E-Petitioning and Online Media: The Case of #BringBackOurGirls

Abstract

E-petitioning, a genre of technology-based collective action tools, makes it possible for members of the public to address government decision makers directly with their requests for action. In this paper we use time series analysis to explore the effects of Twitter and other forms of online media on the accumulation of signatures in e-petitioning. We explore the case of "Bring Back Our Girls," a Change.org petition initiated in spring 2014 following the abduction of 276 female students from a school in Chibok, Nigeria by heavily armed members of an Islamic extremist group. The petition targeted government leaders around the world. We found evidence that tweeting and certain forms of online media are related to the likelihood of individuals signing an e-petition, providing evidence of a hybrid media system in which diverse forms of online media behave with diverse logics and impacts in their effects on e-petitions.