Non-Profit Organizations’ Online Engagement and the Limits of Charity Rhetoric: The Case of the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the use of social media, particularly Facebook, for public engagement purposes by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the United Arab Emirates. It draws on an interpretation of engagement as a multidimensional process with cognitive and affective characteristics where power relations between an organization and its public should be addressed. This paper combines content analysis with social semiotics to examine the multimodal production and enactment of engagement as a relational process at the level of the verbal, visual, and paratext modes. The study reveals that the use of Facebook by NPOs is marked by a strong control over discourse and low affective involvement, where fundraising becomes the primary function of the platforms. This demonstrates that the philanthropic identity and mission of most NPOs obscure the relationship management objective of these organizations and undermine their ability to effectively engage stakeholders on social media.