Take back the tweet: Social media use by anti‐gender‐based violence organizations

Abstract

AbstractSocial media can be a hostile environment for women, where threats of sexual assault and violence proliferate (Locke, Lawtom, and Lyons 2018; Jane 2014). Yet, social media sites like Twitter provide a platform for advocacy organizations seeking to influence public opinion and policy outcomes aimed at reducing gender‐based violence (GBV). Using anti‐GBV groups, this study follows research by Merry (2011, 2014) and Guo and Saxton (2018), to examine whether advocacy organizations effectively use Twitter to mobilize support and influence political communication and policy outcomes, where effectiveness is taken to be synonymous with more interactive communication. Interactivity among groups and the reach of their messaging (i.e., amount of attention received) are assessed to consider their effectiveness and potential mechanisms for broadening that reach. While empirical evidence of effectiveness based on the communicative quality of tweets is not advanced in this analysis, the quantity of tweets is affirmed as a mechanism of attention getting.