TY - JOUR
T1 - Shifting stakes
T2 - Understanding the dynamic roles of individuals and organizations in social media protests
AU - Spiro, Emma S.
AU - Monroy-Hernández, Andrés
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Spiro, Monroy-Hernández. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2016/10
Y1 - 2016/10
N2 - In this paper we examine two protests characterized by substantial social media presence and distributed participation frameworks via two core questions: what roles did organizations and individuals play, and how did participants' social interactions change over the course of the protests? To answer these questions, we analyzed a large Twitter activity dataset for the #YoSoy132 student uprising in Mexico and Brazil's "bus rebellion." Results indicate that individuals initially took prominence at the protests but faded in importance as the movements dwindled and organizations took over. Regarding the dynamics and structure of the interactions, we found that key time points with unique social structures often map to exogenous events such as coordinated protests in physical locations. Our results have important consequences for the visibility of such social movements and their ability to attract continued participation by individuals and organizations.
AB - In this paper we examine two protests characterized by substantial social media presence and distributed participation frameworks via two core questions: what roles did organizations and individuals play, and how did participants' social interactions change over the course of the protests? To answer these questions, we analyzed a large Twitter activity dataset for the #YoSoy132 student uprising in Mexico and Brazil's "bus rebellion." Results indicate that individuals initially took prominence at the protests but faded in importance as the movements dwindled and organizations took over. Regarding the dynamics and structure of the interactions, we found that key time points with unique social structures often map to exogenous events such as coordinated protests in physical locations. Our results have important consequences for the visibility of such social movements and their ability to attract continued participation by individuals and organizations.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0165387
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0165387
M3 - Article
C2 - 27776191
AN - SCOPUS:84992385082
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 11
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 10
M1 - e0165387
ER -