Online Claims-Making: The NRA and Gun Advocacy in Cyberspace

R.J. Maratea

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.11.2.10

Authors

R.J. Maratea New Mexico State University, U.S.A.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.11.2.10

Keywords:

Claims-Making, Activism, Internet, Online, Cyberspace, Gun Control

Abstract

This article examines the Internet’s emergent role in the claims-making process. My central premise is while Internet technology provides lay citizens with a mass mediated platform to distribute claims publically, power dynamics in the public sphere have remained relatively stable: Insiders and lobbyists continue to be powerful cultural voices; the press still functions as a cultural gatekeeper of newsworthiness; most people continue to have relatively little social authority; and the least powerful risk being completely left out of a digital society. Using the National Rifle Association (NRA) web presence as a case study, I describe the Internet as a vast collection of interconnected public cyber-arenas where problem claims are continuously disseminated, global communication is facilitated via online advocacy networks, and claimants utilize novel cyber-strategies to mobilize supporters. In doing so, I examine how cyber-arenas fundamentally differ from more static traditional claims-making arenas like television, radio, and print publication. I conclude by considering the extent to which historically powerful insider claims-making groups like the NRA are actually best positioned to succeed in a supposedly democratized new media world.

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Author Biography

R.J. Maratea, New Mexico State University, U.S.A.

R.J. Maratea is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University. His research focuses on capital punishment and the implications of mass communication as they pertain to deviant and criminal identities, social problem construction, cyber-protest, and the institutionalization of social control. He is the author of The Politics of the Internet: Political Claims-Making and Its Affect on Modern Political Activism (2014), as well several articles and book chapters.

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