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Abstract
Despite the prevalence and potential impact of bot automated accounts in online social networks on organizations and society, scant attention has been paid to understanding the effects that they have in social networks. This research focuses on examining bots in the context of social movements. The first study explicates the discovery of bots as central actors in a political protest on Twitter and discusses how neglecting them in online social network studies can threaten research validity. The paper also offers a multi-method approach that scholars can use to best detect bots. The second study explores the role of bots in social movements and derives a theoretical model of BrokeCasting (broadcasting + brokerage) which can be applied by social movement organizations and activists to raise awareness of a social cause on social media. The third paper uses topic analysis to identify patterns in the content disseminated by bots during a social movement and proposes a framework of Botivism for mobilizing resources on social media. Together these essays shed light on the synergies between bots and social change.