilson Kwamogi Okello The Review of Higher Education, Volume 42, Supplement 2019, pp. 37-62 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2019.0044 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/724910 Access provided at 5 Jul 2019 18:36 GMT from University of Utah LINDER ET. AL. / Student Activism as Labor 37 The Review of Higher Education Special Issue 2019, Volume 42, Supplement, pp. 37–62 Copyright © 2019 Association for the Study of Higher Education All Rights Reserved (ISSN 0162–5748) “A Student Should Have the Privilege of Just Being a Student”: Student Activism as Labor Chris Linder, Stephen John Quaye, Alex C. Lange, Ricky Ericka Roberts, Marvette C. Lacy, and Wilson Kwamogi Okello Chris Linder (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Utah, where she studies sexual violence and student activism through a power-conscious, historical lens. Chris identi- fies as a queer, white cisgender woman from a working-class background and earned a PhD in Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. Stephen John Quaye is associate professor in the Student Affairs in Higher Education Program at Miami University and Past President of ACPA: College Student Educators International. His research focuses on strategies for engaging in difficult dialogues; student and scholar activism; and healing from racial battle fatigue.
    [Show full text]
  • Mediatized Populisms: Inter-Asian Lineages
    International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 4073–4092 1932–8036/20170005 Mediatized Populisms: Inter-Asian Lineages Introduction PAULA CHAKRAVARTTY New York University, USA SRIRUPA ROY University of Göttingen, Germany1 This essay offers an explanation for the rise of contemporary “mediatized populisms.” Disaggregating the idea of a singular media logic of populist politics, we examine the institutional and political-economic dynamics of mediatization and the variegated structures of mediated political fields in which contemporary populist political formations are embedded. Moving away from broad “global populism” approaches as well as case studies from Europe and the Americas that have thus far dominated discussions of populism, we make the case for empirically grounded comparative studies of populism from the particular standpoint of regional contexts across Asia that offer theoretical insights often missed in prevailing “technology-first” and election-focused approaches. We then outline three distinctive features of media-politics relations (and their transformations) that have enabled the contemporary rise of mediatized populism across the Inter-Asian region. Keywords: populism, mediatization, Inter-Asian, comparative politics, political economy Paula Chakravartty: [email protected] Srirupa Roy: [email protected] Date submitted: 2017–08–31 1 Research for this essay is funded by the Social Science Research Council of New York’s Transregional Virtual Research Institute on Media Activism and the New Political. Most of the essays in this Special Section were presented at a Social Science Research Council (SSRC) InterAsia workshop on Mediatized Populism Across InterAsia, which was held in Seoul in April 2016. We are grateful to Seteney Shami and Holly Danzeisen of the SSRC, and to all our participants and especially our workshop co-organizer, Zeynep Gambetti, for their deep and constructive engagements and insights.
    [Show full text]
  • Navigating University Bureaucracy for Social Change: Transgender & Gender-Nonconforming Students Kate Hoffman
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Senior Theses Honors College 5-5-2017 Navigating University Bureaucracy for Social Change: Transgender & Gender-Nonconforming Students Kate Hoffman Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses Part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hoffman, Kate, "Navigating University Bureaucracy for Social Change: Transgender & Gender-Nonconforming Students" (2017). Senior Theses. 165. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses/165 This Thesis is brought to you by the Honors College at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Navigating University Bureaucracy for Social Change: Transgender & Gender-Nonconforming Students By: Kate Hoffman Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation with Honors from the South Carolina Honors College University of South Carolina Spring 2017 Approved by: ______________________________________________________ Laura C. Hein, Ph.D, RN, FAAN Director of Thesis ______________________________________________________ John Dozier, Ed.D Second Reader Hoffman 1 Introduction 2 Barriers that TGNC Students Face at the University of South Carolina 6 Housing 7 University Identification and Official Documentation 9 Restrooms 10 Student Health Services 12 Classroom and Campus Environment 14 University Police & Behavioral Intervention 15 Available
    [Show full text]