Is YouTube A Driver for Social Movements like Occupy Wall Street?

Oct. 29, 2013 - PRLog -- New Rochelle, NY—Social media such as YouTube videos provide a popular and flexible venue for online activism. How two different social protest movements—Occupy Wall Street and the Proposition 8 same sex marriage initiative—utilized YouTube, and their success in engaging activists are explored in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (www.liebertpub.com/cyber) website.

Emily Vraga, PhD and coauthors from George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), Georgetown University (Washington, DC), University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) emphasize an important advantage of YouTube videos for the purpose of social and political activism: they can be shared easily, quickly, and effectively through a variety of mechanisms, including other forms of social media, email, and print media.

The article “The Rules of Engagement: Comparing Two Social Protest Movements on YouTube (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2013.0117)” compares how two disparate political movements used YouTube to define and advance their goals. The study shows that social media activism resulted in differing degrees of popularity and engagement, perhaps related to the content of the videos and to the different online environments in which they appear.

“As YouTube matures, and additional social networking tools evolve, it is interesting to note how these tools may be used by individual citizens as well as political activists to advance their goals,” says Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCIA, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, from the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA.

About the Journal
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber) is a peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies, plus cybertherapy and rehabilitation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber) website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Games for Health Journal, Telemedicine and e-Health, and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s more than 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) website.