Concepedia

Political Facebook groups: Micro-activism and the digital front stage

First Monday · 2013 · 139 citations · 16 references

Open access

TL;DR

Facebook’s non‑anonymous environment lets actors construct hoped‑for political selves, and political groups enable the performance of these idealized identities. The study aims to deepen understanding of political social‑network dynamics through a content analysis of 250 politically oriented Facebook groups. The authors analyze 32 countries’ groups in 23 languages via Google Translate, then apply grounded theory and Goffman’s dramaturgy to develop a digital front‑stage theory of group creation. The digital front stage is sustained by four sets of signifiers—expressivity, identity, signifiers, and text length—and the study discusses its implications for future digital citizenship.

Abstract

This paper seeks to expand our understanding the dynamics of political SNSs by means of a content analysis of 250 politically oriented Facebook groups. Using Google Translate, I examine Facebook groups from 32 different countries in 23 different languages. Using grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) and Goffman’s (1978) work on dramaturgy, I develop a theory of a digital front stage that helps explain how and why Facebook users create groups. This digital front stage is maintained, I argue, through the use of four sets of signifiers (expressivity, identity, signifiers and text length). Because Facebook is a nonymous (as opposed to anyonmous) environment, actors can seek to construct “hoped for possible (political) selves” (Markus and Nurius, 1986). Political Facebook groups allow for the performance of these “possible selves” through the formation of idealized political identities. In the conclusion, I discuss the implications of SNS applications like Facebook groups for the future of digital citizenship.