Framing Social Movement Identity with Cyber-Artifacts: A Case Study of the International Falun Gong Movement
Framing Social Movement Identity with Cyber-Artifacts: A Case Study of the International Falun Gong Movement
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DOI：
10.1145/1980534.1980540
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发表时间：
2010-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Chen, Hsinchun
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chen, Yi-Da;Abbasi, Ahmed;Chen, Hsinchun
构建集体身份是社会运动的一个重要过程。身份定义了公众行动的方向，并为重要信息和物质资源的流通建立了非正式的互动网络。虽然国内社会运动强调联盟身份的一致性，但由于互联网的兴起，全球或网络行动主义现在在其集体身份方面具有灵活性。一个运动可能包括具有不同社会议程的不同社会运动组织（SMOs）。这种灵活的身份框架鼓励个人参与直接行动。另一方面，它可能会破坏SMOs内部的团结，使竞选活动难以控制。为了评估SMO的可持续性，重要的是要了解其集体身份和嵌入其相关网络社会和网络工件中的社会规范。我们使用社会网络分析和Writeprint从链接、网页内容和论坛内容的角度分析了FLG的网络产物。通过部署这些网络文物，FLG无缝地连接了不同的意识形态，并确立了其作为气功、宗教和激进组织的身份。
Framing a collective identity is an essential process in a social movement. The identity defines the orientation of public actions to take and establishes an informal interaction network for circulating important information and material resources. While domestic social movements emphasize the coherence of identity in alliance, global or cyber-activism is now flexible in its collective identity given the rise of the Internet. A campaign may include diverse social movement organizations (SMOs) with different social agendas. This flexible identity framing encourages personal involvement in direct action. On the other hand, it may damage solidarity within SMOs and make campaigns difficult to control. To assess the sustainability of an SMO, it is important to understand its collective identity and the social codes embedded within its associated cyber-societies and cyber-artifacts. In this study, we took a cyber-archeology approach and used the international Falun Gong (FLG) movement as a case study to investigate this identity-framing issue. We employed social network analysis and Writeprint to analyze FLG's cyber-artifacts from the perspectives of links, web content, and forum content. In the link analysis, FLG's websites linked closely to Chinese democracy and human rights SMOs, reflecting FLG's historical conflicts with the Chinese government after the official ban in 1999. In the web content analysis, we used Writeprint to analyze the writings of Hongzhi Li and of his editors, and found that Hongzhi Li's writings center around the ideological teaching of Falun Dafa while the editors post specific programs to realize Li's teaching. In the forum content analysis, FLG comprehensively organizes several different concepts on a continuum: from FLG ideology to life philosophy and mysterious phenomena, and from mysterious phenomena to anti-Chinese Communist Party and persecution by conceptualizing the Chinese government as the Evil. By deploying those cyber-artifacts, FLG seamlessly connects different ideologies and establishes its identity as a Qi-Gong, religious, and activist group.