Page 18 - Peoples_Journal_Sri_Lanka

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ISSN 3121-3049
People's Journal Sri Lanka Volume 01, Issue 01

1. Introduction

Social media has become a larger part of our day-to-day life and any social
movements (Kidd & McIntosh, 2016). In Sri Lanka, the development of ICT
infrastructure facilities, increased use of smartphones and the reduction of
their prices, some government policies, and education and awareness have
directly affected the use of social media. In 2017 (De 31), there were
6,710,160 internet users in Sri Lanka, as a percentage, it was 32.0% (per
ITU) of the whole population. There were 5,500,000 Facebook subscribers in
Dec/2017, which is 26.3% penetration of internet users (Meta,2017;
International Telecommunication Union [ITU], 2017).

Environmental issues are prevailing in the modern world, and Sri Lanka is
not an exception in this matter. Major activities against the environment can
be seen on a regular basis. However, every such activity against the
environment is not publicized through local media. Yet, people are aware of
these hidden issues, and they are protesting against these acts. Therefore, it is
obvious that there is another way of communication that unites these people
against the common problems that affect them. Social media provides an
easy and overreaching platform for this purpose (Andersson & Öhman,
2017). Therefore, social media, in here the Facebook platform, has become a
mode of social gathering to raise voices against environmental issues, not
only virtual but physical as well. Many scholars have identified this trend as
a new emergence of environmental movements at the global and regional
levels (Leong et al., 2015; Hodges & Stocking, 2016). From this paper, the
researchers are going to identify the dynamics of Facebook social media
activism based on four (04) case studies which were shocked the Facebook
platform during 2012-2017.

2. Knowledge Gap and Problem Statement

According to previous studies, it is obvious that the importance of social
media in changing the social behavior towards addressing the existing
economic and socio-political issues (Loader,2008; Sorour & Lal Dey, 2014).
There are many studies have been published from different regions in the
world about the power of social media practices majoring political
movements (Loader,2008; Bohler-Muller, & Van der Merwe,2011; Sorour, &