Crawling from the Margin and Breaking the Silence: LGBTQ Networked Counterpublics, Advocacy, and Social Media A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Imran Mazid August 2017 © 2017 Imran Mazid. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled Crawling from the Margin and Breaking the Silence: LGBTQ Networked Counterpublics, Advocacy, and Social Media by IMRAN MAZID has been approved for the School of Media Arts & Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Wolfgang Sützl Assistant Professor of Media Arts & Studies Scott Titsworth Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii Abstract MAZID, IMRAN, Ph.D., August 2017, Media Arts & Studies Crawling from the Margin and Breaking the Silence: LGBTQ Networked Counterpublics, Advocacy, and Social Media Director of Dissertation: Wolfgang Sützl The purpose of this study is to examine how LGBTQ nonprofit organizations in the US and Canada use Facebook and Twitter for advocacy and dialogic relationship building. Specifically, this study investigates four broad aspects of social media use: (a) message strategy, (b) dialogic communication principle, (c) social media engagement, and (d) communication professionals’ perceptions of the use of social media. The study employs explanatory sequential mixed method research, a design that focuses primarily on quantitative analyses and conducts qualitative investigation to generate a better understanding of the quantitative results. The sample size for this study is 71 nonprofit organizations. The results reveal that LGBTQ nonprofits use social media mainly for no- advocacy messages. This study also illuminates that organizations employ three advocacy tactics—public education, media advocacy, and coalition building—more frequently than other advocacy tactics. Furthermore, these organizations use the dialogic loop principle more prominently than other dialogic principles. The dialogic loop and useful information to media principles elicit more user response, engagement, and advocacy from social media users. Interviews reveal that nonprofit organizations use social media for three primary purposes: (a) cross-promotion of their digital content, (b) to inform people about ongoing activities, and (c) fundraising. iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Professor Wolfgang Sützl, who supported me during the dissertation writing process. He was gracious, modest, and above all kind. He listened to my concerns and guided me through the dissertation journey. His critical feedback helped me sharpen my arguments. Dr. Sützl, I want to thank you for making yourself available and for encouraging me to keep moving. I also sincerely acknowledge the support and feedback of my committee members. I want to extend my gratitude to Prof. Steve Howard, Prof. Parul Jain, and Prof. Krisanna Machtmes for providing continuous guidance and necessary feedback. I am proud to say that my committee members were compassionate and showed patience during my writing process. I further want to thank my friend, Zulfia Zaher, who believed in me and encouraged me to think visually. Finally, I want to thank the faculty members in the School of Media Arts & Studies and the Patton College of Education for their continuous support. iv Table of Contents Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Rationale for the Study ................................................................................................... 4 Theoretical and Practical Relevance of the Study .......................................................... 6 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Analysis of Literature .......................................... 8 LGBTQ Nonprofit Organizations as Networked Counterpublic .................................... 8 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 10 Habermas and public sphere. .................................................................................... 11 Transforming codes, performing legitimacy: Social media and networked counterpublics. .......................................................................................................... 13 Analysis of Literature ................................................................................................... 17 LGBTQ social movement and the formation of counterpublic. ............................... 18 Beyond exploitation and euphoric celebration: The murky relationship between social media and social change. ................................................................................ 23 The terrain of nonprofit advocacy. ............................................................................ 27 Social media and nonprofit advocacy. ...................................................................... 31 Social media engagement. ........................................................................................ 33 Dialogic relationship. ................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 3: Research Design .............................................................................................. 45 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 51 Sample for Content Analysis ........................................................................................ 52 Data Collection for Content Analysis ........................................................................... 54 Coding Schemes for Content Analysis ......................................................................... 54 Measurement ................................................................................................................. 57 Reliability ...................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 4: Results ............................................................................................................. 59 Organizational-level Analyses ...................................................................................... 61 Quantitative Phase ........................................................................................................ 63 Summary of Quantitative Phase ................................................................................... 93 v Qualitative Phase .......................................................................................................... 94 Routine use of social media. ..................................................................................... 95 Social media for advocacy. ..................................................................................... 100 Relationship building. ............................................................................................. 106 Strength of social media for communication. ......................................................... 110 Limitations of social media for communication. .................................................... 112 Challenges for organizations. .................................................................................. 115 Strategic content creation and management............................................................ 118 Summary of Qualitative Phase ................................................................................... 125 Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative Results ................................................... 127 Chapter 5: Discussion ..................................................................................................... 131 Implications of the Research ....................................................................................... 134 Research & theoretical implications. ...................................................................... 134 Practical implications. ............................................................................................. 137 Suggestions for future research. .............................................................................. 138 Limitations of the study. ......................................................................................... 139 Strengths of the study. ............................................................................................. 139 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 140 References ....................................................................................................................... 143 Appendix 1: Coding Scheme for Advocacy Tactic ......................................................... 177 Appendix 2: Coding Scheme with Examples