A Typology of Social Media Affordances during Social Movements

Abstract

This research proposes a typology of social media affordances in the context of social media-enabled social movements. Social media technologies shape and facilitate the spread of such social movements by lowering individuals\u27 participation costs, increasing general accessibility to information, fostering connectivity, and creating a platform where users can generate content. We propose a typology of affordances to theorize the spread of these movements from the embryonic stage to its established stage. To do so, coalesced affordance, a new type of affordance, and the existing shared, collective, and connective affordances are used. We also integrate the role of social networks and network theory in developing the proposed typology. Finally, the study\u27s implications, limitations, and future research direction are discussed