Graduation Year
Spring 2012
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Politics and International Relations
Reader 1
Nancy Neiman Auerbach
Reader 2
T. Kim-Trang Tran
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2012 Jesse Janice Klekamp
Abstract
This analysis seeks to understand the power of social media to create sustainable social movements. The 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle were one of the first internet-supported acts of protest and illustrate the power of the Internet and social media to bring together diverse coalitions of actors and maintain decentralized power structures. Next, the analysis studies the non-profit advocacy organization Invisible Children and the recent media explosion of their Kony 2012 campaign to make sense of how uses of the Internet have expanded since 1999. The Kony 2012 case illustrates the power of committed networks in disseminating information but also alludes to some of the new challenges social media presents. Ultimately, this analysis concludes that social media has simultaneously empowered and crippled social media, calling for an intentioned use of the Internet applications, strong leadership, and cultural framing to sustain mobilization.
Recommended Citation
Klekamp, Jesse Janice, "Intentioned Network Convergence: How Social Media is Redefining, Reorganizing, and Revitalizing Social Movements in the United States" (2012). Scripps Senior Theses. 96.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/96
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons
