My Mass Communications Master’s thesis (basically my final research project) looked at the power and impact of social media, celebrities, and other opinion leaders in shaping a social movement online.

The Study:

My Master’s thesis titled “Social” Movements: A Trend Analysis of the Role of Social Media on Social Movements looked at a social movement that has been very active over the years, the gay rights movement, by using a trend analysis and a case study aimed to answer three questions

1. How social media is being used during a social movement
2. How a social movement evolves on social media
3. How social media is being used by organizations to create change in social movements

The social movement I looked at was the gay rights movement. I then used CrowdTangle, a social media monitoring software to analyze trends between June 2015, October 2018, and June 2020 on Facebook and Instagram. Those were the dates chosen because they had the largest most significant spikes on CrowdTangle, and I wanted to know why.

As part of my study, I also interviewed the social media manager from Free Mom Hugs to find out their social media strategy, where they have the most success, and how they accomplish their goals.

The Findings:

After collecting and analyzing data to look at trends, similarities, differences, messages, key players, and volume of social data, I found 11 ways in which social media was being used during the gay rights movement. The 11 different ways included

1. celebrations
2. celebrities, influencers, or internet personalities
3. national days
4. dedicated months/days
5. news story headline
6. news outlet, magazine, or source
7. historic figure
8. company
9. gay rights account or organization
10. other important figures such as political or religious figures
11. and other

Between 2015 and 2020 there was a significant increase in the volume of posts with keywords or hashtags gay rights as more individuals, companies, and organizations posted about gay rights as the movement and the apps evolved and changed how people shared advocacy efforts.

The Impact of Taylor Swift:

In October 2018, the largest spike in social data was due to a post made by Taylor Swift encouraging voter registration and equality for all. In her post, she shared that a personal event in her life led her to share her thoughts on social media with her followers. Her post led to countless reposts and interactions and received over 2.19 million likes. The data showed the impact that one celebrity or person with influence can make.

Some unexpected results of the study included spikes on the CrowdTangle data indicting one or two posts that received top interactions for a specific day. Second, celebrity involvement (like Taylor Swifts post) is a valuable way to increase interaction. Third, besides celebrities, news sources had the next top interaction posts on Facebook and Instagram. Fourth, the narrative on Facebook and Instagram differs with Facebook focusing on news stories and Instagram highlighting personal stories. And lastly, the content shared on social media is driven by events in the real world, not the other way around with social media driving social change. Social change takes place (like the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage) and people use social media to post about, respond to, talk about the change, and jump on any trends taking place.

Many social movements on social media come and go. This is mostly due to an event that causes an issue to rise to the forefront of people’s minds and they take to social media as an attempt to make a change. With the gay rights movement having dedicated months in June and October, it is easier for individuals to post during those months, and more likely to post the day of or the day after an event versus a few days after.

The Importance of Social Media:

However, social media is extremely important in the diffusion of ideas and social issues, and the transmission of messages particularly through opinion leaders like influencers, news sources, and companies. Opinion leaders and persuasion appeared to be the main catalysts of social media content posted during the gay rights movement.

1. Individuals engage with content on social media because they have an interest in the issue
2. With the help of media coverage, events take place which help to bring attention of the issue to the public
3. This event also helps individuals form an opinion regarding the issue
4. As the public discussion takes place on social media, those that are credible, articulate the issue well, have a following, and have an influence (persuasive ability) can help further shape individuals’ opinions on the issue, and overall help to form public opinion

To read more in-depth, my full Master’s thesis can be downloaded and read by clicking the link here.