Complaining to the Masses: The Role of Protest Framing in Customer-Created Complaint Web Sites

Abstract

Consumers who once might have voiced their dissatisfaction with a firm to a few friends and acquaintances are now constructing Web sites to tell the world about their dissatisfaction. Protest-framing theory reveals the interlocking rhetorical tactics (injustice, identity, and agency framing) consumers use to mobilize mass audiences against a firm, contributing important insights to our understanding of negative word of mouth. Moreover, an analysis of protest sites reveals that consumers “frame” their corporate betrayal to the public to demonstrate their power to influence others and gain revenge. As a result, a community of discontent may arise in which both individual and social identities appear to be constructed and affirmed.