Multiple Engagements and Network Bridging in Contentious Politics: Digital Media Use of Protest Participants

Abstract

Based on three series of protest surveys across nations, issues, and time, this study examines to what extent the use of digital media permits activists to sustain multiple engagements in different protest events and different movement organizations. We find that digital media use stimulates multiple activisms. Through information and communication technologies (ICTs), activists can maintain multiple engagements and manage weak ties with diverse protest and movement communities. The data also suggest that these multiple engagements and overlapping activisms effectively provide linkages to and integration within social movement networks. Core activists who are closely linked to protest organizations rely more on ICTs to manage their multiple commitments. Even activists less closely tied to core protest organizations can link to more diverse communities through Internet use. These basic patterns systematically hold across nations, across issues, and across time.