NGOs' Advocacy in the 2015 Refugee Crisis

A Study of Agenda Building in the Digital Age

Bibliographic Data

ID3757934
AuthorsAimei Yang (0000-0003-2740-9378, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, corresponding author), Adam J Saffer (0000-0001-8032-4256, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Adam Saffer (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA)
Year2018
Volume62
Issue4
Pages421-439
Publication date2018-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764218759578
OpenAlexW2792471973
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited21

In the 2015 European refugee crisis, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) offered help and actively advocated for millions of refugees. The current study aims to understand what communication strategies are most effective for NGOs to influence media coverage and the public's social media conversations about refugees. We found that agenda building on traditional media and in social media conversations require different strategies. Specifically, although providing information subsidies could powerfully influence traditional media coverage, its effect waned in the context of social media conversations. In contrast, NGOs' hyperlink network positions emerged as the one of the influential factors for NGOs' prominence in social media conversations. Moreover, stakeholder-initiated engagement could influence agenda building both in traditional media coverage and social media conversations. Finally, organizational resources and characteristics are important factors as well. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Context (archaeology) · Political science · Public relations · Refugee · Social media · Sociology · Stakeholder · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Media and Politics