DIGITAL ACTIVISM: SOCIAL MEDIA USE OF UNIONIST WOMEN

Internet that has created radical changes in our personal lifestyle turned consumer users into content creators with the introduction of social media. Such change not only restricted with individuals has also transformed organizational and institutional communication methods. When Arab Spring, Gezi Park protest cases were investigated, it is possible to see that social media plays an important role in social movements with communication and organization dimensions. Social media emerges as an environment that needs to be used effectively for social movements, union struggles and activist attempts. Intense use of new communication technologies in social movements revealed digital activism concept. In this study, social media use of unions which are at the same time activist individual formation is analyzed in terms of female members. Quantitative research is conducted with the participation of 238 unionist women. Findings show that unionist women actively use social media and share union events on social media although they are not managers. Facebook is the most frequently used environment by participants for union purpose. Participants prefer to follow union agenda on social media platforms rather than union corporate website or internet news sites. Unionist women use social media between one hour and three hours on average per day. Unionist women with high average social media usage time per day care more about the number of their own followers. As membership duration of participants to union increase, there social media union share state increases as well. It is believed that unionist women are effective for union communication of social media.

Keywords

Activism, Digital Activism, Activist, Unionist Women, Social Media