Category: Social media

“After exploring the resources above, choose two ways that you see social media has impacted on an organisation you are familiar with. This could be a business, an institution or a government department. Identify the organisation and write 400 words explaining and analysing the impact”.

Animals Australia

My interaction with Animals Australia began in the early 2000’s as a recipient of their email list, then adding them on Myspace followed by Facebook. By 2010 I was regularly posting on the ‘Animals Australia Unleashed’ community forum aimed at 13–26-year-olds wanting to discuss animal welfare, food tips (veganism wasn’t yet mainstream!) and organising events and activism.

Source: Trove – Animals Australia Unleashed 2012

They grew quickly, and social media was key to their success, as their undercover investigations combined with public awareness campaigns were used as leverage to enact corporate and political change for animals. A keystone of their social media accounts is their ‘Call to action’ content, allowing for easy sharing of videos across multiple platforms, online petitions, and pre-filled email templates on issues such as greyhound racing or live export. This type of content gives people social capital, they feel like they are doing a good deed and Animal Australia then makes is easy to share that good deed (although is it still a good deed if you need to advertise it?) with the rest of your followers, thus promoting more people to get involved.

Source: Australian Progress, 2015

Building a community of social media “activists” that outwardly (and financially) support Animals Australia is also good for business; as a publicly funded charity, without strong support from their followers, they would not have such successful campaigns.

Major Successes
One particularly effective campaign targeted at McDonalds to end their use of cage eggs across Australian restaurants was by asking children to create video messages of themselves (complete with cameos from backyard chickens) to move to free-range eggs. McDonalds had no chance, the social pressure worked, and McDonalds did eventually remove cage eggs in 2017. The video is here:
https://www.facebook.com/AnimalsAustralia/videos/10153085045675299/

I remember 2012’s “Make it possible” ad campaign, released solely on social media that eventually spread to television and newspaper advertisements, reusable shopping bags in Coles (that were eventually removed due to protests from farming groups) and even cinema ads. By the end of the campaign, ‘Make It Possible’ received twelve million views and directly impacted on the reported behaviour of over 291,000 Australians, as well as impacting policy decisions made by government and industry (Mummery, J., 2019). I have included the video here, but keep the tissues handy: https://youtu.be/f5xxQV-R6Ug

In 2023, Animals Australia is the one of the most well-known animal welfare organisations and what sets them apart from groups like the RSPCA is their impressive social media presence and tools for online activism. They have continued to evolve, and I am still a proud supporter of them all these years later.

(426 words).

References

Animals Australia. (n.d). Frequently asked questions. https://animalsaustralia.org/faqs/

Animals Australia. (2021). Animals Australia 2011 make it possible ad (extended version). https://youtu.be/f5xxQV-R6Ug

August. (2023). Designing for a kinder world with animals Australia. https://www.august.com.au/our-best-work/animals-australia/

Australian Progress. (n.d.). Jesse Marks (Animals Australia) – progress 2015. https://vimeo.com/127683461

Mummery, J., & Rodan, D. (2019). Becoming activist: The mediation of consumers in animals Australia’s “make it possible” campaign. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture & Policy, 172(1), 48–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X19853077

Poultry Site (n.d.). McDonald’s commitment to phase out cage eggs in Australia. https://www.thepoultrysite.com/news/2014/09/mcdonalds-commitment-to-phase-out-cage-eggs-in-australia

Trove. (n.d.). (2009, October, 15). Unleashed community forum: Animals Australia unleashed. Retrieved 15 Oct 2009 13:36:42, from https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20091015023642/http://www.unleashed.org.au/community/forum

“Access this journal, Social Media and Society, and read one article from the current issue that appeals to your interests. In a blog post, provide a brief description and an analysis of the article of your choice. Do you agree with the authors? If not – why not? (350-400 words).”

Source: The Spectrum

As a woman who uses Instagram extensively, the October-November issue of “Social Media and Society” in the article ‘Non-Sexualized Images and Body-Neutral Messaging Foster Body Positivity Online” stood out to me for analysis. Like many women, I tend to compare myself to photos of women online which causes me to become critical of my appearance, therefore the idea of online body positivity movement that promotes self-acceptance and love of one’s appearance is appealing. So appealing, that as of July 2023, on Instagram (the largest platform for body positivity content) the hashtag #bopo had 1.2 million tags (Cohen, Irwin, et al., 2019; Cwynar-Horta, 2016; Instagram, July 2023).  

 As a decentralised user-generated movement, body positivity posts aim to empower women to hold a positive attitude regarding their bodies, but these types of posts are varied in their styling and messaging. The article sought to compare the mainstream appearance-oriented body positivity posts that emphasise a love of one’s physical body against those posts promoting body neutrality – which seeks to disconnect a women’s perception of her worth from her physical appearance. In addition, they analysed if the choice of platform changed how participants viewed the messaging (Instagram vs Flickr vs a blog). 

I predicted that posts promoting body neutrality were favoured by women over mainstream body positive posts as the latter is often only a slight variation from dominant Western beauty ideal, young, thin, and white (Brathwaite et al., 2023). These types of posts could show a woman with stretch marks or body hair but still not showing any diversity in age, race a body size. Often, these posts can be promoting a product to “fix” the issues in the photo, suggesting these posts are more about self-interest and financial gain the empowering women to feel good about themselves.

Therefore, the results were unsurprising, confirming my own views that body neutral messaging felt less self-interested and more morally appropriate, in turn causing women to embrace a more inclusive beauty standard. Interestingly, the social media platform used to show participants the images did not change the perception of the images. I had assumed that women who post body positivity content on Instagram, being the main platform for body positivity content, would be judged as more self-interested than those from Flickr or a blog, but the study shows no significant differences (Brathwaite et al., 2023, p.9).  

(389 words).

References 

 Brathwaite, K. N., DeAndrea, D. C., & Vendemia, M. A. (2023). Non-sexualized images and body-neutral messaging foster body positivity online. Social Media + Society, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305123120785

Cohen R., Irwin L., Newton-John T., Slater A. (2019). #Bodypositivity: A content analysis of body positive accounts on Instagram. Body Image, 29, 47–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.02.007