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Published May 26, 2015 | Version v1
Conference paper Open

Social Networks for Social Changes: Case Study of Facebook Group Anonymous Hrvatska (Croatia)

  • 1. University of Zadar, Department of Information Sciences

Description

Two-way communication, participation in creating and sharing content on
the Internet and complete human experience enabled in cyberspace or social
media affected the emergence of a new form of culture – real virtuality. Social
power transforms and moves to cyberspace. The Internet became the
most democratic medium and a framework for updating information on various
problems and planning actions in order to solve them. This sets up new
aspects of resistance and social organizing. The Internet is a powerful technological
weapon, and if used in responsible and proper manner, it can be a
meaningful instrument to achieve social changes. This research paper thus
investigates social networks as tools to achieve social changes, or means for
communication and organization of protests, and in broader sense tools for
activism. Beside theoretical background and examples of social networks
usage for the purpose of protest coordination and organization and communication
among activists, such as Arabian Spring and Occupy Wall Street, this
paper presents a case study of the Facebook group Anonymous Hrvatska,
which was used to organise a couple of protests in Croatia but which did not
achieve much attention.
The aim of this research paper is primarily to get deeper insight in the role
that social networks play in social movements. Next we try to answer
whether social networks are just communication tools for organizing protests
or whether they even can be catalysts for changes. Furthermore, the goal is to explore the communication and organization of protests in Croatia based on a
case study of Facebook group Anonymous Hrvatska – to investigate if there
are some significant differences in ways of using social networks in this context
compared to the previous cases.

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