From the report: "Social media have come to form an inherent part of most
activist campaigns today. Yet, their potential to foster political
participation and mobilization remains debated. While cyber-utopians insist on
the positive contribution of social online-activism to participatory democracy,
supporters of the "slactivism” argument dismiss it as a hedonist activity
that carries little societal benefit. Our analysis of the Brazilian
anti-corruption campaign Ficha Limpa picks up on this debate. We present
original survey data concerning citizens’ use of social media and their offline
participation in the context of this campaign. Using a binary logit model that
estimates the relation between the use of different communication features
supported by social media and contacting elected officials, we show that online
activities involving relatively high transaction costs in terms of time and
effort contribute more positively toward offline participation than simple
single-click activities. Our findings indicate that the choice of appropriate
social media formats may be a decisive element for the success of campaigners who
seek to mobilize citizens via the Internet." Read more
