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Can Social Media Save a Neighborhood Organization?
Authors:Bonnie J. Johnson
Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning, University of Kansas 1465 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 418 Lawrence, KS 66045-7626 USA 785-864-7147 bojojohn@ku.edu Germaine R. Halegoua
Assistant Professor, Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Kansas 225 Oldfather Studios 1621 W. 9th St Lawrence, KS 66044 USA 785.864.1931 grhalegoua@ku.edu Abstract:
In terms of fostering participation around place-based issues, it has been argued that social media and the internet have had mixed results (Evans-Cowley, 2010). Many studies have focused on new media’s role in connecting interest-based communities across vast geographic distances, fewer studies have examined new media as a tool for organizing place-based local
communities. This paper evaluates the success of social media as a community engagement tool at the neighborhood level and, thus, expands on existing theories and practices in regard to social media and neighborhood participation (Cranshaw et al 2011; Crowley 2010; Evans-Crowley and Hollander 2010; Gordon and Manosevitch 2010; Gordon, Schirra and Hollander 2011; Hampton 2007; Hampton, K, Lee C., and Her, E. 2011; Yardi and boyd 2010).
As a case study we’ve identified a neighborhood association that has seen its participation rates dwindle from hundreds to single digits in a span of 10 years. The association is considering dismantling after 38 years. However, they decided to turn to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter in order to re-build neighborhood ties. Members of the neighborhood association steering committee created a Facebook page and Twitter account for the
neighborhood, but gained no comments, responses, or retweets, and garnered only 8 “likes” and 1 follower out of a possible 550 households. Through a survey and interviews with residents, we investigate the reasons why the neighborhood was not apt to join these social media networks, trace information flows within the neighborhood, and analyze the potential of social media services as neighborhood organizing tools.
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This project helps address unanswered questions regarding the effectiveness of social media for community organizing on the neighborhood scale, and adds to theories of social media adoption within local, place-based communities. Findings from this study have practical implications for neighborhood associations as well as social media designers.
Bibliography
Cranshaw, J, Schwartz R., Hong, J, and Sadeh, N. The Livehoods Project: Utilizing Social Media to Understand the Dynamics of a City. The 6th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. Dublin, Ireland, June 2012.
Evans-Cowley (2010). “Planning in the age of Facebook: the Role of Social Networking in Planning Processes,” GeoJournal, 75: 407-420.
Gordon, E, Schirra S. and Hollander, J. (2011). “Immersive Planning: A Conceptual Model for Designing Public Participation with New Technologies,” Environment and Planning B, 38(3) 505-519.
Gordon, E. and Manosevitch, E. (2010). “Augmented Deliberation: Merging Physical and Virtual Interaction to Engage Communities in Urban Planning,” New Media & Society.
Hampton, K. (2007). “Neighborhoods in the Network Society: The e-Neighbors Study,” Information, Communication, and Society 10(5), 714-748.
Hampton, K, Lee C., and Her, E. (2011) “How New Media Affords Network Diversity: Direct and Mediated Access to Social Capital Through Participation in Local Social Settings,” New Media & Society. 13(7), 1031-1049.
Yardi, S. and danah boyd (2010). "Tweeting from the Town Square: Measuring Geographic Local Networks." ICWSM-2010.
Author Biographies:
Bonnie J. Johnson, PhD, AICP
Bonnie J. Johnson is Associate Professor in the University of Kansas’ Urban Planning
Department. She teaches planning theory, land use, and politics and planning courses. Research interests include: civic bureaucracy, the effective use of media by planners, and competitive elections. Before returning to school for her doctorate, Johnson was a practicing city planner for eight years. While at the City of Liberty, Missouri, she was project manager for Liberty’s award winning Blueprint for Liberty: Land Use Plan. The plan won the American Planning
Association’s “Outstanding Planning Award” for the best plan in the country. At KU, her use of digital storytelling in her History and Theory of Planning course was awarded the “Best Use of Technology for a University Urban and Regional Planning Program” by the Technology Division of the American Planning Association.
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Germaine R. Halegoua, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban environments and networked technologies. In particular, she’s interested in how visions of networked spaces by public officials and urban planners often conflict with vernacular imaginations and actual uses of networked technologies. Her more recent projects investigate how people use locative and social media in order to reorganize urban space and social relations, perform identities, and cultivate strategies of privacy and surveillance. Germaine was a member of Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England in 2011 where she worked on projects related to unintended uses of mobile social networks as well as relationships between customers and vendors over location-based social media in urban environments. She is currently co-editing an anthology, Locating Emerging Media about global and local tensions in new media production, distribution, and reception (Routledge 2013).
