Hoe wordt social media gebruikt door development organisaties? Bekijk de presentatie van Anand Sheombar over zijn onderzoek hiernaar.

1. International Development organisaties
en Social Media: hoe doen ze dat?
LabTalk #8 12th February 2019
Anand Sheombar
Research Group Process Innovation & Information Systems
HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht
Email: anand.sheombar@hu.nl Twitter: @anandstweets
Director of Studies: Professor Cathy Urquhart
#LabTalk
@anandstweets

2. Photos: Anne-Marie
Partos Plaza (2010)

3. Agenda
 Social Media – some figures on global use
 Social Media concept
 NGOs and development
 Research question
 Some Findings
 Mapping Social Media Use on development
NGO strategies
 Thesis Design Canvas of my PhD Study
 Q&A
3

4. Global Internet & Social Media
Source: (We Are Social, 2019) 4

5. 5
Social Media Coverage Per Region
Source: (We Are Social, 2019)

6. Active Users per Social Media Platform
6
Source: (We Are Social, 2019)

7. Top Messenger Apps By Country & Changes
in % Active Users of Social Media Platforms
7Source: (We Are Social, 2019)

8. Defining Social Media
• The terms social media, social networks (SNSs) and
web 2.0 are often interchangeable (Parameswaran,
2007; Iriberri & Leroy, 2009; Zuniga & White, 2009).
• Definitions share the same characteristics: openness,
participation, conversation, connectedness and
community. (Mayfield, 2008; Fuchs 2013).
• Definition adopted for this study (Mayfield, 2008; Fuchs
2013)
Social media is defined as a techno-social system
for participatory culture, having characteristics like:
openness, participation, conversation,
connectedness and community.
8

9. Social Media (characteristics)SocialMedia
Openness
Participation
Conversation
Connectedness
Community
(Mayfield, 2008; Fuchs 2013).
9

10. NGO Definition
The World Bank (2014) defines non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) as
 “private organizations that pursue activities
to relieve suffering, promote the interests of
the poor, protect the environment, provide
basic social services, or undertake
community development.
 NGOs often differ from other organizations
in the sense that they tend to operate
independent from government, are value-
based and are guided by the principles of
altruism and voluntarism.” 10

11. Non governmental organisation (NGO)
Characteristics
NGO
Institutionalised
organisation
Non-profit
Self-governing &
Separate from
the
government
Voluntary
participants
(Korten, 1990; Salamon and Anheier, 1992; Lewis and Kanji 2009)
11

12. What is Development?
 Concept of ‘Development’ is highly debated and often
not clarified in ICT for Development projects (C.
Avgerou, 2010; Unwin, 2014)
 Meaning is value relative, different meanings to
different people, depending on what is considered like
economic, geographic, political, social, cultural,
religious, ethnic contexts, as well as it is theory
relative , as it depends on theories and different
academic disciplines about what will lead to
progress (Prakash & De, 2007; Reddi, 2011)
 “Development is the removal of major sources of
unfreedom by enabling people to freely and
creatively express their capabilities” Unwin (2014)
based on Sen (2009).
12

13. Research Problem
 How do Dutch development NGOs perceive
social media as a tool for their development
projects?
13

14. Intermezzo: Research Process and
Degree of Structure – Qual vs Quant
14
Source: Qualitative research: defining and designing. (2013). In Guest, G., Namey, E., & Mitchell, M.
Collecting qualitative data (pp. 1-40). SAGE Publications, Ltd doi: 10.4135/9781506374680
RQ: How do Dutch
development NGOs
perceive social media as a
tool for their development
projects?
Or (alternative RQ)
What (issues and
opportunities) do the major
Dutch development
organisations encounter
when using social media to
engage their stakeholders
with their projects?
:
SRQ1) What organisational values steer the activities of the NGO?
SRQ2) How do NGOs view at the concept of social media?
SRQ3) In what way do development NGOs apply social media for development purposes?

15. Theoretical Sampling Approach
15

16. The Dutch Development NGOs for this
Case Study Research
16
16
14 Cases
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Agricultural
Banking & Financial Services
Business
Communications
Disaster
Education
Environment
Government & Civil Society
Health
Social Infrastructure and Services
Trade
Water
Youth
Knowledge
Women's rights
State development
Aid Sectors

17. Development NGO cases
17
CaseID
Development NGO
pseudonym
#
Responde
nts
Interviewee
role(*)
NGO age range Staff size
Single-issue
vs. Multi-
issue
Focus area(s)
Organisation-wide or
department focused use
of social media
A
Crowdsourcing
2 a, b
1-5 years Mid-size Multi-issue
Crowdfunding and wisdom of the
crowd
Organisation-wide
B
Water platform
1 a
6-15 years Mid-size Single-issue
Initially in water projects and now data
management in development
projects
Organisation-wide
C
Mobile Technology
1 a
1-5 years Mid-size Multi-issue
Mobile communication for
development
Organisation-wide
D
Confederated
2 b, c
> 15 years Large Multi-issue
Emergency relief, poverty and
inequality, women’s rights, fair trade,
climate change, refugees,
microfinance and education,
Department-focused
E Traumatised children 1 b 6-15 years Large Single-issue Youth (post-war) trauma care Department-focused
F
Advocacy
2 b, c
> 15 years Large Multi-issue
Transparency, women’s rights,
freedom of speech, sustainable
development, sexual and reproductive
rights
Organisation-wide
G
Community knowledge
management
1 c
1-5 years Small Multi-issue
Volunteering, knowledge
management, community of
practitioners
Organisation-wide
H
Child development
1 c
> 15 years Large Single-issue
Child rights and protection,
emergency relief, education, sexual
and reproductive rights
Department-focused
I
Health and sex education
1 b
1-5 years Mid-size Single-issue
Health education on promoting safe
sexual choices
Department-focused
J
STD awareness
1 b 1-5 years Mid-size Single-issue Promoting awareness on and
combating sexually transmitted
diseases
Department-focused
K Crowdfunding 1 b, c 1-5 years Small Multi-issue Crowdfunding Organisation-wide
L E-learning 2 c, c 1-5 years Small Single-issue Education Organisation-wide
M
Agriculture
1 c > 15 years Large Single-issue Agriculture and its production value
chain
Department-focused
N
Expertise sharing
1 b > 15 years Large Multi-issue Expertise in agriculture, energy,
water, sanitation and hygiene
Department-focused
(*) Interviewee role: a) Management, b) Marketing/Communications or c) Development practitioner

18. Methodology
 Grounded theory case study of Dutch Development NGOs
 The researcher has to set aside theoretical ideas.
 Constant comparison (back and forth between coding
& data)
 Theoretical sampling.
 14 Case Studies, two phases, overlapping data collection and
analysis
 Traditional (Glaserian) coding strategy – open coding,
selective coding, and theoretical coding (incremental levels of
abstraction)
 Aim is to build a substantive grounded theory of how these
NGOs engage with social media for development
 Emerging substantive theory engaged with existing theories
or literature (Urquhart, 2013)18 18

19. Key Grounded Theory Method (GTM) activities
and the continuous role of the literature review
based on Urquhart, C., & Fernández, W. (2013)
Problem Definition
• Research Problem
• Research Nature
• Methodology
Data Collection and
Analysis
• Open & selective
coding
• Theoretical coding
• Sorting and
Memoing
• Theoretical
integration
• Emergent
theory/patterns
Theoretical
Formulation
• Theoretical
saturation
• Theoretical
integration
• Substantive theory
Noncommittal Phase Integrative Phase
Preliminary literature review
Thematic literature review
Theoretical literature review
19

20. Example Open Code
‘Up-to-date appearance’
 Up-to-date appearance: “Social media is
like a shop window in a mall, it needs to be
maintained to attract attention”
Flickr:Harry(Howard)Potts
20

21. Some Findings: mobile social media
“Social media is a way to work together, mostly
on internet but in principle social media is all
types of media which is meant to bring together
people and have intelligent information
exchange. This becomes more effective with
mobile.”
“Regarding failures… The text message code
666 does not work in a Christian country like
Uganda” [Mobile Technology NGO]
 Mobile (phone) social media usage behaviour studies that
are not WEIRD populations-based [=Western, Educated,
Industrialised, Rich, and Developed countries] (Burgess,
Marwick , and Poell, 2017) 21
Flickr: Themostro

22. Three Themes
Theme 1: NGO
Enacting Values in
Development
This theme is about the organisation’s values
enacted in the context of international
development. The findings from this theme are
categorised in the following three categories: Changing
the world, Paradigms of (international) development,
and Collaboration
Theme 2: NGO’s
Views on Social
Media Use
This theme discusses the organisation’s view
on the meaning of social media. This includes the
four following categories: technological, individual,
collective and contextual views attributed to
organisational social media.
Theme 3: NGO’s
Use of Social
Media
This encompasses all uses of social media in
the context of an organisation. Four categories
are identified: categorised in four categories: Attuning to
social media behaviour of target audience, Adapting
content, Organisational Uses of Social Media,
Consequences of social media in development context
22

23. Theme 1: NGO Enacting Values in
Development
23
“Prior to deploying a presence on social
media, it is important to know your
organisation's vision, mission, core values and
programmatic goals. It is vital to approach
using social media with care and forethought.
In other words, digital activism components
should point toward a larger picture that an
NGO is pursuing.”
“Poverty is a twisted web of political, historical,
institutional, and technical factors. We don’t
claim to have the answer to everything;
however, complicated concerns do come with a
personal, specific solution.”
“The cooperation with the locals is very
important for [ed. name of Crowdsourcing
NGO] because we believe in their knowledge
and willingness to improve the local situation.”

24. Theme 1: NGO Enacting Values in Development
Category Key Findings
Changing the world: This
captures the NGO’s
organisational identity and
internal strategy set forward
for achieving the goal of
changing the world in the
context of international
development.
• NGOs act different in the way they incorporate political
activities or activism in their development work, and in how
this is reflected in their (social media) communication.
• Some NGOs are aware of the profound implications social
media may have on their organisation’s reason for existence.
Paradigms of
(international)
development deals: This
deals with ideological trends,
externally induced, that may
influence or (re)shape the
NGO’s vision or strategy.
• All development NGOs relate their organisation’s strategy and
operations to poverty reduction. sustainability. This concept
commonly refers to the so called people-planet-profit aspects.
• Many NGOs embraced what is called a development 2.0
approach, which in contrast with the development 1.0
approach consists of two-way communication, online
collaboration, incorporation of Internet principles and
collaboration in a network approach.
Collaboration: This is about
the cooperation NGOs have
with external stakeholders to
achieve their developmental
goals as an organisation.
• The collaboration partners can be characterised as being
other international development NGOs, local NGOs, local
policy makers/government, (local and international)
companies, educational and research institutions, volunteers
or the local community.
• Some NGOs consider the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
a collaboration partner, although their role is predominantly
funding of development projects and policy making. 24

25. Theme 2: NGO’s Views on Social Media Use
25
“You see an integration of Internet and
mobile. I think that the difference between
them gradually will disappear. (…) Twitter is
just like text messaging”
“With social media the actual person
behind is more important. [Online] You
need to be a person. You may create a
group/organization page. But you have to
identify yourself as a human being. It is
about individuals.”
“If you define social media broad, so not
limited to Twitter but to all internet tools, then
[NGO’s platform] is a social medium. It is an
online collaboration platform. It consists of a
set of social media that make it possible for
people all over the world to collaborate on
projects.”
“The focus shifted from access in the South
[ed. digital divide] to content from the South,
and now shifts to alliances with other
content providers like local bloggers who
provide relevant content.”

26. Relationships
between the
four views of
this theme
26
Colloquial speech: “It is almost
intrinsic to the technology that it [ed.
the conversation] becomes more
informal.” (Child development NGO)
Experimenting: “We are
experimenting with a list of staff
members in a list on Twitter. We
wants to do this with the partners
too. Like a who’s who of staff of
the organisation.” (Advocacy
NGO)
Taking local
norms and
beliefs into
account:
“Regarding
failures… The [text
message] code
666 does not work
in a Christian
country like
Uganda.” (Mobile
Technology NGO)
Tone of voice
“We communicate
differently to East-Africans
than to Dutch people”
(Crowdsourcing NGO)
Mix of private and
work-related
communication
“Nowadays more
people are
tweeting a lot. Also
our staff is talking
about [ed. Name of
NGO] in their
private tweets.”
(Traumatised
Children NGO)
Local knowledge “People who
live in developing countries often
have the best ideas on how they
can solve problems, and, in fact,
they must be able to present that
simply online.”
(Mobile Technology NGO)

27. Theme 2: NGOs’ Views on Social Media
Category Key Findings
The views with a Technological aspect relate to
the fact that this perspective of the NGOs describes
a technological feature of social media technologies
that may shape social media use by the NGOs. t
Fading distinction between Internet, social
media and mobile communication and the
abundance of social media platforms.
With Individual is understood the views on social
media NGOs have, that are related to the personal
sphere of social media use, i.e. how is it related to
an individual?
Personal one-to-one communication is
enabled where sometimes anonymity plays
a role in enabling the conversation.
With Collective is meant the views the NGOs have
that are related to social media use between a
group of people or in a formalised structure, such
as an (non-profit) organisation
NGOs are aware that there is a shift from
one-way communication to engaging and
dialogue.
The Contextual aspects are related to this view of
the NGOs that takes into account the context in
which social media is used.
Organisations tap into local knowledge and
open up these resources using online tools.
The data reveals multiple instances where a
relationship between different clusters of
views occurred.
27
t

28. Theme 3: NGO’s Use of Social Media
Category Key Findings
Attuning to social media behaviour of target
audience deals with to the activities undertaken by
the NGOs to attune to the social media behaviour of
their target audience(s).
The findings show NGOs attune to the social
media behaviour by looking at user
engagement, user segmentation and
particularly the use of mobile phones of
their target audience
Adapting content to an audience describes how
these organisations adapt social media content for
a particular (target) audience.
This category manifests itself in the tone of
voice, the communication language, the
use of local knowledge and content, the
acceptability of the content, and the content
creation attuned to the social media
platforms.
Social media for outward engagement describes
activities typically encountered in the context of
development.
NGOs show some typical development
activities with social media, such as raising
awareness, crowdsourcing, digital
activism, emergency aid. NGOs are even
combining social media activities in novel
ways to face challenges of the aid and
development context.
Consequences of social media in development
context discusses potential (unintended) issues and
(dis)advantages encountered in the use of social
media for development according to the
respondents.
This important finding emerged from the
perceived advantages, perceived
disadvantages of social media use in the
context of development.
28

29. Theme 3: NGO’s Use of Social Media
29
“We talk a lot [ed. on social media] about
things our audience are interested in. Thus, not
particularly about ourselves, that would be
difficult to follow for them and certainly not
social.”
“On Facebook [red. in Kenya] you assume
more younger people are present, so I use
typical youngster Kenyan language style or for
mobile games, we use English Swahili slang,
that everybody in Nairobi speaks.”
“We try to go a step further with social media.
You can actually improve the way you carry
out your projects in developing countries. You
can deploy it for monitoring and evaluation. If
you can produce a video with your mobile
phone and you can directly submit this, you
can much better track your projects. So we
want to move on beyond just communication”
“The 850 partners in the South don’t speak
Dutch. They will not follow Dutch Twitter streams.
The communities are often Dutch language-
oriented whereas most of the audience are
English [ed. speaking].”
29

30. Relationship Between The Three Themes
30
“Every action should aim at a long-term
goal in addition to a short-term
objective. That's why it is essential to
frame social media within the context of
an organisation's broader goals and to
be able to diligently communicate the
vision, mission and goals of the
organisation using social media.”
(communications professional
Confederated NGO)
““Regarding online fundraising, I have become more
sceptic. I previously thought that when you show the
projects [ed. on the website,] people would push the pay
button and it was done. ’
“And if there is a new medium/social
media platform we will claim the account
and see later if it is useful.”
“There is the risk of open communication.
Every-thing can be exposed. It is hard to be
open at the same time, as well as ensuring
the quality of the information.”

31. Social Media (functionalities) in
International Development ContextSocialMedia
Connecting
Collaborating
Creating & Sharing
Finding, (Re)Using
& Organising
(Mayfield, 2008; Zuniga and White 2013)
31

32. NGO development programme strategies
Classification of Northern Development NGOs
32
First
Generation
Second
Generation
Third
Generation
Fourth
Generation
Fifth Generation
NGO’s Dominant
mindset
Emergency
assistance
Development (North
as example; ‘trickle
down’ effect)
Development as
self-reliant political
process
Human and
sustainable
development
Development
beyond aid
NGO role Doer Mobiliser Catalyst Activist or Educator Civic 'partnership' with
states and markets.
Time frame Immediate Project life Long-term (10-20 yrs.) Indefinite future Indefinite future
Problem
definition
Lack of goods and
services
Lack of economic and
technological resources.
Underdevelopment &
neo-colonialism.
Institutional and policy
constraints
Poverty as denial of
basic human rights.
Inadequate mobilising
vision
The unsustainability of
projects in the South.
Chief actors NGO NGO + community or
beneficiary
organisations
All public and private
institutions that define
the relevant system
Networking-oriented
NGOs, loosely defined
networks of people and
organisations
Networking-oriented
NGOs, including local
and global business
Management
orientation
Logistics management Project management Strategic management Blending and energising
self-managing networks
or civic innovation
Social entrepreneurship
Defining features Emergency relief &
welfare
Small-scale self-reliant
community development
in the South.
Public awareness in the
North
Sustainable systems
development.
Partnerships with South
and protests in the
North.
People’s movement or
global change.
Decentralisation.
Empowerment in the
South and Lobbying in
the North.
Public Private
Partnership (PPP)
Inclusive business.
(Bendell & Murphy, 1999; Fowler, 2000b; David C. Korten, 1987; D.C. Korten, 1990; Senillosa, 1998)

33. 33

34. Classificationofsocialmediaactivities
relatedtodevelopmentobjectivesof
NGOsintoanapplicabilityframework.
34

35. Aacademic-toolkit.com
Problems/Phenomenon
Doesa real-world problem(s) motivate the project?
What are the main phenomenon and specific sub-phenomena being investigated?
Assumptions/Paradigm
Isthe research based upon
particular (philosophical)
assumptions? Does the research
operate within a specific
paradigm?
Literatures
What literatures will be used and what are the key papers / research studies? Will
each literature play a supporting or motivating role?
Are the literatures from different fields / disciplines?
Observations andArguments
What themes/issues are evident in the literatures?
What gaps and/or problems are evident in the
literatures? Are these pre-existing or identified
by you?
ResearchQuestions
What
are the
researc
h
questio
ns?
Are
there
any
tentativ
e
hypoth
eses?
Theory
What theoretical ideas / concepts / model / framework will
inform the research? What role will theory play in the
project?
Contributions
What are the potential contributions (empirical, theoretical, practical, methodological) of the
research? Who are the key stakeholders and what benefits will the research provide to them?
Methodology/Design
What is the overall design or methodology for the study?
What are the key principles and objectives of the design / methodology?
Methods
What methods of data collection and analysis will be
utilized? What are the key features and strengths of
each method?
Sample/Context
What sampling method(s) will beused?
What are the characteristics of the
proposed sample? What features of the
context are likely to be important?
Research Design CanvasName: Date /Version:
How do Dutch development NGOs perceive
social media as a tool for their development
projects?
SQ1: How can development NGOs make sense of
social media use for their development projects?
SQ2: What might be an appropriate framework to
guide social media use by NGOs?
Social media is defined as a techno-social system for
participatory culture, having characteristics like:
openness, participation, conversation,
connectedness and community. Definition adopted
for this study (Mayfield, 2008; Fuchs 2013).
Typology of NGOs (following Korten and others).
Concept of Development (def. from Worldbank etc.).
• Development NGOs struggle with the use of new technologies, such
as social media. Sense making of use of social media for their
organisational activities.
• ICT4D field is struggling with grasping the potential of emerging
technologies such as cloud and social media.
• Few studies of Organisational Social Media by
development NGOs (more lit. on for profit
organisations). Some studies are on specific topics
like social media for emergency management.
• Need for further research including empirical
examples of attempts to introduce social media, cf.
Heeks (2008) & Thompson (2008).
GTM: The researcher has to set aside
theoretical ideas.
No a priori conceptual model of theory. Just a
sensitizing framework for exploring literature
relevant to this study.
• Academic contribution: Theory building
in field of ICT for Development or
Communication for Development.
• Practical implication: Contribution to
practical application of Organisational
Social Media use by development
NGOs
(Glaserian) Grounded Theory Method; building
theory from case study research.
• Combination of case studies and Grounded Theory
rewarding for Information Science. (Eisenhardt 1989,
Lehman, 2001; Urquhart 2013)
• Case studies are valuable for understanding complex
phenomena in context (Crotty, 1998).
Adaptation of
Eisenhardt’s and
Urquhart’s Approach to
Building Theory from
Case Study Research
Theoretical
Sampling for
case selection:
14 NGOs
Interpretive paradigm
AS - Date: 11-2-2019 Version: 1.1 PhD Project: Social Media for Development
35
Thesis Design Canvas – PhD study

36. Anand Sheombar
E-mail: Anand.sheombar@hu.nl
Social Media for Development Facebook group:
www.facebook.com/groups/SoMe4D
Twitter: @anandstweets
36