Online Organization of an Offline Protest: From Social to Traditional Media and Back

This paper is a qualitative examination of the participatory potential of social media, focusing on a student-organized protest against censorship in Singapore. While the debate regarding the impact of new media on politics is well-documented, few studies have explicitly detailed the process of online civic mobilization in terms of its contribution to the more traditional forms of political participation, including real-world protests. This case study provides a detailed account of how social media platforms, such as Facebook, as well as traditional media forms were used to organize a student protest against censorship. The findings indicate that social network sites provided easily accessible, inexpensive and effective means for civic organization and mobilization. In addition, blogs and forums were used to foster public debate and deliberation on the issue. We also found that the activists used social media not to circumvent but rather to engage traditional media stakeholders and amplify the impact of their messages and actions.