In the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Twitter has become a key tool for citizens engaging in civic change, functioning both as a public forum and a method of mobilization. Twitter was especially prominent in two campaigns: ‘Yes We Cannon’ (a campaign to have bike lanes added to Cannon street by 2015) and ‘Dialogue Partners’ (an online campaign in 2013 to have a city-hired PR firm contract terminated). Hamilton is seeing a surge of civic engagement, and much of it occurring online through social networking sites like Twitter.
Researchers have investigated the role of Twitter in large-scale movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Springs, but Hamilton represents a different sort of case. Civic engagement in Hamilton is focused on specific local issues rather than toppling governments or revolutionizing the world. Studying Twitter’s relationship to civic engagement in Hamilton is important to better understanding how it facilitates change and fosters community within smaller populations/geographic regions than those of Occupy and the Arab Springs.
This site investigates how civically engaged Twitter users within Hamilton use online social ties to build a sense of community with each other, participate in public discourse, and influence city policy, especially in regard to issues of livability, transportation, and equal representation.
The PEW Internet Research group recently conducted a survey seeking “people’s opinions about the Snowden leaks, their willingness to talk about the revelations in various in-person and online settings, and their perceptions of the views of those around them in a variety of online and off-line contexts.”
…
Read More