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Facebook och det (o)synliga engagemanget

Bartholdsson, John LU and Widenfelt, Tom (2015) SKOK01 20151
Department of Strategic Communication
Abstract
Civic engagement has traditionally involved a physical engagement in form of demonstrations, volunteering or donating money in an attempt to solve civic problems. Since the rise of social media, with Facebook in particular, the opportunities to support different causes have dramatically increased. Today, all it takes to engage in a social cause is a click of a button. The use of social media has also increased the social observability of our actions affecting how people interact and present themselves in an online environment. This study aims to increase the understanding of how the public environment provided on Facebook influence the motives behind engaging in a social cause on the platform. The empirical data was collected through focus... (More)
Civic engagement has traditionally involved a physical engagement in form of demonstrations, volunteering or donating money in an attempt to solve civic problems. Since the rise of social media, with Facebook in particular, the opportunities to support different causes have dramatically increased. Today, all it takes to engage in a social cause is a click of a button. The use of social media has also increased the social observability of our actions affecting how people interact and present themselves in an online environment. This study aims to increase the understanding of how the public environment provided on Facebook influence the motives behind engaging in a social cause on the platform. The empirical data was collected through focus group interviews. The findings of the study indicated that engagement in a social cause was affected by if people viewed themselves as an active or passive user. Furthermore the findings show that two important motives to engage in a social cause on Facebook were the need to be consistent with previous behavior and the need to present a positive image. In conclusion we found that the setting (i.e. private/public) where people interacted with each other affected the motive to engage in a social cause. People found it easier to engage in a social cause in a private setting than in a public one. Moreover engagement in a private setting had a larger impact than in a public setting because of the absence of impression management motives. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Engagemang i sociala frågor har traditionellt sett involverat ett fysiskt deltagande där människor har engagerat sig genom att demonstrera, arbeta ideellt eller donera ekonomiska medel för att försöka lösa upplevda samhällsproblem. Sedan uppkomsten av sociala medier, i synnerhet med Facebook, har möjligheter att stödja olika sociala frågor ökat avsevärt där man med hjälp av ett knapptryck kan ge sitt stöd till frågan. Användandet av sociala medier har även ökat observerbarheten i våra handlingar vilket har gett upphov till en större medvetenhet kring vårt beteende på nätet. Med avstamp i detta ämnade studien att öka förståelsen för hur den offentlighet som präglar Facebook påverkar människors motiv till att engagera sig i sociala frågor. I... (More)
Engagemang i sociala frågor har traditionellt sett involverat ett fysiskt deltagande där människor har engagerat sig genom att demonstrera, arbeta ideellt eller donera ekonomiska medel för att försöka lösa upplevda samhällsproblem. Sedan uppkomsten av sociala medier, i synnerhet med Facebook, har möjligheter att stödja olika sociala frågor ökat avsevärt där man med hjälp av ett knapptryck kan ge sitt stöd till frågan. Användandet av sociala medier har även ökat observerbarheten i våra handlingar vilket har gett upphov till en större medvetenhet kring vårt beteende på nätet. Med avstamp i detta ämnade studien att öka förståelsen för hur den offentlighet som präglar Facebook påverkar människors motiv till att engagera sig i sociala frågor. I undersökningen användes fokusgruppsintervjuer i insamlingen av det empiriska materialet. Resultaten av studien visade att människors engagemang i sociala frågor påverkades av om de ansåg sig vara passiva eller aktiva användare av nätverkssidan. Studien visade även att viljan att ligga i linje med sina handlingar och viljan att presentera en idealiserad bild av sig själv var viktiga motiv till engagemang. Avslutningsvis fann vi även att människor interagerade med varandra i olika rumsliga kontexter på Facebook och att deras beteende skiljde sig mellan dessa olika kontexter. Det viktigaste av dessa fynd var att människor i allmänhet ansåg det vara lättare att både skapa engagemang och engagera sig i en mer privat kontext än i en offentlig. Vidare sågs engagemanget i en privat kontext som mer värdefullt än i en offentlig då motivationen i form av intrycksstyrning försvann. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Bartholdsson, John LU and Widenfelt, Tom
supervisor
organization
course
SKOK01 20151
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Social media, Facebook, engagement, social causes, impression management, social observability, cognitive dissonance theory
language
Swedish
id
5463835
date added to LUP
2015-06-12 08:10:15
date last changed
2015-06-12 08:10:15
@misc{5463835,
  abstract     = {{Civic engagement has traditionally involved a physical engagement in form of demonstrations, volunteering or donating money in an attempt to solve civic problems. Since the rise of social media, with Facebook in particular, the opportunities to support different causes have dramatically increased. Today, all it takes to engage in a social cause is a click of a button. The use of social media has also increased the social observability of our actions affecting how people interact and present themselves in an online environment. This study aims to increase the understanding of how the public environment provided on Facebook influence the motives behind engaging in a social cause on the platform. The empirical data was collected through focus group interviews. The findings of the study indicated that engagement in a social cause was affected by if people viewed themselves as an active or passive user. Furthermore the findings show that two important motives to engage in a social cause on Facebook were the need to be consistent with previous behavior and the need to present a positive image. In conclusion we found that the setting (i.e. private/public) where people interacted with each other affected the motive to engage in a social cause. People found it easier to engage in a social cause in a private setting than in a public one. Moreover engagement in a private setting had a larger impact than in a public setting because of the absence of impression management motives.}},
  author       = {{Bartholdsson, John and Widenfelt, Tom}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Facebook och det (o)synliga engagemanget}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}