The Relationship between Social Media and Traditional Forms of Activism: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This research has offered insights into the distinctions and similarities between online activism and traditional offline activism. Through the studies of the motivation, the level of engagement and the perceived effectiveness of both types of activism, we have understood better the way people are participating in the social movements in the digital era. The results show that the two activism types are motivated by the need to bring social change and moral conviction. Nonetheless, social validation and peer pressure have a stronger effect on online activism, which is characteristic of immediate satisfaction and psychological payoff social media can give. On the contrary, offline activism is more likely to be driven by a superior sense of commitment and moral responsibility since it is more personally invested, e.g. physically and through effort. This implies that effective online activism may be able to assemble people within a short period and create awareness, however, it may not be as effective as offline activism which can be characterized as being more emotionally driven and identification oriented. Regarding effectiveness, the study established online activism to have a better performance in creating awareness and reaching a global audience as compared to offline activism which has been perceived to be more effective in affecting policy as well as attaining real-life social change. This supports the notion that even though social media may help raise voices and become more visible, the effect is not always translated into action and does not always have long-term consequences. On the whole, the findings imply that online and offline activism possess their own benefits and both methods might offer the best solution to evoking social change when being combined into a hybrid form of social activism. Future studies need to concentrate on ways in which these two forms can be merged to achieve their best results combined to ensure more engagement and permanent transformation of the whole society. Online activism was considered more useful in the creation of awareness, whereas offline activism was considered to be more influential in the process of policy development and social change. This paper sheds light on the complementary relationship between the online and offline activism, implying that a hybrid of the two strategies can be best applied in the quest to bring about long-term social change.