Newsaccess Insight: Is social media the new vehicle for protest?
The drip, drip, drip of information surrounding the water charges has fuelled significant social media buzz, but to what extent, if any, does it influence change?
Over the 30 days leading up to the introduction of water charges the social networks in Ireland have been brimming with debate, speculation and quite often anger over the impact of the charge. Since August 30th, 14,927 references have been made to ‘Irish Water’ on social media here.
Source: Newsaccess SocialMetrics monitoring
A discussion surrounding the water charge created the peak in coverage in the lead up to the introduction. September 23rd saw 1181 references to Irish Water alone. The RTE Prime Time debate that evening sparked a ‘second screening’ led spike in tweets about the charges.
Closer to 'd-day' on September 30th the overall peak in mentions grew to 2,465 but with tensions growing and opinions on the subject strong does this translate to feet on the streets?
It’s when we delve deeper to examine the Top 10 Influencers on the subject of ‘Irish Water’ that social media’s role in protesting comes to the fore. @Revolution_Irl is the Number 1 'influencer' with a total potential reach of 1.73 million twitter users. @Revolution_Irl has tweeted about the subject almost 650 times in the last month. @FliuchOff scores second highest with a potential reach of 80,235 users on Twitter.
Laura Hutton Photocall Ireland
However do these impressive reach figures actually ring through in terms of delivering a message? There were numerous protests in the run up to the introduction with attendees ranging from 450 to 4,000 depending on which reports you read. However where are the tens-of-thousands following the story on smart phones?
Does this indicate that ‘digital demonstrators’ are replacing active protestors on the big topics in the news? As the charges begin from today we will have to wait and see if the social media reaction has a further impact on in-person demonstrations.
Paul Moriarty is Head of Insight at Newsaccess Media Intelligence. Newsaccess is the leading provider of media monitoring and media analysis service in Ireland. For more information on Newsaccess click here.
