Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE 1 SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE By WENDY YVONNE SHEN Hon B.Sc., University of Toronto, 2008 A thesis submitted for the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in ENVIRONMENT AND MANAGEMENT ………………………………………………. Dr. Richard Kool, Thesis Supervisor School of Environment and Sustainability Royal Road University ………………………………………………. Dr. Christopher Ling, Director School of Environment and Sustainability Royal Road University ………………………………………………. Dr. Matthew Heinz, Dean Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences Royal Road University ROYAL ROADS UNIVERSITY July 2015 © Wendy Yvonne Shen, 2015 SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE 2 Abstract The Keystone XL pipeline project has been debated and reviewed by both Canadian and U.S. governments for many years, and as of the writing of this thesis (2015) the U.S. government has still not approved the permit to begin the construction of the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline project. As a result, supporters and opponents continue to try different ways of persuading and engaging the public. More and more organizations are turning to social media as a tool to inform, promote and persuade. This thesis examined how Cialdini’s persuasion principles along with Kietzmann et al.’s honeycomb social media framework were used to frame KXL website material, Facebook posts and Twitter tweets for 16 key players which included industry, associations, ENGOs and government agencies during protests, environmental disasters and policy-announcements. I found that the ENGOs used all or most of Cialdini’s persuasion principles to frame their opposition views, which translated into high social media engagement. SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE 3 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 3 Table of Figures .............................................................................................................................. 5 Table of Tables ............................................................................................................................... 6 Table of Appendix Tables ............................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 9 Background on the KXL Pipeline ............................................................................................... 9 Key players of the KXL pipeline debate ................................................................................... 13 Background on Key Events ...................................................................................................... 17 Oil sand versus tar sands .......................................................................................................... 17 Objective and Research Questions............................................................................................ 18 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 19 Content Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 19 Rhetoric, frames and analysis ................................................................................................... 21 Persuasion Theory and Social Media Engagement ................................................................... 24 Chapter 3: Research Methods ....................................................................................................... 32 Data Collection ......................................................................................................................... 32 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 38 Validity and Reliably for Qualitative Content Analysis ........................................................... 41 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 42 Chapter 4: Results ......................................................................................................................... 45 Manifest content........................................................................................................................ 46 Latent content............................................................................................................................ 51 Facebook Data .......................................................................................................................... 55 Twitter Data .............................................................................................................................. 65 Facebook and Twitter Analysis ................................................................................................ 76 Frequency of Cialdini’s Persuasion Principles in Facebook and Twitter Data ........................ 79 Chapter 5: Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 84 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 87 SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE 4 Final Thoughts .......................................................................................................................... 88 References ..................................................................................................................................... 90 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 111 Facebook Appendices ............................................................................................................. 112 Twitter Appendices ................................................................................................................. 114 SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE 5 Table of Figures Figure 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Figure 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 57 Figure 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 4 ......................................................................................................................................... 60 Figure 5 ......................................................................................................................................... 61 Figure 6 ......................................................................................................................................... 62 Figure 7 ......................................................................................................................................... 64 Figure 8 ......................................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 9 ......................................................................................................................................... 68 Figure 10 ....................................................................................................................................... 69 Figure 11 ....................................................................................................................................... 71 Figure 12 ....................................................................................................................................... 72 Figure 13 ....................................................................................................................................... 73 Figure 14 ....................................................................................................................................... 75 Figure 15 ....................................................................................................................................... 79 Figure 16 ....................................................................................................................................... 80 SOCIAL MEDIA PERSUASION: THE KXL PIPELINE DEBATE 6 Table of Tables Table 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Table 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Table 3 .........................................................................................................................................