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Article
Publication date: 8 August 2016

Avichai Shuv-Ami

This paper aims to present changes in customer brand commitment and its components in relation to the cellular and financial markets using three sets of data that were collected…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present changes in customer brand commitment and its components in relation to the cellular and financial markets using three sets of data that were collected before, during and after the social protests of the Summer of 2011 in Israel.

Design/methodology/approach

The four data sets for this study were collected from an internet panel and represent the Hebrew-speaking segment of Israel’s population. The current study examines two markets; cellular provider companies and financial service companies. The surveys were carried out at different points in time which extended from April 2011 to March 2012. The first two surveys were carried out in March 2011 and May 2011, before the outbreak of the protests the Summer of 2011. A third survey was conducted in August 2011 during the protest. The last and the fourth survey was conducted in March 2012 after the wave of protests had died down.

Findings

The current research shows that as a result of the social protest movement, consumers have changed. They perceive brands as not being as good (perceived performance) as they were before the protest; they are less satisfied with the brands they used previously; and they are less loyal and committed to them.

Practical implications

The findings of this study signify a major change in marketing and in basic aspects of consumer behavior. Brands have become less important than before the protest. Testing two markets, cellular and financial, this research suggests that the social protest movement reduced the attachment of consumers to brands they most often bought.

Originality/value

No study has tested the impact over time of the social protest on several consumer behavior variables, including brand loyalty, brand involvement, satisfaction, consumer perceptions of their brands’ performance and brand commitment.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2019

Ozum Ucok-Sayrak and David M. Deiuliis

This paper aims to discuss the role of social media during the Gezi Park protests (2013) in Turkey in facilitating and promoting the expression of what matters to the protestors…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss the role of social media during the Gezi Park protests (2013) in Turkey in facilitating and promoting the expression of what matters to the protestors in a communicative environment where most traditional media turned away from reporting the events. Furthermore, the role of social media in promoting “interspaces” (Arendt, 1955/1983) and constructing “communicative dwellings” that maintain public conversation of diverse ideas during the Gezi Park events (Arnett et al., 2014, p. 14) is highlighted.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use the framework of communication ethics and conflict offered by Arnett et al. (2014) that highlights the importance of recognizing “the goods that matter to oneself and others” (p. 17) in a conflict situation.

Findings

Notwithstanding its potential for misinformation, social media was the only reliable option for Gezi Park protesters. During the Gezi Park protests, social media facilitated the creation of interspaces through which people could make sense of, share, and interactively negotiate meanings about the protests through dialogue. During the Gezi Park protests, social media served both as an alternative source of information and a platform for sharing what people protect and promote that allowed for the construction of multiple narratives of resistance. Social media revealed the many components of the protests collected under the label of Gezi Park. In this historical moment of narrative and virtue contention, it becomes crucial for leaders to sense what matters to oneself and others if conflict is to be constructively engaged, allowing for increased insight and productivity.

Originality/value

Although there are various studies on Gezi Park protests and the use of social media, there is no discussion related to communication ethics. In this paper, the authors used the communication ethics framework offered by Arnett et al. (2014) that underlines the “interplay of ethics and conflict” (p. 2) highlighting ethics as “the good that one seeks to protect and promote” (p. 7) that generate conflict because of “multiplicity of ‘goods’” (Arnett et al., 2009, p. 9) and contrasting ethical positions. Thus, given the multiplicity in terms of what is considered as that which matters, and the contrasting ethical positions that are at odds with each other, conflict and tension can be generated. There are no other studies in the literature that use the abovementioned communication ethics perspective for discussing the Gezi Park protests in Turkey.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 October 2017

Amit Avigur-Eshel and Izhak Berkovich

Scholars have identified various uses of Facebook by activists and social movements in political activism and beyond. They overlooked, however, the possibility that social…

Abstract

Purpose

Scholars have identified various uses of Facebook by activists and social movements in political activism and beyond. They overlooked, however, the possibility that social movements may take advantage of certain capabilities provided by social media platforms, while neglecting others, thereby creating differences in patterns of use between movements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these differences and to assess the role of the lived experience of activists and supporters in shaping them.

Design/methodology/approach

This study compared two protests in Israel with respect to activists’ use of social media, the class profile of participants and the leadership’s demands and their resonance among various social groups. Each case was analyzed by combining thematic and quantitative analysis of online data from Facebook pages and of offline data from various sources.

Findings

The two protests exhibited distinctively different patterns of use of the capabilities provided by Facebook. These differences are associated with the lived experience of protest participants and of the individuals the movement leadership sought to mobilize.

Originality/value

This study is the first to show that successful public policy protests can exhibit distinctive use patterns of social media for political activism. It also identifies lived experience as an important factor in shaping these patterns.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 February 2024

Francesc González-Reverté and Anna Soliguer Guix

Focusing on critical discourse analysis, this paper aims to propose a framework for analysing the way activist anti-tourism groups construct their social action of protest. The…

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Abstract

Purpose

Focusing on critical discourse analysis, this paper aims to propose a framework for analysing the way activist anti-tourism groups construct their social action of protest. The authors argue that activist groups use different narrative strategies to construct and legitimise their discourse of protest to convey social meanings for social action practices. This study represents an attempt to explain how anti-tourism activist groups have the agency to build different paradigms of protest rooted in particular views of tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

As a result of the lack of research in this area, this study used a comparative case study methodology drawn on four case studies in the field of anti-tourism protest. Case study is deemed adequate to explore a complex social phenomenon, how activist groups differ from each other, in a specific socio-economic context. A critical discourse analysis method is used to study primary (interviews) and secondary sources (reports, websites and online campaigns documents) of information, which express the activist group motivations and objectives to protest against tourism.

Findings

This study’s findings provide evidence in how discourse differs among the protest groups. Three narrative paradigms of protest are identified, which guide their agency: scepticism, based on a global and ecological approach; non-interventionist transformation, rooted in local community issues; and direct transformation, based on a sectoral problem-solving approach. These differences are interpreted as the consequences of the emergence and the development of different paths of protest according to specific social contexts and power relations in which anti-tourism groups are embedded.

Originality/value

This paper provides a contemporary approach to anti-tourism activism within the context of social movements. This case study may be of interest to practitioners and international destination managers interested in gaining a better understanding of anti-tourism protest strategies, new anti-tourism narratives following COVID-19 and the opportunities and challenges for opening a dialogue with those involved in activism and social urban movements as part of sustainable tourism governance. Our results can also help activists to rethink how they integrate differences and particular strategic positions to avoid hindering collective action. This knowledge is especially useful for managers and authorities seeking to develop more accurate collaborative governance practices with local activists, and especially those interested in fostering participative action without marginalising the diverse range of local community perspectives.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Sebastián Valenzuela, Nicolás M. Somma, Andrés Scherman and Arturo Arriagada

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between social media use and protest participation in Latin America. It advances two questions. First, does social media…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between social media use and protest participation in Latin America. It advances two questions. First, does social media increase the chances of protest participation at the individual level, as prior research shows for advanced democracies? Second, in a region with glaring economic and political inequalities, does social media deepen or reduce the gaps in protest participation that exist among men and women, the young and the old, different social classes, or people with varying levels of political engagement?

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses cross-sectional Latin American Public Opinion Project survey data from 2012 representing the adult population of 17 Latin American countries. It presents binary logistic regression models with protest participation as the dependent variable, social media use for political purposes as the main independent variable, control variables, and interactions.

Findings

Using social media for political purposes significantly increases protest chances – it is the second strongest predictor. Additionally, social media reduces protest gaps associated with individuals’ age, gender, psychological engagement with politics, and recruitment networks.

Originality/value

First, the paper shows that the contribution of social media to collective protest travels beyond advanced democracies – it also holds for more unequal regions with weaker democratic trajectories like Latin America. Second, it shows that social media may mitigate participatory inequalities not only, as shown by past research, regarding institutional participation (e.g. voting), but also regarding contentious tactics.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 40 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2013

Avichai Shuv-Ami

The current study attempts to determine to what extent, if any, the protests of summer of 2011 affected public attitudes and behavior in Israel. More specifically, the objective…

Abstract

Purpose

The current study attempts to determine to what extent, if any, the protests of summer of 2011 affected public attitudes and behavior in Israel. More specifically, the objective of the current study was to examine by means of a survey, Israeli public attitudes toward: the social protest; the enterprises that were the focus of the protest; and the government and the state of Israel.

Design/methodology/approach

The findings presented below are based on a survey that was conducted among 1,019 respondents during the second week of March 2012 via an internet panel. The sample represents the Hebrew-speaking population of Israel, with a maximum sampling error of +3.2 percent.

Findings

The findings of the current study show that the Israeli public was united behind various demands of the protesters: to control the prices of basic products and services; to decrease the price of small apartments for young families; to reduce the income gap between the poor and the rich; and to increase the social services provided by the government.

Originality/value

The first academic case study on the Israeli social protest.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 August 2016

Natalie Pang and Debbie Pei Chin Goh

Building on studies examining the role of social media in contemporary forms of collective action and social movements, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the link…

2003

Abstract

Purpose

Building on studies examining the role of social media in contemporary forms of collective action and social movements, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between prior informational use of social media and individualized collective action.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 220 participants were surveyed in real-time during a protest against overpopulation in Singapore.

Findings

Social media use was significant in disseminating information about the protest, and reflecting perceived personal relevance for specific issues. The authors found mixed motivations for attending the protest, significantly shaped by social proximity to organizers and personal relevance.

Originality/value

The authors address research gaps in the link between social media use and individualized collective action, and real-time data collection during a protest. It is often difficult to study this link, given that social media may not be always the only platform used prior to a protest by participants. The case discussed here provides a unique opportunity for this to be addressed: the protest was not publicized by local mainstream media prior to the event and social media was the only place for both activists and the public to find and disseminate information about the protest. In other words, how participants used social media had a direct and meaningful impact on their participation in the protest.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 40 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 May 2018

Edgar Guerra

In this paper, the author analyzed the repertoire of protest that cannabis activists employ in marches and mass demonstrations. The purpose of this paper is to understand the…

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the author analyzed the repertoire of protest that cannabis activists employ in marches and mass demonstrations. The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between key demands and identities surrounding cannabis movement and the repertoire of protest they normally use.

Design/methodology/approach

The work was designed as a qualitative case study to build a deep understanding and detailed description of the cannabis movement’s dynamics and an analysis of its repertoire of protest. Data collection was carried out in two fieldwork periods in 2016 and 2017. This phase mainly consisted of ethnographic work and semi-structured interviews. An exploratory study was also carried out in May 2016. Information was mainly collected through interviews that delved into various issues regarding the movement’s internal composition and dynamics. As such, the author conducted 23 interviews with participants in marches and mass demonstrations, as well as with current non-governmental organization members. The compiled information was analyzed according to the “documentary method.”

Findings

Although the Global Marijuana March brings together users, activists, civil society organizations and politicians, the Mexican cannabis movement has non-articulated demands, it lacks a strong common identity and limited resources for mobilization. These features find an echo in a poor repertoire of protest.

Originality/value

This is the first scholarly and systematic analysis of the Mexican cannabis movement in the academic literature. Further, there is a systematic analysis of the cannabis movement repertoire of protest and how cannabis activists are able to translate their demands and identities into banners, chants, performances, masks and costumes, performances, pamphleteering, and demonstrations.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2017

Joy Leopold and Myrtle P. Bell

The purpose of this paper is to examine coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in seven US-based newspapers to determine whether the protest paradigm, “a pattern of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in seven US-based newspapers to determine whether the protest paradigm, “a pattern of news coverage that expresses disapproval toward protests and dissent,” and other marginalizing techniques are present, and racialized.

Design/methodology/approach

Relevant articles published during a six-month period of 2014 near the death of Michael Brown were retrieved from the selected outlets, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Textual and content analyses were performed.

Findings

The articles heavily followed the paradigm. An additional characteristic, blame attribution, was also identified. Language of crime, lawlessness, violence, blame for nearby acts of violence, and inflammatory quotes from bystanders and official sources were often present. There was little discussion of key issues associated with the formation of BLM.

Research limitations/implications

Mainstream outlets rather than social media or alternative outlets were examined. Future research should study coverage of BLM in other outlets.

Practical implications

Measures to avoid marginalizing protests and racialization of coverage, including increased diversity in the newsroom and monitoring for racialized language are suggested.

Social implications

Racialization of news and coverage of BLM has widespread negative consequences, such as association of Blacks with criminality that may affect their quality of life. The protest paradigm has the ability to squelch participation in social movements, which have the possibility to bring about needed social change.

Originality/value

This interdisciplinary paper highlights the important role of mainstream media and news routines in affecting the BLM movement. It uses diversity research to make recommendations for media practitioners to avoid racialization of news.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 36 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2022

Luna Đurić, James Kennell, Miroslav D. Vujičić, Igor Stamenković and Jelena Farkić

This research explores how protest events can change and develop over time, through an analysis of stakeholder perceptions of the EXIT festival in Serbia. In doing this, it builds…

Abstract

Purpose

This research explores how protest events can change and develop over time, through an analysis of stakeholder perceptions of the EXIT festival in Serbia. In doing this, it builds on previous research into protest events from a critical events studies perspective and has implications for the management and understanding of events linked to social movements.

Design/methodology/approach

This research took a neo-institutionalist perspective and is based on 18 stakeholder interviews, which were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Purposive sampling in the highly-networked city of Novi Sad, Serbia, allowed for the inclusion of diverse participants from politics, NGOs, media and the festival itself.

Findings

The findings reveal that the EXIT festival has departed significantly from its original protest roots. Although it is now perceived as part of the dominant political culture in Serbia, it still has the potential to campaign on issues of relevance to the region, which is unrealised. This research demonstrates that the neo-institutionalist perspective can offer fresh insights for research into protest events. Taking this perspective suggests practical implications for the managers of events with protest roots and for social movements seeking to use protestival-style methods to achieve social change.

Originality/value

This paper provides a new theoretical perspective on protest events and proposes a new model that can be used in future research into protest events that persist over time. It also suggests implications for the management and development of protest events within social movements.

Details

International Journal of Event and Festival Management, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1758-2954

Keywords

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