Slacktivism revisited

It's been an interesting module so far—reading about online activism while playing out a bit of online activism of my own. My Change.org petition to save McDougall Church is quickly closing in on 1,200 signatories, with hundreds upon hundreds of them leaving passionate, articulate testimonials on the "Reasons I signed" message board.

It was interesting and heartening to read the Christensen article, with its cautiously positive message about so-called slactivism  (“at worst harmless fun and can at best help invigorate citizens”). Had I not taken this course, I may never have even considered launching an online petition. Sure, I had signed a few over the years (usually only to placate friends), but I would have counted myself a cynic. Do these things really accomplish anything other than simply allowing people to feel virtuous? Do they change anything? Do they distract from more traditional (and more effective) forms of activism?

Christensen fails to find any tangible evidence that online petitions achieve their goals, but he quite correctly points out that they don't often actually expect to. He also can find no evidence that online activism in any way diminishes its off-line, IRL counterpart, and finds some evidence that it may actually promote it.

My experience with the McDougall petition—sign it, awreddy!—has shown that an online petition can greatly invigorate interest in a cause, and that it can act as a repository of articulate, tangible support. So far, it has also done nothing to diminish or distract from the actions of Friends of McDougall, the group organizing the off-line strategies to save the building.

Another of this week's readings that particularly piqued my interest was Mitchell & Hitlin's piece on Twitter—specifically their observation that Twitter reactions generally tend to be more liberal than overall public opinion (though, occasionally, the opposite can be true, at least in the U.S.).

This week my biggest Twitter kick has been following the #PrenticeBlamesAlbertans hashtag, the massive outpouring of outraged and/or satirical tweets in reaction to Premier Jim Prentice's unfortunate statement that Albertans should "look in the mirror" to determine the cause of Alberta's current financial woes.

Along with the delicious online torrent of snark, the hashtag generated a few superb memes:

"Look in the mirror", Prentice tells everyone but Prentice. #PrenticeBlamesAlbertans pic.twitter.com/TU19Xx6gi5
— sally poulsen (@SallyPoulsen) March 5, 2015

References:

Christensen, H. (2011). “Political Activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or Political Participation by Other Means?” First Monday. Retrieved March 8, 2015 at http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3336/2767

Mitchell, A & Hitlin, P. (2013). “Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion,” Pew Research Center. Retrieved March 8, 2015 at http://journalistsresource.org/studies/politics/elections/pew-research-twitter-reaction-events-odds-overall-public-opinion