Social Media and Protests: Case Study of Thai Student Flash Mobs during February 2020
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Abstract
This research aims to study flash mobs of Thai students that occurred in various universities between 22 and 27 February 2020. It focuses on analyzing the role of social media in driving protests, considering social media as a variable affecting mobilization. The researcher used data from posted messages during the study period on at least 19 social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter, from 19 universities and analyzed by using flexible pattern matching through social movement concepts. The study found that the student flash mobs had three main social media usage patterns: 1. Flash mobs were the result of personal actions frame that emerged by social media. 2. The flash mobs had some characteristics consistent with the self-organizing network pattern 3. Social media could not be used as a tool for creating an effective collective action frame. Case study findings also showed that social media was only a mechanism to reduce the cost of mobilization but did not change the core dynamics of action
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