Social Media in the Context of Development: A Case Study of Dutch NGOs

This paper presents views of six Dutch development NGOs on possibilities and threats of social media for their work. A systematic analysis of the literature and the systematic analysis of the interviews yield an interesting theoretical framework in which social media characteristics are cross-referenced with NGO organisational characteristics. The resulting preliminary framework of emerging themes suggests that potential disadvantages associated with social media use may impede the organisational use. Furthermore it is suggested that potential organisational uses of social media may motivate use and adaptation of the social media use to a development context. It is also suggested that disadvantages attributed to social media may influence the use or non-use of social media for particular developmental activities.