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Accountability through (Inter)Action? A Framework of Affordances for Understanding Civil Society Accountability on Social Media Platforms

Gullberg, Cecilia and Gustafsson, Nils LU orcid (2025) In Social Media + Society 11(2). p.1-14
Abstract
This article investigates how social media can enable and constrain civil society organizations’ (CSOs) discharge of accountability. Based on a comparative analysis of the Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X) posts of the Swedish Red Cross during 1 year (N = 1014), we propose a framework of affordances that illustrate how platform features, practices, norms, and perceptions about audiences jointly shape the accountability potential of a platform. Accountability is overall more content- than process-oriented, emphasizing visibility of action rather than far-reaching social interactivity. Our study, however, reveals important differences between Instagram and Facebook, on the one hand, and Twitter, on the other. Whereas accountability is... (More)
This article investigates how social media can enable and constrain civil society organizations’ (CSOs) discharge of accountability. Based on a comparative analysis of the Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X) posts of the Swedish Red Cross during 1 year (N = 1014), we propose a framework of affordances that illustrate how platform features, practices, norms, and perceptions about audiences jointly shape the accountability potential of a platform. Accountability is overall more content- than process-oriented, emphasizing visibility of action rather than far-reaching social interactivity. Our study, however, reveals important differences between Instagram and Facebook, on the one hand, and Twitter, on the other. Whereas accountability is more short-term, scripted, and donor-oriented in the former, it is more abstract and ad hoc, with mainly indirect efforts at interactivity, in the latter. Our framework of affordances sheds light on the hitherto under-researched intersection between the literature on CSO accountability and the literature on CSO use of social media. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
instagram, Twitter, X, Facebook, accountability, affordances, civil society organisations, social media
in
Social Media + Society
volume
11
issue
2
pages
14 pages
publisher
SAGE Publications
ISSN
2056-3051
DOI
10.1177/20563051251340146
project
Audit Society 2.0 - Taking a new turn? Organizational use and consequences of external reporting on social media.
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8ae4f7e3-132a-477b-bf4e-30f5ba8a9d38
date added to LUP
2025-06-01 09:38:48
date last changed
2025-06-02 11:30:01
@article{8ae4f7e3-132a-477b-bf4e-30f5ba8a9d38,
  abstract     = {{This article investigates how social media can enable and constrain civil society organizations’ (CSOs) discharge of accountability. Based on a comparative analysis of the Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X) posts of the Swedish Red Cross during 1 year (N = 1014), we propose a framework of affordances that illustrate how platform features, practices, norms, and perceptions about audiences jointly shape the accountability potential of a platform. Accountability is overall more content- than process-oriented, emphasizing visibility of action rather than far-reaching social interactivity. Our study, however, reveals important differences between Instagram and Facebook, on the one hand, and Twitter, on the other. Whereas accountability is more short-term, scripted, and donor-oriented in the former, it is more abstract and ad hoc, with mainly indirect efforts at interactivity, in the latter. Our framework of affordances sheds light on the hitherto under-researched intersection between the literature on CSO accountability and the literature on CSO use of social media.}},
  author       = {{Gullberg, Cecilia and Gustafsson, Nils}},
  issn         = {{2056-3051}},
  keywords     = {{instagram; Twitter; X; Facebook; accountability; affordances; civil society organisations; social media}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{1--14}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Social Media + Society}},
  title        = {{Accountability through (Inter)Action? A Framework of Affordances for Understanding Civil Society Accountability on Social Media Platforms}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20563051251340146}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/20563051251340146}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}