National Research University Higher School of Economics

International Summer School on

Social Network Analysis

Internet Activism: A Study of Online Political Discourse of Palestine Solidarity Movement in Ireland and Britain

Shadi Abu-Ayyash

National University of Ireland, Galway

16.8.2013

Social Movements & ICTs

Manuel Castells: Networked Social Movements

For social movements:

- Information and communication technologies offer connectivity, sharing and

‘feeling togetherness’; which have an effective reflect on movements offline

activism /on-ground

- Develop autonomous networks of horizontal communication, which:

1- Bypass controlled media, allowing message to be delivered to wider audience(s)

2- Reaching a larger number of activists and public

- Effective tools for: mobilising, organising, and deciding actions

- Maintain communication channels among movement members, which facilitate

sharing of information and activism plans

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Palestine Solidarity Movement in Ireland & Britain

Part of the global solidarity movement, which consist of local, national and regional pro-

Palestine groups. The work of the solidarity groups could be classified under two levels:

1) On-going campaigns that focus on

- Raising awareness of the Palestinian cause (online websites, social media,

on ground activities: stalls, demonstrations, public speaking)

- Organising visits to Palestine

- Lobbying local media, politicians and decision makers in favour of the

Palestinian people rights

2) Responding to major events occur in Palestine (such as attack on Gaza 2012,

Palestinian prisoners hunger strike 2013)

- Organising demonstrations and protests

- Contacting local media and MPs

- Galvanising online campaigns through social media sites

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Research Qs

• Exploring political discourse, through analysing online message(s)

1) That would be through extensive content analysis of , websites, Facebook pages and

Twitter accounts

2) Examining nature of content (news, calls of on-ground activity, lobbying decision

makers)

3) Identifying similarities and differences of used terms, messages and content

4) Number of posts related to on-ground /offline activities

• Studying the role content plays in online advocacy: how the text, image and moving

image are recruited and used in advocating the cause

• Examining the transnational element of online activism: local vs regional

• Identifying possible activists online communities

- Which platforms are used: social media sites, blogs, email lists, discussion forums

- Size in terms of active members

- Affectivity for mobilisation, exchange of information or not

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Methodology & Data Collection

• Grounded Theory: Data analysis would lead the way to discover new findings

• Data Collected through:

- Semi- structured interviews with activists (23 interviews), selection criteria:

on-campus, off-campus, geographical distribution, level of online activity

- Online questionnaires (17 participants)

- Online content analysis: official websites, facebook pages, twitter accounts,

youtube channels

- Observation: personal notes from attending group’s public events

• Time Frame: comparing online content, and online behaviour/activity of the

studied groups in four different times between 2012-2014

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Examples from the war on Gaza (2012) and prisoners hunger strike (2013)

• Data were extracted from the selected groups’ Facebook pages and twitter accounts using Nvivo 10 software

• Material posted only by the group admins were analysed , excluding other content posted by group members/page fans

• Studied groups are local, national and university based groups, and non-active groups online were excluded form the analysis

• FB posts were classified into several categories, while analysis of Twitter accounts is based on related hashtags

• Gaza War case posts were coded and classified into categories: : Gaza news, local activities, regular solidarity campaigns

• Hunger Strike case the posts were coded and classified into categories: violation of prisoners rights (human rights); illegality of their imprisonment ; political perspective (against the Israeli occupation); call for solidarity activities; or sharing news about the hunger strikers

National University of Ireland, Galway

@shadi3000

Irish and English solidarity groups activity on twitter during the war on Gaza, November 2012

67

4

140

14 2

13 8 15

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Ireland NorthernIreland

England

Gaza news related tweets

Tweeting about localevents

Other solidaritycampaigns & activities

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Categories of content posted on ten solidarity groups fb pages during the war

6

25

92

9

Lobbying Media & MPs

On-Ground Activities (meetings & protests)

Palestine (Gaza) News

Other Regular Campaigns (BDS, Settlements)

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Off Campus On Campus Ireland 3 0 England 3 0

Northern Ireland 1 1 Scotland 0 2

Content of 5 major Ireland based solidarity groups Facebook pages during the Palestinian prisoners hunger strike between January and April 2013

7

6

5

2

1 1 1

4

1

3

1 1 1

9

1

4 4

2 2

10

1

4

3

2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Prisoners News Human Rights ViolationsOn-ground Activities Online Action Media Advocacy Illegal Detention

IPSC HQ

IPSC Cork

Sadaka

Limerick IPSC

Act for Palestine

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Use of image on social media platforms: Palestine news, local activities,

sister groups activities and cartoons

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

In other words…

1. FB & Twitter sites are used mainly for sharing news about the central point of attention

(Palestine/Gaza/prisoners)

2. Second priority is announcing local events and sharing other groups activities

3. Similar language and terms: (attack, occupation, solidarity)

4. Major/National level working groups are much more active online, and the smaller the

group, the more it shows interest in organising demos/protests within its local area

5. Level of effort put on lobbying decision makers and local media advocacy is less than

other areas of interest. eg. no evidence of organising online campaigns (petitions…)

6. The online activity level (volume of materials posted) does not represent the effort

carried out offline/on-ground

National University of Ireland, Galway

@shadi3000

Visualisation of Activists Online Relations

1- Using NodeXl: Connection among users tweeted the hashtag welcome2palestine April 2012

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

cont.

2- Gephi enables users to visualise ties among FB group members using Netvizz application

ex. Interaction among members of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign Facebook page

National University of Ireland, Galway @shadi3000

Thank You

http://actdigital.wordpress.com/