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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Communication structure and collective actions in social media

subject

description

In this paper I present results a study of different types of social media communication and networking channels that allow for collective action (CA): Twitter, Jaiku / Qaiku, Ning and Facebook. My preliminary findings indicate, that the visual outlining and the structure of communication create different kinds of collectivity and collective actions. A status stream is effective for simple and fast repetitive mass actions and for individual mass broadcasting, while channels and threads are needed as a backchannel for more complicated, coordinated and iterative tasks and support a sense of community. When planning collective action on the Internet, ranging from citizen participation to marketing campaigns, it is essential to note that different social media tools support different forms of collective action and feelings of collectiveness.