Shit Harper Did: A community speaking truth to power? Jill Piebiak A Thesis in The Department of Communications Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Media Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada August 2014 © Jill Piebiak, 2014 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Entitled: and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of ____________________________________________________________ complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: ______________________________________ Chair Tangy Duff ______________________________________ Examiner Liz Miller ______________________________________ Examiner Lisa Lynch ______________________________________ Supervisor Fenwick McKelvey Approved by ________________________________________________ Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director ________________________________________________ Dean of Faculty Date ________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Shit Harper Did: A community speaking truth to power? Jill Piebiak How did a small group of motivated citizens, with limited funds, break into a sphere of political commentary reserved for media and political elite? Built by a group of Vancouver-based comedians, in 2011, the website Shit Harper Did (SHD) mockingly reframed Harper’s policies through a number of satirical YouTube videos begging Canadians not to re-elect the Prime Minister. In 2013, SHD relaunched a community-based website, built on NationBuilder, and aired a TV commercial crowdfunded on IndieGoGo. They learned new organizing strategies and SHD embraced their online community. Their humorous interventions and media tactics have complimented their current, long-term strategy enabling them to become a sustained and engaged political organization. This group exemplifies how non-elite actors mobilize social media and online organizing software to influence Canadian politics. Political advocacy in Canada changes as online organizations find new strategies to run issue-based campaigns on the power of donations and volunteer actions. iii DEDICATION Thank you to, my Mom and Dad for encouraging me to be outspoken, giving me the space to become myself, calming me down, and teaching me about the healing powers of Spirytus. (Dealing with my Shit) my friends for taking me away from this document and reminding me that good people are found everywhere. (People are not Shit) Fenwick McKelvey for teaching me about every concept in this document and guiding me through this writing process. (Teaching me a whole lot of Shit) And to the internet for stealing all my time and revealing that every minor ailment incurred while writing this thesis was a sure sign of death. (The internet is a piece of Shit). iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF IMAGES ....................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 6 Part I: Media and Democracy ..................................................................................................... 6 Part II: Tactical Media .............................................................................................................. 13 Part III Traffic Tag Timeline: A New Way to Organize .......................................................... 18 Chapter Two: Methodology .......................................................................................................... 23 Part I: Two Campaigns ............................................................................................................. 24 Part II: Web Sphere Analysis .................................................................................................... 26 Part III: Content Analysis ......................................................................................................... 31 Part IV: Interviews .................................................................................................................... 33 Part V: Triangulation of Methods ............................................................................................. 35 Chapter Three: “Seriously? Tell me some other shit!” Shit Harper Did takes on the 2011 Federal Election ......................................................................................................................................... 36 Part I Context: A Social Media Election ................................................................................... 38 Part II Motivation and Inspiration: Building Shit Harper Did .................................................. 41 Part III Traffic Tag Timeline: The Dissemination of SHD ....................................................... 53 Part IV Media Analysis: “Scatological attack on Stephen Harper’s record goes viral” ........... 65 Part V Discussion: Why SHD Matters ...................................................................................... 67 Part VI Conclusion: Harper Wins 166 of 308 Seats ................................................................. 73 Chapter Four: “Shit Harper Did Thinks You Matter” Becoming a Movement ............................ 76 Part I The New Website: Shit Harper Did 2.0 .......................................................................... 77 Part II Campaign Two: “Bought vs. Earned Media” and SHD’s Response to Canada’s Economic Action Plan .............................................................................................................. 82 Part III Social Media and SHD’s Anti-CEAP Campaign: Finding New Ways to Gain Support ................................................................................................................................................... 89 Part IV Media Analysis: “Anti-Harper comedians seek ‘meaningful’ change” ....................... 98 Part V Discussion: “We Heard Your Feedback Loud and Clear” .......................................... 100 Part VI Conclusion: Issue-Based Campaigning ...................................................................... 105 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 106 List of References ....................................................................................................................... 114 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 121 v LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Traffic tag search terms ................................................................................................ 29 Table 2.2: Unsuccessful traffic tag searched on all platforms ....................................................... 29 Table 3.1: University vote mob YouTube videos posted during 2011 federal election ................ 40 Table 3.2: First batch of YouTube videos posted by ShitHarperDid ............................................ 56 Table 3.3: Second batch of YouTube videos posted by ShitHarperDid ........................................ 59 Table 3.4: Traffic tags in order of number of results ..................................................................... 62 Table 3.5: Third batch of YouTube videos posted by ShitHarperDid ........................................... 64 Table 3.6: Posts by others on Shit Harper Did’s Facebook page ................................................... 64 Table 4.1: YouTube videos and popularity .................................................................................... 87 Table 4.2: Traffic tags in order of number of results ..................................................................... 90 Table 4.5: Posts by others on Shit Harper Did’s Facebook page ................................................... 93 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: SHD content sharing by platform and time ................................................................. 55 Figure 3.2: “Celine Dion Not Endorsing ShitHarperDid.com” Daily Views ................................ 57 Figure 3.3: “Celine Dion Not Endorsing ShitHarperDid.com” Cumulative Views ...................... 58 Figure 3.4: Daily views of “Canadian Women’s Favourite Pick-Up Line” .................................. 61 Figure 4.1: “You can help get this ShitHarperDid video on national TV!” Daily Views ............. 87 Figure 4.2: “You can help get this ShitHarperDid video on national TV!” Cumulative Views .... 88 Figure 4.3: SHD content sharing by platform and time ................................................................. 91 vii LIST OF IMAGES Image 3.1: “WhatTheFuckHasObamaDoneSoFar.com” ............................................................... 42 Image 3.2: “BarackObamaIsYourNewBicycle.com” ...................................................................