Commentary
Caucasians Fall Significantly Behind Online Support of Social Issues and Causes
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 9, 2011
Among American adults, says the report, there appear to be some significant differences in how the ethnicities perceive social media and their effectiveness in facilitating cause involvement. African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely to believe that they can help get the word out about a social issue or cause through online social networks (58% and 51%, respectively, vs. 34% of Caucasians). They also subscribe more readily to the belief that social networking sites like Facebook make it easier to support causes today, and that these sites help increase visibility for causes.
While print, television and personal relationships remain the primary ways in which Americans learn about causes, both African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely than Caucasians to look to social media as an additional source of information (31% and 27% vs. 21%, respectively). Similarly, social media are not among the top ways Americans most often support causes. Donating money or personal items, talking to others and learning about the issues rank the highest.
But, African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely than Caucasians to engage with causes through promotional social media activities (e.g., joining a cause group on Facebook, posting a logo to a social profile, contributing to blogs).
Americans are generally in agreement when it comes to potential cause-related social media overload, though they differ in the degree to which certain tools drive their "cause fatigue" the most. For example:
- Caucasians are significantly more likely to feel that emails about causes sometimes feel like spam (76%, vs. 66% of African Americans and 69% of Hispanics)
- Hispanics are significantly more likely to believe that everybody "likes" causes on Facebook and it doesn't really mean anything
- While half of Caucasians and Hispanics (48% and 51%, respectively) agree that they get too many emails about causes now, a significantly lower number of African Americans (33%) feel this way
Americans are in strong agreement that everyone can make a difference by supporting causes. However, African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely than Caucasians to believe that supporting causes makes them feel like a part of a community. They also are significantly more likely to feel that it is important that their family be involved in causes (55% of Hispanics and 54% of African Americans, vs. 46% of Caucasians), and to have been actively involved in supporting causes when growing up (40% of Hispanics and 45% of African Americans, vs. 32% of Caucasians).
Overall, Americans are in agreement when it comes to the causes in which they are most involved, with supporting our troops, feeding the hungry and health-related causes (e.g., breast cancer and heart disease) topping the list. However, African Americans and Hispanics are significantly more likely than Caucasians to be involved in several key issues, including diabetes, domestic violence, bullying, childhood obesity, Haiti relief and HIV/AIDS.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Did the study exclude Asians? I was under the impression that they are another significant population group.
The use of the old-fashioned word "Caucasian" is not without controversy. If you mean White people of European descent, than just say "White" and we'll know what you mean. Caucasian is an outdated descriptor that actually includes a lot of people from North Africa and the Middle East and western Asia who don't look like "white"! Read more on Wikipedia. If "black" is acceptable, then "white" should be OK, too. Even "European" makes more sense than "Caucasian."