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Petitioners versus activists: The case of Zwarte Piet and Facebook

Janelle Ward
Janelle Ward

This document discusses two opposing Facebook pages regarding the Zwarte Piet tradition in the Netherlands. The Zwarte Piet is Racism (ZPIR) page campaigns to change the tradition, while the Pro-Piet (Pie11e) page supports maintaining the tradition. An analysis found that the ZPIR page saw more engagement and discussion between users, with 70% of users liking, sharing, or commenting, compared to just 29% on the Pie11e page. Comments on ZPIR were also more substantive replies to one another, while those on Pie11e often just repeated slogans. The results show how Facebook pages can be used in different ways to protest or support issues.

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Petitioners versus activists: The case of Zwarte Piet and Facebook Janelle Ward Department of Media and Communication Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture Erasmus University Rotterdam Co-足authors: Damian Trilling, Anne Brons, and Koen Leurs
The Zwarte Piet controversy Background (clip) Zwarte Piet: Is 'Black Pete' a racist Dutch custom? (BBC) Black Pete exposes the Netherlands' problem with race (The Guardian)
Two Facebook pages In 2011, the organiza1on Zwarte Piet is Racisme (Black Piet is Racism, or ZPIR) began campaigning to change the tradi1on In 2013 the Facebook page Pie11e was started to support the tradi1on
Zwarte Piet is Racisme The Zwarte Piet is Racism campaign aims to create a Sinterklaas fes1val that celebrates togetherness, without racist overtones and without exclusion.
Two Facebook pages Pie11e: Pie11e.nl is against the aboli1on of the Sinterklaas fes1val. In a simple manner we want to collect as many likes as possible.
Key question How are Facebook users engaging with the Zwarte Piet debate?
Key concepts Classic media theory (from 1940s): two-足step process in forming poli1cal opinions (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948) Interpersonal discussion on these sites fosters both civic par1cipa1on and poli1cal ac1vity (Zhang, Johnson, Seltzer, and Bichard, 2010). Those with similar poli1cal views tend to s1ck together on social media (Himelboim, McCreery, & Smith, 2013)
How we did the research Using the Facebook applica1on Netvizz, we retrieved posts and user comments on the Facebook pages ZPIR and Pie11e between October 22, 2013 and January 15, 2014. All analyses were performed with a Python-足script.
Results Pie11e: of 2,112,570 million user likes, only 29 % of users further engaged with the site by liking, sharing, or commen1ng. ZPIR: 70 % of users were engaged 9,733 users out of 13,895 total user likes
Results Pie11e: 40 posts. There were very few comments that were replies to other comments ZPIR: 151 posts. Compared to Pie11e, interac1on between users was much higher: Every second comment was a reply to another comment
Results The discussion on ZPIR was more substan1al than on Pie11e Many comments on Pie11e consisted of the pure repe11on of some slogan rather than a discussion
Results
Conclusion ZPIR is a page oriented towards longer-足term engagement Interpersonal discussion is more developed on a page designed to protest an issue Butnumbers speak loudly Results show how Facebook pages can be used in remarkably different ways
Thank you Email: janelle.ward@gmail.com Twitter: @janelle_ward

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Petitioners versus activists: The case of Zwarte Piet and Facebook

  • 1. Petitioners versus activists: The case of Zwarte Piet and Facebook Janelle Ward Department of Media and Communication Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture Erasmus University Rotterdam Co-足authors: Damian Trilling, Anne Brons, and Koen Leurs
  • 2. The Zwarte Piet controversy Background (clip) Zwarte Piet: Is 'Black Pete' a racist Dutch custom? (BBC) Black Pete exposes the Netherlands' problem with race (The Guardian)
  • 3. Two Facebook pages In 2011, the organiza1on Zwarte Piet is Racisme (Black Piet is Racism, or ZPIR) began campaigning to change the tradi1on In 2013 the Facebook page Pie11e was started to support the tradi1on
  • 4. Zwarte Piet is Racisme The Zwarte Piet is Racism campaign aims to create a Sinterklaas fes1val that celebrates togetherness, without racist overtones and without exclusion.
  • 5. Two Facebook pages Pie11e: Pie11e.nl is against the aboli1on of the Sinterklaas fes1val. In a simple manner we want to collect as many likes as possible.
  • 6. Key question How are Facebook users engaging with the Zwarte Piet debate?
  • 7. Key concepts Classic media theory (from 1940s): two-足step process in forming poli1cal opinions (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948) Interpersonal discussion on these sites fosters both civic par1cipa1on and poli1cal ac1vity (Zhang, Johnson, Seltzer, and Bichard, 2010). Those with similar poli1cal views tend to s1ck together on social media (Himelboim, McCreery, & Smith, 2013)
  • 8. How we did the research Using the Facebook applica1on Netvizz, we retrieved posts and user comments on the Facebook pages ZPIR and Pie11e between October 22, 2013 and January 15, 2014. All analyses were performed with a Python-足script.
  • 9. Results Pie11e: of 2,112,570 million user likes, only 29 % of users further engaged with the site by liking, sharing, or commen1ng. ZPIR: 70 % of users were engaged 9,733 users out of 13,895 total user likes
  • 10. Results Pie11e: 40 posts. There were very few comments that were replies to other comments ZPIR: 151 posts. Compared to Pie11e, interac1on between users was much higher: Every second comment was a reply to another comment
  • 11. Results The discussion on ZPIR was more substan1al than on Pie11e Many comments on Pie11e consisted of the pure repe11on of some slogan rather than a discussion
  • 13. Conclusion ZPIR is a page oriented towards longer-足term engagement Interpersonal discussion is more developed on a page designed to protest an issue Butnumbers speak loudly Results show how Facebook pages can be used in remarkably different ways
  • 14. Thank you Email: janelle.ward@gmail.com Twitter: @janelle_ward