Date of Submission
Spring 2015
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
James Ketterer
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This paper examines the influence of social media on political participation in American social movements, focusing on the cases of the Occupy and Tea Party movements during their heyday in the period from 2009 to 2012 as a framework for analysis. Users of these social networks have access to instantaneous information dissemination, broad new political networks, and a wealth of radical thought; but also can be diverted from real-world participation by the appeal of low-cost online activism. Using a foundation of strong-tie/weak-tie activism theory, demographics surveys, and media coverage this paper argues that social media has reshaped the process by which certain privileged demographic subgroups are drawn to participate in political social movements, and thereby suggests possible preconditions to convert social media activism into real-world participation.
Open Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Carter-Parks, Alexander Elliott, "The 21st Century Activist's Dilemma: Social Media's Impact on the Occupy and Tea Party Movements" (2015). Senior Projects Spring 2015. 124.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2015/124
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Included in
American Politics Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Political Theory Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Media Commons