8.4.04: Online Messaging by Advocacy Organizations and Special Interest Groups
Building Democracy for All · LibreTexts
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8.4.04: Online Messaging by Advocacy Organizations and Special Interest Groups
Opening the book…
Advocacy organizations (also known as special interest groups) are groups that support a political issue or cause (What is an Advocacy Group?). These organizations engage in fundraising, conduct public awareness and information campaigns, lobby legislators, and contribute to political campaigns.
You can learn more about public and private interest groups in Topic 4.13 of Building Democracy for All.
Advocacy Organizations and Special Interest Groups make extensive use of social media. In the following activities, you will explore how civil rights and social justice advocacy organizations use social media and online messaging to promote equality in society, and then you will design your own advocacy group and website.
Activity 1: Evaluate the Social Media Messaging of Advocacy Organization
Choose a civil rights, social justice, and/or equality advocacy organization that is important to you, or select one from the list below:
Which platforms do they use - Facebook? Twitter? Reddit? Instagram? TikTok? YouTube? Something else?
Compare and contrast their posts across platforms. Do they share the same or different information, text, and visuals on each platform? Why do you think that is?
Now, imagine you are the social media manager of this organization. Create a series of social media posts that highlight how the organization is aligned with the fundamental principles and values of American life.
Activity 2: Analyze Persuasion Techniques in Advocacy Groups' Websites
Then, compare and contrast the use of persuasion techniques in each website. What did you find persuasive? Why?
Finally, design your own advocacy group based on a social issue of interest to you and create a mock design of a website that features some of the persuasion and design techniques you discovered during this activity.
Additional Resources
Special Interest Groups' Use of Social Media as a Weapon
Define and provide examples of fundamental principles and values of American political and civic life. (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Studies) [8.T4.4]