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Interest Groups and Social Media

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  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs

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Definition

This entry presents an overview of the state-of-the-art on the topic of interest groups and social media. Social media have had a transformative impact on nearly all aspects of interest group politics. Just as interest groups have been quick to integrate social media into their lobbying tool kits, researchers have made impressive advances in the understanding of when, why, and to what effect groups use social media in their lobbying efforts. After defining social media, this entry outlines three dominant research questions in the existing research: (1) to what extent do groups use social media in their lobbying activities; (2) how and when do groups use social media lobbying strategies; and (3) how effective are social media strategies? We suggest that while research on social media have made impressive advances in a relatively short span of time, key challenges remain. These include expanding on our understanding of the effectiveness of social media as a lobbying tool;...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Gupta et al. (2018: 120) similarly identify three major strands of research: (1) explaining the “popularity” of social media as a lobbying tool; (2) explaining why interest groups use social media, and (3) explaining the impact of using social media as a lobbying tool. For another good overview of interest groups and social media, see Shotton and Chalmers (2015).

  2. 2.

    Two exceptions stand out. Curtis et al. (2010) examine public relations practitioners and Obar et al. (2012: 4) assess “advocacy groups,” which includes, according to this study, “non-governmental organizations (NGOs), lobby organization, pressure groups, activist groups, or social movement organizations.”

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Economy, King’s College London, London, UK

    Elise Antoine

  2. King’s College London, London, UK

    Adam William Chalmers

Authors
  1. Elise Antoine
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  2. Adam William Chalmers
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Correspondence to Elise Antoine .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chester Business School, Chester, UK

    Phil Harris

  2. University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa

    Phil Harris

  3. Good Governance Institute, London, UK

    Phil Harris

  4. Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Alberto Bitonti

  5. Aurora WDC/Medical, College of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Craig S. Fleisher

  6. Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz

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Antoine, E., Chalmers, A.W. (2022). Interest Groups and Social Media. In: Harris, P., Bitonti, A., Fleisher, C.S., Binderkrantz, A.S. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44556-0_229

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