Indignation, Inspiration, and Interaction on the Internet: Emotion Work Online in the Anti-Human Trafficking Movement

Abstract

Despite the absence of face-to-face interactions, the web offers digital activists a surprisingly rich setting for emotion work, facilitating evocative storytelling and offering easy and immediate opportunities to engage in symbolic action. This article uses data from interviews with activists to analyze how emotion work is done online, including personalizing statistics to generate moral shock and telling survivor stories to demonstrate efficacy and create hope for social change. Furthermore, it argues that the web, especially social media, facilitates interactions between activists, state actors, and end users that provide mutual affirmation and validation. A positive unintended emotional consequence of such interactions is that activists working in the field draw encouragement and motivation from users at home.