Social media have ‘big bark,’ but bite is debated

Do Social Media Platforms Translate Into Social Impact?

(originally appears in The Philadelphia Tribune)

When the White House featured two unwitting fowls on its blog as part of a game for online enthusiasts to choose the national Thanksgiving turkey, officials saw it as simple holiday fun: visitors would only have to push hashtags #TeamCaramel or #TeamPopcorn as part of the voting process.

But what started off as the innocent, fun-filled use of social media turned into an uproar on Twitter and Facebook as users saw the stunt as an Obama-endorsed Hunger Games, pitting one turkey against turkey in a fight to the death. Instead of picking the winner, many social media mavens were on an advocacy quest to save an unlucky turkey from being the next White House holiday feast.

Only two weeks earlier, Education Secretary Arne Duncan found himself in a similarly tight Twitter-instigated spot, but for a much more serious issue.

When confronted about the Obama administration’s recently implemented Common Core academic standards, Duncan attributed controversy over the rollout to “white suburban moms” who feared “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.”

That triggered a nasty response in the so-called Twitter-verse and in the blogosphere from not only self-appointed white suburban soccer moms, but also a number of conservative bloggers and even a few school principals who called for Duncan’s firing.

As seminal events take their twists and turns through the zeitgeist, more often than not we’re as likely to tweet about it as we are to act on it. These days, critical issues aren’t as marked by mass picket sign movements as they are by anonymous user fuming on the Twitter feed.

But at the end of long, exhausting days immersed in snarky clashes, name-calling and incessant whining about the state of things, observers wonder out loud: Are social media translating into social impact?

The debate on the tangible, grassroots worthiness of social media has reached new levels as experts examine a number of major political shifts in recent years.

The massive Arab Spring movements that began in 2010 through North Africa and the Middle East (with the residue still present in places like Egypt, Syria and Libya) were for the most part attributed to sparks of increased youth social media advocacy in those societies.

In the United States, Twitter and Facebook activism are now permanent staples of social movements and political campaigns. Many progressive activists credit social media with spurring enhanced awareness of Stand Your Ground laws in the wake of Florida teen Trayvon Martin’s tragic death and the subsequent trial of his killer George Zimmerman. On the other side, conservative activists will point to the power of social media contributing to the demise of the highly anticipated Affordable Care Act rollout last month.

“Just this month, there was a forum where Black women touted the actual concrete impacts that they have had by using the power of Twitter to get many people to tweet out and at certain subjects,” notes blogger and lawyer Jeneba Ghatt, a Washington Times columnist who closely studies social media trends. “The most notable case was when Twitter replies caused a literary agent to rescind her offer to represent one of the Trayvon Martin jurors as a client and help her land a book deal. Twitter justice has led to the CTO of Business Insider losing his job for insensitive, homophobic and racist tweets he sent out.”

“Certainly, social media can and do have an impact on real life and can translate into tangible solutions.”

And no state, federal or local election campaign, including national presidential contests, can operate effectively without a built-in electronic apparatus. Total spending on digital advertising between the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaigns topped $300 million, double what it was in the 2008 election.

“An integrated campaign will use social media for outreach and day-to-day supporter engagement,” explains digital campaign expert Colin Delany of epolitics.com and author of “How to Use the Internet to Win in 2014”. Delany lists out the seemingly infinite number of ways the digital ecosystem influences American politics. “Online advertising for recruiting and turnout, email for fundraising and activation, analytics to guide the campaign outreach, grassroots canvassing to contact voters one to one, the candidate’s kids/pets to humanize him or her, etc etc ad nauseam.

“The magic is in knowing which voters to reach, when, and with what messaging.”

That’s critical in politics, especially as online political engagement continues to rise exponentially. A University of Chicago survey of 3,000 people ages 15-25 found “participatory” politics increasing or at relatively respectable levels in a democracy, with much of it driven by regular social media use. African-American youths, at 57 percent, are more likely than their white (51 percent), Latino (49 percent) or Asian-American (52 percent) counterparts to send messages, share status updates and links or routinely chat it up.

Overall, 41 percent of the youth demographic was reported to have been politically engaged in the previous year.

However, some experts express skepticism that social media activity really indicates high levels of actual political participation and mobilization.

“Thanks to social media they [younger users] really have it fairly easy compared to previous generations in terms of finding each other and finding their voice,” said Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina during a recent panel discussion on social media and governance at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. But she cautioned against reading too much into what she noted was an apparent “boom, bust cycle” in social media protests that have a “large bark, but no bite.”

“Negotiation makes a lot of things happen,” argued Tufecki when describing the critical need for conventional or traditional political process tools in triggering political and social change. Tufecki suggests that while there are positives to social media use, users shouldn’t discount the power of one-on-one interface that actually touches the elected official or institutions of governance. “You have a lot of people coming to power without negotiation. They come in as outsiders and you see this play out in governance.”

Advocacy and campaigns expert John Dunagan, senior vice president at strategic communications firm VOX Global, agrees. “It’s still very much an open question to me as to whether social media translates into tangible outcomes,” argues Dunagan, despite seeing the value in message aggregation and dissemination. “It can and has, from time to time. The SOPA/PIPA (online piracy/ intellectual property) fight is probably the best-known example to date where social media was effectively used as an advocacy tool.”

“But on a local zoning fight or a complex EPA rule …” added Dunagan with a pause. “I’m not so sure.”

While users sporting hoodies in their Twitter and Facebook profile pictures may have created a viral online movement fueling the hashtag sensation #TrayvonMartin, the fact still remains that his admitted killer went free, the state of Florida never repealed its maligned Stand Your Groud law and similar rules remain in 25 other states.

And while there are more than 600 African-American state elected officials throughout the United States — many playing key leadership roles in state legislatures — no one has yet started an effective nationwide “Stand Your Ground” repeal movement in the same fashion as conservative-dominated organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council successfully put those laws on the books.

Still, Ghatt provides an optimistic assessment of the future of social media in politics. “I agree that (some) Millennials o overuse social media and perhaps to the detriment of getting into the meat-and-potatoes political and legislative process,” Ghatt said. “But I am of the mind that the process will slowly incorporate voices on social media. The court of public opinion has always been that X factor or fitth element.”

Dunagan, however, points out the critical role physical or traditional interactions with lawmakers have in promoting issues in legislative institutions.

“I do believe it is possible for people, especially Millennials, to think they can avoid traditional activism just because they tweeted or posted something on Facebook,” argued Dunagan, a former senior Congressional aide who also managed operations for national presidential campaigns. “This “slacktivism” is a valid concern. There is still nothing more impactful to an elected official than a face to face meeting with a constituent who cares deeply about an issue. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to replace that.”