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Publications | peer-reviewed article
Activists "online" and "offline": Internet as an information channel for protest demonstrations
author(s) | Jeroen Van Laer
journal | Mobilization: An International Journal
publication year | 2010 volume | 15 issue | 3 pag | 347-366
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abstract | Using individual-level data of actual protest participants in nine different protest demonstrations in Belgium, this article compares activists using the internet and activists not using the internet as an information channel about an upcoming demonstration. We find that “online” and “offline” activists differ significantly in terms of socio-demographic and political backgrounds, formal network and organizational embeddedness, and to some extent motivational aspects. The findings suggest that using digital communication channels likely extends, but at the same time narrows the mobilizing potential to a public of experienced, organizationally embedded activists. The internet is principally used by “super-activists”: highly educated, with a lot of experience and combining multiple engagements at the same time. The article then discusses these results in light of two focal problems: that the internet reinforces participation inequalities, and that the internet might prove insufficient for sustained collective action participation and the maintenance of future social movement organizations.
more info | jeroen.vanlaer@ua.ac.be