Bowling online: social networking and social capital within the organization
Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologies
Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users' personality and social media use
Computers in Human Behavior
Modeling educational usage of Facebook
Computers & Education
Information, Community, and Action: How Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Computers in Human Behavior
The impact of Arab cultural values on online social networking: The case of Facebook
Computers in Human Behavior
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This exploratory study aims to investigate the existing efforts in civic engagement using Facebook. Previous work describes the typical usage of Facebook for connecting with others, to educate and inform in a wide range of context. Little research exists, however, on the emerging role of Facebook as an enabler for civic engagement in a social network environment. With over one billion global Facebook users, there is emerging evidence that activists are making concerted efforts to utilize Facebook's dynamic ability for addressing social issues. The present study conducted face-to-face interviews with twelve activists in examining how Facebook was used to conduct civic engagement activities that address social issues. The analysis was based on the five criteria of Internet activism, i.e. collection of information; publication of information; dialogue; coordinating actions and lobbying for decision makers. The results revealed that activists are using Facebook to seek information, check on others, follow links, post civic messages, promote social events, appeal for donations, call for volunteers, discuss social issues, schedule plans and advocate change. These findings indicate that activists are using Facebook to shape the traditional civic engagement landscape in an online realm. Future opportunities for this stream of research are then discussed before concluding.