A17 - Diversity, Advocacy, and Social Media
Date: Jun 4 | Time: 10:30am to 12:00pm | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Anna Esselment (University of Waterloo)
Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Clifton van der Linden (McMaster University)
Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Angelia Wagner (University of Alberta)
Green Participation on Social Media: Energy Est and Shale Gaz Exploration in Quebec: Mireille Lalancette (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières), Stéphanie Yates (Université du Québec à Montréal), Carol-Ann Rouillard (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières)
Abstract: This paper focuses on the use of social media in controversies that raise social acceptability issues based on environmental concerns. Do Twitter and Facebook allow citizens to the express themselves and be more present in a public space more accessible than traditional participatory arenas - such as parliamentary committees, consultations conducted by the promoters of these controversial projects, petition signing or street demonstrations? How do citizens, interest groups, promoters and governments express themselves and what kinds of leadership can be deployed on these platforms? How do artists and public figures play a role in defining this leadership? What kind of argumentative strategies do they mobilize? Two case studies, both of which were rejected on the basis of the controversy they generated, help us answer these questions: the exploitation of shale gas in the St. Lawrence Valley in Quebec (2010-2012) and the deployment of the Energy Est pipeline, proposed by TransCanada (2014-2017). The fact that these two cases are a few years apart also allows us to examine the evolution of uses related to digital social media in such contexts. Finally, this research sheds light on how social media are used in controversial times and now part of digital action repertoires.
Tweeting with Interest: Interest Groups and the 2018 BC Electoral Reform Referendum: Michelle Caplan (University of Western Ontario)
Abstract: Social Media has sharply lowered the cost to entry for information transmission, allowing those without extensive resources access to huge networks of people and the ability to spread their messages with the press of a button. Interest Groups in Canada are slowly adapting to this new environment, raising new questions regarding their place within democracy. As a perennially understudied actor within Canadian politics, and with this new unfettered (and largely unregulated) access to voters, it has become ever more important to contextualize how Interest Groups are using social media to communicate their messages to the voting public. This paper will use content analysis to examine the mechanisms by which Interest Groups used rhetorical methods through Twitter to attempt to influence vote choice during the 2018 Electoral Reform Referendum in BC.
Canadians' Privacy Concerns under the Surveillance Complex: Chilling Effects for Political Participation?: Isadora Borges Monroy (McGill University)
Abstract: Citizens are increasingly using the internet as a means of self-expression, using social media, online forums, and chats to express themselves in contexts where others can listen (Young 2011). Questions of online privacy as a precursor to an engaged Canadian electorate are increasingly salient given political participation and (mis)information of political knowledge exist in privately run online spaces that have been under-regulated. How do Canadians feel about their personal safety when engaging in politics online? More specifically, I raise three questions in this paper. Do Canadians think it is their responsibility to keep their data private, or do they rely on institutions to safeguard it? Do they believe governments should be able to access data from commercial transactions, and that companies should be deputized to enforce Canadian law when online interactions occur through private services? Finally, is there a chilling effect among those who feel unsafe from possible privacy violations in the future?
Using original questions posed via the Digital Democracy Project to highly engaged Twitter and Facebook users and offline (phone, representative general population sample), this paper is able to trace attitudes about online privacy to real and reported engagement of politics online and offline to answer these questions.
Securing (Digital) Sovereignty: Lessons Learned through the Comparative Constitutional Law and Indigenous Politics Project: Marcus Closen (University of Toronto), Kiera Ladner (University of Manitoba)
Abstract: This paper discusses lessons learned as the authors prepared for the launch of a SSHRC-funded community-oriented constitutional archive aimed at Indigenous communities. The community-oriented element of this project means that security threats that are unique to the project are present, such as the possibility of racial hate-groups attempting to take the website down and potentially keep it from being accessed by Indigenous communities in need of it.
This paper explores the security implications for attempting to produce community-based research outputs, and how they might be overcome. Starting from the Mamawipawin team’s development of security and risk mitigation frameworks, this paper seeks to provide insight into cybersecurity concerns that may become more present for academic knowledge mobilization and community supports in the future.