Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Resistance Through Hashtags: Twitter Use in a Student Protest Movement in Paraguay

Resistance Through Hashtags: Twitter Use in a Student Protest Movement in Paraguay 
by Liena Strikis

Introduction
The role of social media platforms in political movements has been discussed and debated intensely over the years. Social media can be a powerful tool for engaging people both within and across borders, and it has the potential to help people to organize and communicate current events at a rapid rate. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube played an important role in the Arab Spring. Twitter also helped spread information globally during the Iran protests in 2009, sparking global discussions of events. While the use of Twitter as an organizing tool and mobilizing force has at times been overstated, such as in the case of the Iran protests, it has played a crucial part in shaping global debate. Social network analysis is one tool that can be used to examine how people connect with each other through social media.  Researcher Yannis Theocharis used social network analysis to examine the role of social media in protest action in university protest movements in the UK in 2010 and concluded that protest groups used Twitter to disseminate information in an efficient manner. Similarly, I will be using social network analysis to examine the role of Twitter in a university protest movement in Paraguay. 

Background
On September 25, 2015, Froilán Peralta resigned from his position as Chancellor of the National University of Asuncion (UNA), the largest public university in Paraguay. The resignation was the culmination of protests by thousands of students who mobilized after an investigation by newspaper Ultima Hora exposed corruption within the university. The report, which was published in early September, revealed that Peralta had hired friends and family members who earned lavish salaries despite lacking proper educational qualifications. Students began protests on September 16 and were able to generate national support for their cause. As pointed out by the online magazine Upside Down World, this powerful student protest movement was not accidental, as frustration had been building for years before the newspaper investigation surfaced. Students had been aware of corruption at UNA, and the Student Front for Education (FEE) had been outspoken about these issues in the past. This longstanding tension rose to the surface after Ultima Hora’s reports, and students were able to successfully translate their frustration and desire for change into action. Throughout the protests, students used social media to publicize the events and garner international support and attention. The hashtag #UnaNoTeCalles, which translates to “UNA Don’t Be Quiet,” is being utilized both as a slogan and as a way to communicate news of the events on the social media platform Twitter. While the students’ goals were met through the protests, the future is still uncertain. Many people are continuing to use the hashtag #UnaNoTeCalles in hopes of sustaining attention on this issue. In this project, I will use social network analysis to examine the use of the hashtag #UnaNoTeCalles on Twitter. 

Research Questions:

  1. What is the role of the hashtag #UnaNoTeCalles on Twitter now that the original goal of the student movement (the resignation of the Chancellor of UNA) has been met? 
  2. Who are the key actors involved in sustaining the conversation through the use of the hashtag #UnaNoTeCalles on Twitter? How are students, media organizations, and other actors connected to each other through the use of this hashtag?

Data:
Using the software NodeXL, I will collect publicly available data from Twitter. Through the collection of data connected to tweets that use the hashtag #UnaNoTeCalle, I will be able to identify information that will help me to assess the current role of Twitter communications in the student movement. I will focus on the following information: 1) the users who tweet with this hashtag most frequently, 2) the users tweeting with this hashtag who have the most followers, 3) users that tweet frequently and are closely connected to one another, and 4) tweets or mentions connected to media organizations both inside and outside of Paraguay. It will also be interesting to examine the content of the tweets of the most frequent users of the hashtag to gain a sense of how Twitter communications are being used. 

Hypotheses:
I predict that the users who tweet most frequently will be students who played a role in organizing the protests, and that groups of these students continue to be connected with each other through the use of this hashtag. In addition, I hypothesize that students frequently communicate with media organizations through the use of this hashtag, and that these connections will continue although with less frequency as time goes on. It will be interesting to examine whether these hypotheses are correct, and to explore the ways in which this hashtag is being used to disseminate information. 

Network Measures: 
Through the use of UCINET software, social network analysis will enable me to analyze and visualize how people are connected with each other through the use of this hashtag, and how this changes over time. I am interested in examining how key actors are connecting with each other, and how these connections may be evolving since Peralta’s resignation. I will use the following measures to answer my research questions:

I will use subgroup analysis to examine which people are most closely connected to each other through the hashtag. I will use this measure to assess how students, media organizations, and others are connected. 

By using centrality measures, I can identify the key actors in the network. Measuring betweenness will enable me to know who the most well-connected users of this hashtag are. Betweenness is an important measure in assessing influence and the ability to communicate information to many others. I will also use other measures, such as in-degree and out-degree connections, which indicate who is connected to each other. Identifying users with the highest number of connections will be important in this analysis. Visualizing this information in NetDraw will allow me to assess the role of these actors, and I will be able to see what effect removing these key players from the network may have. 

Conclusion
While Twitter is only one mode of communication that has been utilized during the student protest movement occurring at UNA, it has played a crucial role in disseminating information throughout the protests. Twitter has the potential to continue playing a significant role in spreading information and in connecting individuals to each other as well as to organizations across the country and around the world.

Sources

Habibul Haque Khondker (2011) Role of the New Media in the Arab Spring, Globalizations, 8:5, 675-679, DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2011.621287

Lannon, John, ed. Human Rights and Information Communication Technologies: Trends and Consequences of Use: Trends and Consequences of Use. IGI Global, 2012: 47-48

Yannis Theocharis (2013) The Wealth of (Occupation) Networks? Communication Patterns and Information Distribution in a Twitter Protest Network, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 10:1, 35-56, DOI: 10.1080/19331681.2012.701106


http://www.lanacion.com.py/2015/09/25/what-is-going-on-in-paraguay-91042/


http://www.ultimahora.com/secretaria-rector-que-fungia-profesora-renuncia-al-ser-investigada-n928565.html




1 comment:

Christopher Tunnard said...

Excellent. What's especially interesting to someone like me who has studied resistance movements, is the post-crisis role of the key players. It's self-evident that the people who are the most central during a campaign are the most influential, but what happens to them when the passion subsides is a really interesting question. Who are the new thought leaders, etc? I look forward to seeing you develop this.