Applying Resource Mobilization (RM) theory, this thesis examined the influences of the Internet on a social movement organization's resource mobilization strategies. RM scholars have asserted that an SMO's capacity of mobilizing resources is confined by various structural and socio-economic constraints in a society. Among those constraints, this study focused on communication costs and mainstream media's biases and critically examined whether the Internet helped relieve those constraints.
As Internet advocates claim, the Internet appears to be cheaper, faster and better than conventional communication technologies. This case study attempted to present empirical data showing how, if any, the Internet has influenced an SMO's communication costs and newspaper coverage. Both quantitative and qualitative data gathered in this study suggest that the Internet indeed made some positive impacts on an SMO. The data showed that communication costs of an SMO with the Internet have declined over years whereas the costs of an SMO without the Internet have fluctuated over time. In-depth interviews with leaders of the SMO using the Internet indicated the Internet enabled the SMO to communicate better with audiences from different states and nationalities. In contrast, leaders of the SMO without the Internet expressed some skepticism about the effectiveness of the Internet for their organization, citing a low rate of Internet access among the SMO's primary constituents in rural areas.
The study also examined how the SMO's Internet use has influenced mainstream media's hostility toward social movements. The results of content analysis showed that a newspaper covering the SMO using the Internet attributed the group's name in the stories more frequently than a newspaper covering an SMO not using the Internet. On the other hand, the data showed that both newspapers examined in the study have maintained a neutral position regardless of the SMO's Internet use. The data appeared to suggest that an SMO's Internet use has no significant influence on journalists' news judgments and the way they validate sources for the story.
In-depth interviews with journalists indicated that traditionally unpopular groups or unknown groups would still probably face the same skepticism and distrust from journalists. However, journalists agreed that an SMO using the Internet to deliver credible, up-to-date information on the subject in which a journalist is specialized has a better chance to be chosen as a source than an SMO not using the Internet.