July 15, 2009

Did Social Media Play a Role in Passing the Allegheny County Ordinance?

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A little over a week has passed since the adrenaline -filled night of the County Council vote that brought protection from discrimination to the whole of Allegheny County. Since then, I’ve been thinking about two ideas that I wanted to blog about concerning the efforts to get the ordinance passed. I want to blog about the way various groups across Allegheny County worked together to support the passage of the ordinance. The cross section of groups and the way in which all played a role, is a process we don’t often see here (or anywhere for that matter. It is common many places for various groups to struggle working together). but before I pen ideas on that front, I was offered a guest post about that subject, so I’ll hold off and see what my guest blogger has to say.

But I want to begin to dig into the other topic, which is looking at what role social media may have played in the passage of the ordinance. In the statement released by the coalition of organizations, three blogs were thanks for their role in this process, Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, The Pittsburgh Comet, and my own blog, so I decided to ask these bloggers for their ideas as to how social media played a role. Bram, of the Pittsburgh Comet sent me his thoughts, and Sue Kerr declined to comment directly, but said she would probably add comments to this blog post once published. And as important as it may be to look at what role social media did play, I want to open the floor for some dialogue about what we can do differently or more of down the road. How do we take this success, learn from it and use it in other GLBTQ rights struggles?

Social Media is a big, broad category of stuff, and far more people played a role than three bloggers. I hope that this post will generate a discussion and if you have stuff to add, please do.

Bram wrote:

I’d say this case was a good illustration of how social media can keep things on the front burner.  It is a tactic of government officials — it’s not always nefarious, sometimes it’s a survival instinct — to put tough issues on the back burner until passions cool down, and maybe things get forgotten about.  When you have someone like Sue [Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents] raising the alarm a couple times a week for everybody to read, it not only keeps issues front and center but makes the dilly-dallying politicians look kind of cheap.

Another way social media impacts obviously is mobilization.  On Wednesday the room was packed at least 3/4 in favor of the pro-civil rights crowd, and I think that’s because that crowd skews a little younger and was made aware of the meeting swiftly and repeatedly through blogs, through Facebook, through Twitter.  People were summoned to arms in a big big hurry.  In addition, at the very last minute there was a flurry of amendments discussed on the matter, and in this case I actually think the electronic media allowed citizens to weigh in as the elected leaders were just becoming familiar with them, and as a result the amendment that the Steel City Democrats felt to be superior was enacted.

Bram’s comments highlight three ways that social media really was instrumental: Keep the subject in the spotlight; Assist with mobilization; Communicate what was going on and informing people as things were happening. But before we go any further, I want to draw some boundaries around the issue: what is social media? I want to do this, because while social media played a role, other tools were useful and helped with the success as well and those deserve acknowledgement as well.
Social Media: A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction. searchenginewatch.com/define
Over the course of the year that the County ordinance was being considered, about 14 blog posts exist between these three blogs which served to keep the issue in the spot light. Over 20 blog posts additionally serve the purpose of spreading information and mobilization, especially in the week or so before the vote. A number of other blogs also played a role. A quick Google Search for “Allegheny County Nondiscrimination” finds many hits, with blogs from he ACLU, Equality Advocates PA, 2 Political Junkies, Stonewall Democrats, Just Seeds, Pittsburgh Pride, among others. Queer news site across the state, such as Erie Gay News published information. However, unlike organizational blogs, which serve more as PR/information outlets, local independent bloggers also weighed in and offered critique and commentary. In these cases, bloggers served more as citizen journalists than information pushers. This may be one of the, both advantages and disadvantages to blogging. The blogger can wear multiple hats. More traditional news sources like newspapers, may split up news and commentary between different sections of the paper. Bloggers may have a tendency to throw it all in together, or go back and forth from playing one role or another. I don’t see this as a bad thing, but I believe it does create a responsibility for the blogger. The tone and message of their blog has much to do with how others will see them. This holds true for readers, as well as organizations, traditional news media, and other entities.
From my perspective, there was a real turning point in the 7-10 days before the vote, where the coalition of organizations worked to use social media and the local bloggers in ways that hadn’t happened before. Before that, even though I felt as if I was pretty connected to the activist community, as a blogger, I was still on the outside struggling to get information.
Bram comments on the number of people at the vote who were for the ordinance or against it.  It may well be that the tools used including email blasts (not really social media, but related technology), Facebook and Twitter helped to bring so many ordinance supporters out. Without a doubt, these tools allowed more people within the GLBTQ communities to be aware of exactly what was going on as amendments were introduced and changes proposed especially in the week before the vote. Social media by its very nature, tends to be interlinked. Blog posts are published which generated a change to a Facebook status message, which is pushed out to twitter, assuring that a larger number of people become aware of the information.
However, I think other factors played a big role in this as well. The opposition to the ordinance had no real coalition of organizations behind it. While there were a few large organizations, such as the Catholic Diocese who expressed concern about the ordinance, most of the negative propaganda being published was by the American Family Association of PA (AFAPA) through their paper newsletter. Their strategy, was one of inundating the council members with phone calls. This was a successful strategy, in the sense that the council received more calls in opposition than in support of the ordinance, but we know that a count of phone calls itself does not determine the outcome of a vote. The opposition didn’t need the ability to alert their folks as to the amendments and changes in a timely manner, because their goal was to keep the ordinance, in any form whatsoever off of the books. I have more I can say about why their campaign was unsuccessful, but they can try ands sort that out for themselves.
The last way I ant to address how social media played a role, has to do with the night of the vote itself. A number of folks were at the Council meeting and sending out information via Twitter or Facebook, and while there were many GLBTQ folks and their supporters in the room, there was an even larger audience following along everything that was happening within the Twitter client, on their cell phone or via Facebook. I received a DM (direct message) before I spoke, telling me to let the council know that many outside of the room were watching what was happening there! Social media tools allow for interaction and engagement in a real-time way that has never existed before. Someone who is across the city (or across the state, or across the country) can be engaged, and that is an amazing thing.
I’d like to end this post talking about ways that social media could have been used, or can be used better in future advocacy/activist work. This is not meant as a criticism of what was done, more as a way to build upon it for the future.
  • Know what’s Out There: Social Media is a changing and growing arena. The more we are aware of what is possible, the more we can determine how to make the most of it.
  • More voices: I have heard Sue Kerr comment that we need more bloggers within the GLBTQ community, and that may be true, but more voices means more than just more blogs. There are many people within our community who blog, either on a personal level or with a more general focus who can help by adding a blog post or two once in a while. Additionally, we need people to be willing to comment on blog posts and join the dialogue. A blog isn’t just a way to push out information, but it can be an environment for discussion to occur. More voices also means adding questions to the table as well as commentary. I will never forget receiving a verbal comment from someone about the importance of using the phrase “gender identity and expression” more frequently. This was a valuable comment for me to hear! I tend to think any people may have comments that could be valuable, but are often kept to themselves.
  • Get the Information to Where the People Are: While news made its way to Facebook via status updates, there was no real Facebook presence for the Allegheny County Ordinance. Groups such as Steel City Stonewall Democrats have a Facebook group, but don’t utilize it very much as an avenue to push out information. Of the 18 “wall” posts there, not a single one is about the Allegheny County ordinance. I don’t mean to single out SCSD, but they were the  most local, and possibly the largest local organization involved. Facebook groups such as “Day of Decision” and “Inclusive ENDA” demonstrate ways to really get the most out of the use of Facebook. While social Media is all about content- it is about Content within Community! GLBTQ organizations alone or working together can be more successful by using existing social networks in proactive ways. All organizations face the dilemma of too much to do and not enough time or people to do it all. But finding a member within an organization to spearhead a social media presence will pay big dividends down the road.
  • Hashtags: This one is geeky. A hashtag is a tag added to posts on Twitter predominately, but we are beginning to see them associated with other social media as well, that allow for easy searching across social media platforms. For example, if we had decided and announced the use of the hashtag #ACantidiscrim. Then everyone who was sending tweets, or Facebook notes, or photos to Flickr, etc, could have tagged with that hashtag, and then during and after the fact, it would be easy to pull all of this generated content together.

There may be far more than can be said on this subject, so what do you think? Leaver a comment and be a part of the dialogue.

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  • http://www.pghlesbian.com Sue Kerr

    I jumped into Jillian’s campaign within five minutes of receiving her first message. I called Specter, Casey and Doyle and had the info up in minutes. It was that easy thanks to access to FB, a cell phone and about 15 minutes of my time. It also gave me good information for a few blog posts. I was pleased when Doyle cosponsored ENDA. The power of FB!

    I have also been “live tweeting” the Steel City monthly meetings which has generated some interesting private dialogues. Two individuals seem interested in joining when they saw specific skill sets I listed as necessary. In addition to recruiting membership and fundraising coordinators, the groups should look for new social media coordinators or communication persons with new social media skills.

    If I had one wish right now, Thomas, I’d like to see the HB 300 advocates using Twitter.

    Perhaps this would be a good reason to bring LGBTQ new social media practicioners together?

    • http://thomascwaters.com admin

      Why would you like to see HB 300 advocates on Twitter?

      After Pittsburgh’s Amazing Bowling Race is over tomorrow, my time is much better.

  • http://www.pghlesbian.com Sue Kerr

    Sorry I didn’t get my comments to you in time for the post. Work has been very chaotic and my grandmother has been very ill so blogging has taken a back seat for me.

    Interesting points. I think the local organizations are held back by their lack of infrastructure which means they have very sketchy, if any, media and communication plans. Investing in new social media among the advocacy groups needs to become a priority.

    I also think that would be a key to generating more involvement in general and perhaps by bloggers who happen to be LGBTQ but don’t necessarily blog politically. We held a blog for equality day last year and drew in quite a few bloggers who aren’t “political” bloggers (no trademark, but please no one steal the idea). So increasing the social media acumen of the advocates could lead to better relationships with individuals, bloggers and nonbloggers. Of course, more investment leads to more online dialogue.

    I’m just not sure folks are convinced of the power of new social media. Building up that infrastructure is the best first step in my opinion. Gotta run.

    • http://thomascwaters.com admin

      Thanks for adding your ideas, and sorry to hear about your Grandmother.

      You make good points. The “activist” community, in the most general sense has so many expectations placed upon them, and social media (almost) demands a new model of organizing, where individuals play a bigger role and there are often less centralized efforts. I think it will be hard to be blind to the enormous impact social media can play after the recent use of Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook in the Iranian election outcome/protests. Or more close to home, the role of loose networking such as Join the Impact, played in the post election protests against Prop 8. But then, we will have to keep working so that the focus on social media doesn’t translate as “blogging” alone, but sees blogging as one part of a multi-directional social media effort.

      Right now on Facebook, Jillian Weiss is having a successful campaign for Inclusive ENDA. She has almost 60% of her participants emailing and phoning legislators, which is a really good rate of involvement!