Communication Battles on Facebook in Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement

Joyce Y.M Nip,Yu-Chung Cheng,King-Wa Fu

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3702674

Joyce Y.M Nip, Yu-Chung Cheng + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3702674

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Abstract

Many have suggested that communication on social media could mobilize participation in social movements. Often overlooked is the use of social media communication by opponents of social movements to counteract the change advocated. Collecting data from the Facebook Graph API, this study examines both types of communication on public pages of Facebook in the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong and the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan in 2014. It analyzes the content of public messages (1,389 from Hong Kong and 999 from Taiwan) collected on 10 pro- and neutral/anti-movement pages in each movement to study the framing process of the movements in the flow of communication. Changes in frames from posts to comments and then replies provide evidence of frame contestation, which are discussed in terms of counter-framing by counter-movements in online social networks. This is the first comparative study of communication in social movements of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Highlights

Studies of the Internet and social movements conceived the Internet as a tool used by social movement organizations (e.g. Myers, 1994)
To gain understanding about the contestation over the framing process in them, this study focuses on Facebook, the most used social media in Taiwan and Hong Kong at the time of the movements (“Facebook penetration rate,” 2014; “Hong Kong has,” 2014)
The snowballed pages—not limited to those established for the movements—were included if they originated from Hong Kong/Taiwan judged according to the profile page description and the country information of the majority of its fans provided by the Facebook Insights API and after manually checked that they published abundantly about the occupations

Summary

Introduction

Studies of the Internet and social movements conceived the Internet as a tool used by social movement organizations (e.g. Myers, 1994). As digital media enable online social networks, some (e.g. Bennett & Sergeberg, 2013; Castells, 2015; Shirky, 2009) have suggested that individuals could organize themselves into protest actions without, or at least with far less help from, social movement organizations. Horizontal communication that connects interactive networks of individuals and collectives—what Castells (2016) called “mass self-communication” 9)—provides the communication support of “networked social movements;” personalization of the cause of political action underlies the motivation of participation (Bennett & Segerberg, 2013). Xv), little attention has been paid to counter-movements, which are enabled by digital social networking of individuals. This study investigates the actions and counter actions in the communication about the Umbrella and Sunflower Movements on Facebook, with the aim to enrich understanding about the implications of networked digital media on social activism.

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