IN THE AGE OF POLITICAL TRANSPARENCY “Lisa Gandy and Elina Erzikova Introduction “The advent of the Internet has greatly increased transparency and information, _ sccesibilty (Jahansoori, 2006) and created new risks for politicians and public figures by making them more visible to their constituencies (Thompson, 2005}. | The uncontrolled nature of mediated visibility gives rise to new kinds of mediated _ events (Thompson, 2005, p. 39) that interrupt carefully constructed flow of sym- bolic content and undermine the self presentation of political leaders. Thus, the | development of media and especially the Internet has changed relations between visibility and power (Thompson, 2005) and forced public relations practitioners to rethink the old paradigm of crisis management (Coombs, 2012). Crisis communication is a rapidly growing area of public relations research | (Coombs, 2014). Coombs and Holladay (2013) argued that although reactions (post) on social media might not capture the opinions of all stakeholder, the messages nevertheless serve a5 a “rough real-time evaluation of how people are reacting to criss responses” (p. 58). Coombs and Holladay (2018) ako asserted thata crisis can be amplified through the process of retwecting, Analysis of recent studies shows tha traditional media are the primary source of criss-related infor- ‘mation actos all social media platforms (Austin & Jin,2015). Therefore strategies public relations specialists employ have the potential to influence the way report- fers cover crises. A number of studies have shown a positive effect of stealing thunder (an organization talking about a crisis before media break the news) on the perceptions of criss severity and guilt (Arpan & Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2005; Claeys & Cauberghe, 2012). Coombs and Holladay (2015) suggested that this old crisis communication timing strategy—stealing thunder—is stil advisable in the digital age322 Lisa Gandy and fina Erzkova TABLE 23.1 Time Line ofthe Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal Daw May 24,2014 Cain announces his candidacy asthe Republican nomince oy president of the United States in the 2012 election October 30,2011 Politico reports that two women who were employed by the National Restaurant Asoviation while Cain was the CEO complained of inappropriate behivior fom Cai. Pies pay {hat both women recived sepration packages inthe fie fg November 22011 The AP repre cht a hid woman who wat employed by the National ResauraneAswociaton had considered filing 4 complair against Cain, She claimed that Cain made inappropriate remarks and gestures towed her November 7,2011 A fourth woman, Sharon Bile, hold pres conference and claims that Cain groped her while she was an employes atthe "National Restaurant Asociation when he was the CFO, November 8,2011 The fist woman who accused Cain of exialharasment ‘denttes herself 3¢ Karen Kraushaar Noweinber 28,2011 An Atanta businesswoman, Ginger White chim at she and (Gain bad a 13-year affat. Before White clans are mace pb (Gain preemptively tells CNN that Ms, White claims wil be smade and i snot rue. December 3,2011 Cain suspend his bid for preside “Phi study focuses on Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal that occurned jn the middle of the 2012 Republican presidental primary. During this sandal (Gee 2 complete timeline in Table 23.1), several women claimed to hme heen va bully and physically harased by Mr. Cain. These allegations presented a sebsuneal Public relations challenge for Mr. Cain’ campaign, Social media, especially Twitter, was a dominating force in promotion of all Campaigns during the 2012 presidential election (Axelrod, 2013), Herman Cain fuinself was a popular figure on Twitter, having over 275,000 followers in 201 tn Fact in 2011, the Associated Pres cited Herman Cain asthe Republican most Hkely to be retwected (Fouhy & Gillum, 2011) ln this chapter we explore Cant Social mectia stategies before and daring che sexual harassment scandal, specif, cally focusing on the social media platform Twitter Twitter and Political Involvement 1h the past Fwitter has been a valuable tool in predicting the results of elections {amarre and Suauki-Lambrecht 2013) found cha congresonal catpaigns thePolitical Crisis Management via Twitter 323 “Twitter were moze likely to win their elections! Importantly the more fol sa campaign had, the greater chance of winning the election, whereas the umber of tweets sent by the candidate had no effect on the results. ‘According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of online adults in the United ates use at east one social media platform and 42% of adults use multiple social dia platforms (Duggan & Brenner, 2013). Further, 39% of all US. adults have aged in at leat one political ativiey (eg ,encouraging others to vote or posting moments about political issues) using social media (Rainie, Stith, Kay, Brady, & Verba, 2012) In segards to political activity on social media, a study (Smith, Rainie, Shnei- Jeeman, & Himelboim, 2014) mapped conversations on Twitter and revealed that oltcal conversations are usually polarized between liberals versus conservatives, 1 the spits expecially evident in regards to controversial isues. “The Twitter Government and Elections Team (2014) recommends that politi Tal leaders be authentic (@g., tweet personal facts and interest) because this tactic mates with followers. The handbook also suggests engaging with audiences by ringing national attention to local issues, tweeting during popolar televised events, and holding Twiter Q&As. These activities constitute an effort by the politician to “eiablish a dialogue with constituents a dialogue that involves ris, est, mutuality, © propinguity, empathy, and interaction (Kent & Taylor, 1998, 2002) ‘Thus, the frst ‘objective of this study to examine Herman Cain’ strategy (or lck of thereof) in tsablshing a dislogue with his constituents before and during the ers _ Political Scandals in the United States ‘The significance of political sandal’ damage to the viability of politicians has increased in our post-Watergate age, largely due to the development of com- ‘munication media, inclading social media (Thompson, 2005). However, despite roving scholarship, chere ae sill moze questions than answers about the effect of a scandal on public opinion, "There isan indication that if handled appropriately, a sexual harassment scan- Fal does not always damage a politicians caeet. For example, in their widely | cited study, Shab, Watts, Dome, and Fan 2002) argued that citizens strengthened theirsupport for Clinton during the Lewinsky debacle because the media framed the sex scandal in terms of accusations of conservative elites, This implicit fam- ‘was complemented by Democrat’ explicit questioning of the motive behind the Republicans’ etacks on Clinton, Thus, Shah and colleagues (2002) concluded that Clinton’ strong approval rating was sustained partly because of citizens’ dis- | agreement with the conservatives’ attempts to remove a popular president over a seemingly private matter. Public relations scholars recognize that the media’ framing of a politician is crucial when forming a public relations strategy for a politician’ campaign or in relation to a campaign criss. Coombs (2007) notes that an attempt to change the324 Lisa Gandy and Elina Erzikova media frame in relation to a erss might not be succesful and a public a Bracitioner might be forced to manage the cri ssaton within the fame ated by the media. Coombs also notes that = the same dynamic holds tue when a cris based onkin, In tee gy Beople posing the information onthe inert help to esablh thee frame, Ithe media coverage or internet discussion provides no cea the crisis manager wil have an easier sie establishing his/her own fag (Coombs, 2007, p. 173) Therefor the second objective of this study isto look at whether Cain was ae {generate his own fiaine on Twiter in order to espond to accusations made agugy hhim during the 2012 Republican presidential primary Method Topeyia social analytes platform, was used a a source co collect tweets. Alebough Twitter only allows access to the last 3,200 tweets that have been created by an individual weeter, Topsy allows access to all tweets that originated from the beginning of Twitter (ic, since 2006). Farther, Topsy provides additional infor. ination such as whether a eweet is gaining or losing popularity (acceleration) among other features. In the time frame of September 20, 2011, to December 10, 2011, a totl of 498,190 unique tweets related to Herman Cain were written. The data inchude original tweets written by either Herman Cain or his social media tear, as well a tweets shared by Cain but written by other tweeters. In addition, we gath- fered tweets from major news outlets and individuals that referenced news about ‘Herman Cain, For comparison purposes, we divided the time fame of tweet cok. lection into two periods —before Cain's sexual harassment scandal Septernber 20, 2011-October 29, 2011) and during the scandal (October 30, 2011-December 10, 2011). The breakdown of collected tweets in relation to time period and ‘Twitier population is given in Table 23.2. We collected all tweets for the Herman Cain campaign official Twiter account (@THEHermanCain), as there were only TABLE 23.2 Breakdown of All Callected Tweess OO Goded Tvets Coded Twets Taal Toes ‘Tul Toots Before Crisis During Criss Befine Crisis Darn Crise. Herman Cain 95 133, 95 33 campaign Media and public 500 490 138,842 359,120Political isis Management via Twitter 325 posts during the entire campaign period. The number of tweets about Her er of tweets and examined the top 1,000 posts, before (n= 500) and during 190) the crisis (the numbers for media and public tweets during the criss 490 due to 10 repeated weet). snes. To refine the coding sheets, authors jointly coded 100 randomly selected ‘The rest of the posts were coded independently. A manageable number of 1 networking site created in 2006, Specifically, itis an online social “networking service that lets users create and have access to 140-character messages “eaeets.” Users can subscribe to other users’ weets; this is called “follow— "and subscribers are called “followers.” As of September 2014, Twitter has 271 ‘milion monthly active users and an average of $00 million tweets are sent per day. Retweets “A reoweet is a eposted or forwarded message on Twitter "Acceleration | Acceleration is a measure created by Topsy, which scores whether a eweet is gain- "ing in popularity (accelerating) or is losing interest (decelerating). The range for _ xceleration is 100 ¢o 100, with 0 being neutral Sentiment Im this chapcer, we define sentiment as 2 computationally derived measure of how positive or negative the emotional content of a eweet is. Sentiment was calculated | hy using the Nielsen sentiment dictionary (Nielsen, 2014). This dictionary gives ‘words in the English language negative and positive score between ~5 and 5. For a given tweet, the sum of the word scores for individual words are tallied and then divided by the number of words in the tweet. The greater score (positive or negative) is then recorded as the sentiment score by using the algorithm given in Figure 23.1326 Lisa Gandy and tina Erikova procedure rinpSeriveat words +— array of words from phrase num.words — number of words in phrase 10 os.sent + 0 neg sent —0 ‘mum pos <0 umes — 0 loop: if >nun.words then Roto end if sentiment{words[i)) >=3 then POS.Sent « pos.sent + sentiment(sentencefi]} hum.pos — num.pos + 1 if sentiment{words[i]) >= -3 then ‘neg.sent — neg.sent + sentiment{sentencefi]) um.neg —num.neg + 1 imit] ‘goto loop end: if abs(pos.sentnum.pos) > abs(neg_sent-nun.neg) then return pos.sent=num.pos else return neg.sent*numneg FIGURE 23.1. Algorithm for Sentiment Clasification Results Herman Cain's Tweets As discussed previously, Herman Cain and his eam wrote and shared 228 unique {weets starting 40 days before (n= 95) the crisis and during (w ~ 133) the crisis ‘We calculated sentiment for each tweet using the algorithm in Figure 23.1, where 8 positive tweet is one that has a score of 3 to 5, a negative tweet has a score of 3 to -S, and all other tweets are regarded as neutral. As shown in ‘Table 23.3, Herman Cain’ strategy regarding negative and positive tweets changed slightly alter the criss broke. Cain's wweets became more emotional, with more positive and negative tweets during the crisis, and fewer neutral tweets, However, both before and during the crisis Cain posted more positive than negative tweets, The ‘mean sentiment score of Cain's tweets before the crisis was 0.32 and during the crisis the mean sentiment score of tweets was 0.52, (Carefial analysis revealed cight major themes in the collected tweets (Table 23, Two of the topics—media appearances and emotional appeat—considerably increase1£ 23.3 Sentiment Before and During the Crisis for Cain’ Tweets [Newal Tiets Negotve Tete a 75% (n= 71) Tn 68% (n= 91) 8% (p= 11) 234 Theses Detected in Herman Cain and His Teams Tweets Before and During, sal Harassment Scandal, October 30-December 10,2011 ‘Number of tet and Examples event Before Daring 6 16 168 37 27.8. Be suce to watch Ms. Cain on FOX News Happening Now today at 11:15am ET. 8 84 21 17.3. America is the greatest & most exceptional nation in the world. We got here not because of government but in site oft, 168 16 12.8 Great to hear that T won the West Akama Straw Poll coxtay with over 50% of the votes cast! 5 53. 13 9.8 My message to Iran:if you mess with Ise, ‘you messing with the USA, 442 11 3. Click this link to sign up now for your local 999 Meetup on Nov 9. I need you to ace today to help us wint 22 232 8 6.0 Uncertainy is what’ killing this economy! 1st #999 then unwind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac! 2 24 7 83 ‘Thank you toll who donated & made che #lowaFundd money bomb more succes chan ‘we ever imagined! NA NA 7 5.3. Those who know Me. Cain the bet alio know the suspiciously timed allegations are completely FALSE! ‘Sauisicaly sigan sul,» 05 Sail significant resus, p> 0328 Lisa Gandy and Elina Frzihova ets cnt ony mths. czar a sol FIGURE 23.2 Acceleration of Cain’ Tweets Versus che October 30 to December 10,2011 FIGURE. 25.3 Sentiment of Tweets Written by Cain From October 30 t December 1 2o1t in frequency during the criss, whereas the number of tweets concerning the economy significantly decreased during that period. Importandy, only 7 out of 133 (weets during the crisis addressed the sexual harassment allegations against Cain, The most etweeted tweet by Cain before the crisis was “Lm 100% profi End of story” (n = 1,111). During the eeisis, Herman Cain's mose popular weet was “My message to Iran: if you mess with Israel, you're messing with the USA?” which was rerweeted 809 times Our analysis shows that although acceleration of Cain's tweets significantly decreased (Figure 23.2) during the crisis, the sentiment of his tweets became more positive (0.32 vs, 0.52) (Figure 23.3), Twitter Community's Tweets Looking at tweets starting 40 days before the crisis to the day Cain announced his campaign suspension (September 20, 2011-December 10, 2011), we collectedPolitical Crisis Management via Twitter 329 [TABLE 23.5 Sentiment Before and During the Crisis for the General Public’ Tweets PrstveTrets [Newial Toets tive Tete Defore criss 16% (0 = 78) (61% (= 308) 249% (w= 118) (68% (n= 331) 269% (n= 129) 990 tweets that mentioned Herman Cain, In Table 23.5 we show the breakdown of postive, neutral, and negative sentiment before and during the crisis The tone ‘of tweets before the criss was either neutral or negative, and after the crisis broke, the sentiment of tweets became even more negative. The most popular post produced by an individual tweeter before the crisis, | “Herman. Cain spent $100k in campaign cash on his own books, putting donor money in his own pocket” was retweeted $0,756 times Analysis of the most retweeted tweets (n= 500) before the crisis revealed two popular themes: Cains so-called 999 plan and his race (Aftican American), which | constituted 14% and 8% of tweets, respectively. For example, one tweeter posted, “1S 9-9-9 Herman Cain time” Another one said, “So I get it now. The GOP foves Herman Cain be he can bash Obama in a way that the rest of them can't be he’ black coo, Fail” During the crisis, the theme of sexual misconduct dominated the Twitter _ community discourse (44.8%). The majority of tweets were quite sarcastic, One tweeter said, “With third female accuser coming forward, Herman Cain’s cam= _paign announced his 9-1-1 plan.” Another echoed, "Might save time iPonly the ‘women Hetman Cain DIDNT sexually harass came forward.” During the criss, the overall sentiment score for tweets dropped from -0.22 to 0.71 (Figure 23.) _NIGURE 23.4 Sentiment of Tweets Written by the General Community From Octaber 30 t December 10,2011330 Lisa Gandy and Elina Exzkova The most popular tweet, “Herman Cain: ‘Homosexuality is a “peru choice”, and I respect their choice? What a guy. In return, I respect his chert be black,” was retweeted 7,865 times during the crisis a ‘As mentioned before minsream media remain the primary source of inform Sion about rises cos social media platforms. This makes intuitive sense pony ar professionally trained in creating messages and media organizations ae coder Jegismate information dsseminators. However, the present study sugpests that tna posted by US. comedians (e4, Andy Borowitz, Joy Behar, Neal Brennan, Conay O'tirien, Jason Whitlock, Albert Brooks) were more popula than tweets prodecad by mainstream media, For example, based on our analysis of the 490 most pope. Jar eects during the ers (Oetober 30-December 10,2011), tweets authored by 4 comectin, Andy Borowitz (w= 39) outnumbered tweets produced by the Associa Pres (n= 10), CNN (n= 9),and Huffington Post (n= 4) taken al wether, Oven, whereas the media were informing, tweeters about the scandal (eg., “Herman Cain suns he quoted Pokemon in campaign speeches"), comedians were both informing and entertaining (¢g,, "Herman Cain is quoting Pokemon, Shoulda’ that be Poke. woman?”), Further research is needed to determine whether social media users vise Twitter for entertainment reasons, news consumption, o both Discussion Coombs (2012) argued that “social media is about interaction and control, not being fed information’ (p, 25). Our analysis of tweets posted by Cain and his social media team before and during the scandal showed that Herman Cain’ effort to interact with and control tweeters were rather poor and even his atempe to “feed information to them did not resonate much with his audience (based on a relatively low number of revweets), Purthermore, our study revealed that the Twitter community focused mainly ‘on economy and race before the scandal and primarily focused on the scandal after it arose, The crisis generated a more active discussion regaeding, Herman Cain, Most notably, the Twitter community had a quite negative feeling tovard Cain from the beginning (before the crisis), and the discussion became even moze negative after initial allegations of sexual misconduct were reported. In contest, Cain's tweees were positive fiom the beginning and became even more positive after the crisis broke, In addition, Herman Cain ignored the scandal by saying very Title and continued to focus on his economic polices. There was a significant difference berween the popularity of tweets writen by the general community about Cain and tweets written by Cain himself, During the crisis, eweeters rather ignored Cain and conversed with each other. We call this outcome a drowning effect, or a phenomenon of an actor’s messige being “drowned out” because of increasing public discourse surrounding the actor that does not further the actor’s platform (Figure 23.2)Poltical Crisis Management via Twitter 331 verall, our analysis of Herman Cain’s tweets demonstrated a rather poor effort ase the dialogic potential of Twitter and engage with stakeholders. Cain’ strat- 5 were mostly asymmetrical because he tended to inform followers instead listening to theta, reaching out, and conversing. He underutilized the oppor- ties provided by Twitter to establish a dialogue, mobilize public support, and uence public opinion, lications for Public Relations and Crisis Management s study found that reporters kept normalizing Twitter (Singer, 2005) by fitting into their existing norms and practices during the 2012 Republican presidential In other words, journalists did not use the “fivewheeling nature of blog- ng” (Lasorsa, Lewis, & Holton, 2011, p. 21) to its fall potential, failing to sha inions and engage with the audience. In short, reporters from traditional media presented a lesser threat co the campaign than, for example, comedians. In fact, it cweeting,activitics appeared to normalize Twitter as well. Yee, comedians’ niness as usual had a profound effect on the campaign, Whereas in the past Public relations practitioners worried about traditional media as a damaging force, fur study shows that comedians (the entertainment industry) were much more hmaging to Herman Cain’ campaign. Basically, the entertainment industry, not zaitional media, “drowned” his campaign on Twitter. ‘As mentioned, our analysis of the most retweeted tweets showed that comedians humorous and sarcastic posts enjoyed a high degree of popularity It appeared they were influential socal media creators or individuals who post information for others {0 consume, as opposed to followers and inactives who consume crisis information directly or indireedly (Liu, Jin, & Austin, 2013). Moreover, comedians’ tweets energized the ‘Twitter community and served as a remedy against political fatigue, This finding suggests 4 new direction of research to examine whether public rela tions practitioners should consider utilizing humor on social media during crisis ‘communication and under what conditions this might be appropriate. Another lesson learned from this study is that a candidate’ popularity on ‘Twitter (eg, a large number of followers} should be checked against the Twitter community's overall sentiment toward the candidate. As mentioned before, He ‘man Cain had a large number of followers in fall 2011, yet the prevalence of an ‘overall negative sentiment on Twitter might have been the the crisis, factor that amplified The demographic makeup of Twitter might explain why Cain was unable (o reach the Twitter audience effectively, For example, the Pew Research Center found that more tweeters are young, liberals (Pew Research Center,2014), In con- (rast, Herman Cain's usual supporters tencled to be conservative and older (Pew Research Center, 2012), A recent study of ideological segregation on Twitter showed that the level of political polarization (conservatives vs. liberak) increases332_Lisn Gandy and fina Erzkova hen the iste is deaty politcal (presidential elections; Barber Tucker, & Bonneat, 2013) : ‘The sage of sch a cris communication strategy as stalng than found effective during some political sex sandal. In particu, pote told their own tad news before the story broke in the media had lea erage and fewer negative fames (Wigley, 2011). Wigly (2011) argue effect could be exphined by Brock’ (1968) commodity theory-—ihe of information decreases it value He {Apparently Herman Cain increased he value of information about hispagy failing to provide a clear respons to Politico, a news organization thet mPa Comment about his alleged inappropriate behavior Palmer Marin nee ae Vogel, 2011). Even after being cued about an upcoming story, thunder by self disclosing the damaging information on tradi Instead, based on the analysis of Cain's tweets, his social media team adopead it die” approach as the main response strategy: Moreover, the team did nor question the strategic motive behind the accusations against Cain and dif Promote thei fames and interpretation ofthe ise. In other words, hey did ty ‘allie on the experience in ersis management gained by poiical sete for example, during the Lewinsky debacle a Yet after filing co steal thunder, the “let it die” strategy could have been the only approach in this criss station, where several women {not jam on) kept coming out with similar accusations. In addition, i is hard to predict whey reaction the Twitter community would have had if Cain had been more seive in denying the accusations. Such a strategy might have hurt his reputation eveg ‘more. In light of Cain’ statement about a possible run for the presidency in 2016 odie, 2014) although he did not in fact ran in 2016, the campaign’ suspension in 2011 did not seem like an exit strategy but rather part ofa long-term plan to resurface ina few years. Conclusion Our study offers invaluable insight into the dynamics of crisis communication on Twitter during a political campaign. We discover the presence of a "drowning effect” where the entire platform of the candidate is drowned out because his past tnisbehavior becomes the center of discussion. A recommendation isto use the ‘ld crisis communication approach— stealing thunder—to mitigate the crisis and porsbly decrease 4 number of negative frames, We assume that stealing thunder night be frst step to reduce the drowning effect on social media. This proposition should be farther tested. ‘This study has some limitations. Fist, Twitter wsers only account far 18% of Jnvernet users and thei demographic profile does not reflect the overall adult popt= [avin Smith et a,.2014) Second, this study isa snapshot ofa single campaign, and future esearch to explore a drowning effect in a diferent type of eri iy ecewaryPoftical Cisis Management via Twitter 333 , corruption). It is also important to look at how Twitter usage patterns will in che future and what effect it will have on fature campaign dynamics. spite its limitations, our study is helpful to public relations practitioners who ing campaigns on social media platforms, In addition, our study also provides learned in regards to Herman Cain’ failure to manage public opinion about sexual harasment scandal on Twitter in this new era of political transparency. rences p,L. M., & Roskos-Ewoldken, D. R. (2005). Stealing thunder: Analysis ofthe effects Hof proactive disclosure of criss information, Publi Relations Review, 313), 425133, in, L, & Jin, ¥. 2015). Approaching ethical crisis communication with accurscy and semsitivity: Exploring common ground and gaps between journalism and public relations. Public Relations Journal, 9. Reteioved feoxn hisp://apps prs org/lntellgence/ PRJowrnal/Documents/2015v09n01 Austin in pt rod, D. (2013). Election overview. In K. 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Retree 29 May, 2014 om weit eng A ‘soo te Wa oF of Pili won 7? amin yg OR Publik am. oF Puli Relating 1/02 dy wine Retrieved fom 02/20/ mapping-twitter-topic-networks-frompolarized-crowds-to-commuity- clsers/?_ga=1,256212555, 1916574829. 1400599181 ‘Thompson, J B, (2005). The new visibility. Theory, Culture & Seve, TWwiter Government and Elections Team, (2014), The Titer govenment ad lectins hand book. San Francisco, CA: Twitter, Ine ‘Wiley. 2011), Ting your own bad news: Foe Spitzer and atest ofthe stealing thunder strategy. Public Relations Revaw, 37, 50-56,EOBOMBING lodern-Day Digital Guerrilla Tactics Patricia Swann Introduction |Hisorically, political and social activism has faced an uphill battle, Individuals, goups, and movements intent on challenging governments, corporations, and her powerful opponents have relied on limited, traditional methods. Although ir tactics have met with some success, activists have been, for the most part, the ‘Through the use of sophisticated electronic communication made possible first the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web and enhanced by the intro- tion of social media and other information-sharing tools, activists ate now able fo evel a playing field once dominated by those individuals and structures that release of information, Activist power not only pressures an organization to change but also may dam. ge an organization's reputation and hamper an organization's ability to prosper Tor survive. Crisis, as defined by T.W. Coombs (2014), isa “significant threat to anizational operations or reputations that can have negative consequences for keholders and/or the organization if not handled properly” (para. 10). jew of the Literature cvs poh for change by promoting or hindering an organization or indus Ee abity to do something. Smith and Ferguson (2010) noted that activ are oked in social, politcal, economic, and environmental ses. J-E. Grunig and BLA. Grunig (1992) describe activist groups a activist publis: “two or More Bncivduals who organize in onder inflaence another public or publics through336 Patricia Swann xction that may include either symmetrical or aymnetrical approach, education, compromise, persuasion, pressure tactics, or force and Holladay (2012) found that activist usally have three goa Sch ay 1s Pressure ot Hig ‘exchange, sck public policy or egultory chang, and change woe noe Because activists have historically lacked authority or power, they have infer 2cted with “corporations to achieve a possible compromise” in exd 0 gin social changes (.E. Grunig & L.A. Grunig, 1989), When power ant influence ws not evenly distributed, however, activists offen use asyinmetrical approaches LE. Grunig (1997) acknowledged that activists may need to vse a mmeetigl tactics if the organization does not wish to collaborate with activists {ites FE, Grunig 2001) changed the excellence theory eypology to include Dut this si asumed that activist groups and organizations would “accommodace tae inte, cots of the other” (p. 15). A contingency interpretation of the model both symmetrical and aryoametrical (mixed-motive) clemenn, 1 allowed. that organizations and activist publics may have separate and conf tng interests (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002), Zo beter explain the ned for the asymmetrical tactics by activist publi 3. other theoretical perspectives of public relations are emerging from crite, cult, ‘hetorieal, functionalist, or nultdisciplinary disciplines (Botan & Hazleton, 2006; Botan & Taylor, 2004; Curtin & Gaither,2005;Demetrious,2013; Don Laween, 2000; Edwards, 2006; Hallahan, Holtzhausen, van Ruler, etc, & Seine 2007, Holezhausen, 2000, 2007, 2012; Leitch & Neilon,1997; Marsh, 2008, McKie, 2001; Motion & Leitch, 1996; Pal & Dutt, 2008; Pompper, 2005; Weanes 2001) Another approach, the cocreational approach, accommodates phil wales set News many publics as cocreators of meaning (Yang & Taylor, 2010). Creal pe tuodera views of public rations (Demetrious, 2013; Holezhusen, 2012) ne calling for public relations and conniminication workers t become aeuvien aotan ‘heir own organizations and become change agents to ensue their “orgensaton Survival and effectiveness” (Holtzhawsen, 2000), Activist publics not only lane Separate and conflicting interests fom their corporate targets but alo ay eschew a7 accommodation or compromise, especially when the sakes ae high in matters Sr publ health andthe environmen¢ (Demetrius, 2013; Stokes & Rubin, 2010) oF other social and politcal causes Social Media Brian Solis, social media expert, defined sodal media as “the democsatiation of information, wansforming people from content readers into publishew. re the shift from 2 broadcast mechanisin, one-to-many, toa many-to-many model ‘pow i conversations between authors, people, and peers” Solis 2010). tlew- ver, Merriam-Webster’ definition adds the coneept of online com ies: social media are “forms of electronic communication ... through which aon eae enlne communities to share information, ideas, personal messages ‘ont (as videos)" (Merrian-Webstcr, n.d.) rere and other con-From Bashtags to Geobombing 337 ‘As of January 2014, 74% of all US. Internet users are"using social networking, the heaviest users aged 18-29 at 89% (Pew Research Internet Project, 2014), ‘most frequently used form of social media was Facebook, used by 71% of alin adults, followed by Linkedln, 22% interest, 21% Tivitter, 1896; and lasta- fers and strengthening social networks and coalition building (Bimber etal, 2005; oombs & Holladay, 2012; ].E. Grunig, 1997; Jenkins, 1983; Kent, Taylor, & White, 03; Reber & Kim, 2006; Smith & Ferguson, 2001; Sommertelde, 2011; Taylor, P Kent, & White, 2001; Taylor & Sen Das, 2010; Yang & Taylor, 2010). Uysal and Yang (2013) found activists could be successful “active agencies” “hough effective mass self-communication tactics characteriza by cheie constant, flow of communication in thee socal networks. They concluded that eompro~ "mise or accommodation may not be desirable when they have the power to force F corporations to change Coombs (2014) said the often-used phrase “social media crisis is not really a ia aparacrss, which isa situation that appears “or is amplified the areas of customer service, venting, and charges of ieespon- "sible behavior by an organization (p. 7). For example, angry customers who vent ‘on organizational websites about bad service are risks and need a communication response, bat this does not rie to the level ofa crisis. Untended, tis situation could grow into a criss especialy ifthe underlying problem is not corrected. | Method | This chapter examines numerous examples of social media activism to describe the current landscape of activism. Specifically, these examples seek to describe the “how” of activiom—how activists are using social media and digital cools to achieve their goals using grounded theory’ principles of developing theory first by collecting and assessing data within the substantive area (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) Social Media Activism ‘Two brief examples of activists using Facebook and YouTube illusrate the power ‘of social media to galvanize grasroots support: the 2011 Egyptian revolution and Kony 2012.