Citizen Engagement in a Digital Age Twitters’ Role to Civic and Political Mobilizations Amber Ebrahim 10202234 Master thesis Political Science: International Relations University of Amsterdam, 23 June 2017 Supervised by dr. S. Tanaka Second reader: G. Schumacher [email protected] Harvard Style (formatting) 1 Abstract Using empirical data, this thesis examines several theories on civic mobilizations and political engagement on social networking platforms. In specific, the impact of three drivers of political mobilization and participation on social networking platforms (political party platforms, hashtags and social capital) will be assessed. By focusing on three subcases of Kinderpardon in the Netherlands, this thesis can fill the empirical and theoretical gap in the existing literature. By constructing the three drivers of political mobilization, the impact of different factors on social networking platforms can be determined and measured more specifically. The results of this thesis indicate a predominantly positive relationship between the use of social networking platforms and political engagement, with informational, expressive, and relational uses being of particular importance. Keywords: political engagement, civic mobilizations, social networking platforms, political party platforms, hashtags, media-hypes, social capital. 2 Table of Contents Abstract p. 2 List of abbreviations p. 4 List of tables p. 4 List of figures p. 4 Chapter 1: Introduction p. 5 Chapter 2: Literature review p. 9 2.1 Contemporary Western democracies p. 10 2.2 Political participation on social networking platforms p. 11 2.2.1 Web 2.0 p. 12 2.3 Media-hypes p. 13 2.4 The mobilizing role of social media p. 14 Chapter 3: Theory p. 16 3.1 Awareness and information on political platforms p. 17 3.2 Hashtags p. 20 3.3 Social capital p. 21 Chapter 4: Case Study p. 24 Chapter 5: Methodology p. 27 5.1 Data p. 27 5.2 Research design p. 28 5.3 Data collection p. 29 5.4 Population and sample p. 31 5.5 Measurement instruments p. 31 5.5.1 Dependent variable p. 31 5.5.2 Independent variables p. 32 5.6 Ethical considerations p. 32 Chapter 6: Analysis p. 33 6.1 Empirical data on Kinderpardon p. 33 6.2 Political party platforms p. 34 6.3 Hashtags & trending topics p. 43 6.4 Social capital p. 48 Chapter 7: Conclusion p. 51 7.1 Discussion p. 51 7.2 Limitations p. 53 7.3 Future research p. 55 List of References p. 55 3 List of abbreviations BLM – Black Lives Matter ICT – Information and Communication Technologies U.S. – United States IND – Immigration and Naturalisation Service List of tables Table 1: Overview of the reviews case studies p. 16 Table 2: Categories of social media analysis p. 30 Table 3: Overview of spikes in the amount of tweets mentioning p. 34 Kinderpardon Table 4: Top 30 of Dutch politicians on Twitter p. 38 List of figures Figure 1: Cumulative percentages of messages with strong hashtags p. 20 on social networking platforms Figure 2: Conceptual model p. 24 Figure 3: Number of tweets in dataset mentioning Kinderpardon by day p. 34 Figure 4: Most important media for Dutch politicians in 2013 p. 36 Figure 5: Most important social networking platforms for Dutch politicians p. 37 in 2013 Figure 6: Classification of Dutch politicians following people on Twitter p. 40 Figure 7: Daily use of Twitter by Dutch politicians in 2013 p. 41 Figure 8: Trending topics regarding Kinderpardon in dataset p. 43 Figure 9: Amount of attention for Wime (green), Doritty (blue) and Tri p. 47 (orange) in dataset Figure 10: Examples of tweets by Dutch politician Linda Voortman on p. 48 the case of Wime Figure 11: Number of petitions signed for Doritty during the period p. 49 of analysis Figure 12: Number of petitions signed for Tri during the period of analysis p. 50 Figure 13: Number of petitions signed for Wime during the period of analysis p. 50 4 1. Introduction Political movements based on digital coordination seem to gather momentum rapidly; yet, many have proved to be unstable and difficult to sustain (Margetts et al. 2016: 4). The Arab Spring in 2014 and the Brazil uprisings in 2014 took most of the world by surprise and pose a challenge to social scientists interested in political communication. Much of the literature in political science is devoted to the study of democratic societies and revolving around the question of whether the government is responsive to the preferences of the mass public. In order for politicians to be responsive to the publics’ preferences and problems, they need to be paying attention to the policy views and debates the public engage with in order to avoid massive uprisings such as the above-mentioned examples. However, the ecology of the online discussions and how the changing use of social media1 affects citizen engagement and eventually politics is not yet fully researched and understood. This thesis is dedicated to increase the academic understanding of the relation between online discussions and various forms of political mobilizations with political engagement, and the effects of these online discussions on different cases within the same topic of discussion. Throughout the year, politicians and individuals send millions of messages, called tweets into the world (Parmelee and Bichard 2012: 1). As social networking platforms move from being regarded as little more than a temporary mania to becoming integrated into the everyday life of millions of people, corporations and organizations, empirical research in the social sciences are starting to form a picture of how this widely popular and distributed form of communication affects democracy and political participation by the public (Gustafsson 2010: 3). As people go about their daily lives, they are invited to make “micro-donations” of their personal time and effort to support political causes (Bennett & Margetts 2013, Margetts 2015). These micro-donations include liking, sharing, retweeting, signing petitions, and so on, extending the ladder of participation at the lower end, offering the public to exercise continuous pressure on their democratically elected politicians (ibid). The narrative of this online engagement and the discussions occurring on social media is, in many cases, led by events or happenings that deviate from the status quo. A specific case would be Kinderpardon, emerging in 2011 and engaging the Dutch public online to take part in the debate on whether or not children from 1 The terms social media, social networking platforms and new media will be used interchangeable in this thesis. 5 refugees are allowed to stay in the country when their parents are refused asylum or a residence permit. I review three children (referred to as subcases) with different outcomes in this thesis. This leads to the following central research question: Within a single topic, why do some cases get more attention than others on social networking platforms? Two sub questions are raised in order to deepen the analysis and to increase the understanding of the relation between social networking platforms and politicians. How does the use of social networking platforms by the public lead to increased citizen engagement? Does the increased citizen engagement on social networking platforms increase the level of interest/engagement by politicians? The theoretical foundation of the questions raised in this introduction is based on literature that connects political civic movements (based on erupting issues and events) in Western democracies with the emergence of social media (Margetts et al. 2016; Rasmussen et al. 2017; Kruikemeier et al. 2014; Barberá et al. 2014; Gustafsson 2010; Freelon et al. 2016; Vasterman 2004). Several theories are attached to this emergence; firstly, collective frames create a dominant societal definition of a problem, therefore increasing the visibility and the gravity of the issue (Vasterman 2004: 41). Collective frames are in this study regarded as hashtags; one or more words characteristic for a specific topic or a subgroup on social media. This in turn increases the agenda setting functionality of social networking platforms, making it more likely that an issue is identified by politicians and eventually added to the political agenda or resulting in a policy success. Secondly, political activities have shifted from offline activities such as attending meetings in formal organizations towards online engagement (Gustafsson 2010: 7). This knowledge is increasingly important for the relevance of this study. If connecting with the public through social networking platforms increases, politicians have not only the ability to promote themselves, but also to mobilize voters and to have interactive conversations with the public (Kruikemeier et al. 2014). 6 I argue that specific events, pushed by different conditions, lead to an increased amount of attention on social networking platforms in the form of online discussions. If the amount of attention increases among the public, a higher number of actors becomes active on the issue. When Dutch politicians get engaged in the online conversation, it becomes more likely that a motion for a policy change will be submitted at the Second Chamber. In order to test this argument, I analyze a set of factors that condition the impact of online discussions on politicians. First, public opinion might play a stronger role if a higher number of non-governmental actors are actively participating in the online discussion regarding an issue. Second, different types of online and offline connections between people on social networking platforms play a role in the attainment of policy to different degrees (Rasmussen et al. 2017: 3). Third, the use of strong hashtags makes it easier for people to find discussions that are already taking place on social networking platforms, making it easier to get engaged. As nowadays most communication goes through social media, this will be the main stage of the research. This argument is inherently related to the number of actors active on a particular issue, but also to the matter of influence the public may have on political decision makers.