Abstract
AbstractThis paper provides the first cross‐platform examination of trade union social media posts, focussing on the online content of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union. Data scraped from the union's Facebook posts (n = 282) were compared with data obtained from the union's Twitter account (n = 1554) to investigate the extent to which social media reflects a union's identity and utilises the language of mobilisation theory to engage with their audience. Across a six‐month period (July–December 2019), findings demonstrated PCS behaved in an interactive manner on social media, avoiding the pitfalls of a ‘bulletin board’ approach through using the language of mobilisation theory. However, content was engaged with users to different extents depending upon which platform the content was posted. Findings also suggest that social media posts can reflect a version of union identity.
Highlights
In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the extent to which the Internet and social media present opportunities for trade unions to broaden their membership base and improve levels of activism and mobilisation (Panagiotopoulos, 2012; Wood, 2020)
We contribute to the existing literature that examines union use of social media on single platforms (e.g. Twitter, Hodder & Houghton, 2015; Facebook, Carneiro & Costa, 2020; YouTube, Jansson & Uba, 2019) by examining the activities of Public and Commercial Services (PCS) across both Facebook and Twitter
Given the increased focus on the role that social media can play in union mobilisation (Upchurch & Grassman, 2016; Wood, 2020), our first research question sought to examine the ways in which PCS used the language of mobilisation (Kelly, 2018) in its posts on social media
Summary
There has been a renewed interest in the extent to which the Internet and social media present opportunities for trade unions to broaden their membership base and improve levels of activism and mobilisation (Panagiotopoulos, 2012; Wood, 2020). The literature on trade unions and the Internet, and trade unions and social media, are dominated by research based on surveys and interviews with union members, activists and officials and examines the perceived ways in which social media is changing (or can change) union activities (see for example Panagiotopoulos, 2012; Thornwaite et al, 2018) Despite this increased interest, there is still relatively little known as to how unions use social media platforms in terms of the content they post and extent to which the platforms are utilised to engage with other users. The background for the study is provided, before presentation of the methods, findings, discussion and conclusion
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