HOW DOES TWITTER INFLUENCE A SOCIAL MOVEMENT

Impact of social media on social movements is highly debated and not clearly understood. For better clarity, social media’s influence should be examined by situating it in the context of use. To do so, a research study was undertaken to look at the role of Twitter in a social movement that emerged in India, post a violent gang-rape. Data was gathered to understand Twitter activity as well as offline activity that occurred post the incident. The research study consisted of multiple phases. The first phase of this research was exploratory in nature and aimed to examine how Twitter interacted with the structure of the social movement. For this, we analyzed important Twitter activity that occurred one week post the critical incident. This paper reports results of the initial, exploratory analysis. It found that Twitter was used as an important information diffusion mechanism. Analysis also revealed that Twitter impacted important structural components of the social movement. It influenced mobilization, identity framing and opportunity structures of the social movement. This helped in a better understanding of the process via which Twitter influenced the social movement.