The Quebec Student Conflict

The 2012 Quebec student crisis started as a protest against a hike in tuition fees. On February 13, 2012

the first groups voted in favour of a walkout. The movement rapidly rolled out across Quebec and on March

22 a massive, peaceful protest drew more than 100,000 people, in Montreal. On May 18 a special law was

passed which included severe financial penalties for people blocking schools. Not only the strike went on

but the student crisis deepened and led to a full-blown social crisis.

What was the role of social media?

June 4, 2012

A Sciencetech Initiative

Ñ Sciencetech Communications covered the social media during 30 days of Quebec student unrest – May 2012.

Ñ The study was done on June 1-2-3 and focused on the conversations the students had amongst themselves and with key actors (police, media, government). Margin of error : ± 12% (multilingual factor)

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Methodology of the Study

u The key words used were the hashtags of the conflict : #ggi, #manifencours and #casserolencours.

u Information collected :

1. Total number of posts

2. Total number of followers

3. Segmentation by language

4. Segmentation by media

5. Calendar of conversations

6. Sentiment analysis and context

7. Examples of conversations

8. Analysis

9. Cloud

u This study was conducted with the following platforms : Radian6, Cirilab and Tweetronics.

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700,000 conversations7 M followers

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Recurring Themes

u Three hastags produced 700,000 posts in one month

(#ggi, #manifencours and #casserolesencours )

u Approximately 35 to 45% were retweets.

u These conversations were essentially about :

1. Set time, date, and site. Describe affluence and level of violence of the demonstrations;

2. Tuition fees hike;3. Law 78 (voted by the Provincial legislature on May 18

to curb down demonstrations);4. The Premier (rarely the Minister of Education)5. Police 6. Journalists7. Transport (metro and buses)

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Sentiment : Anti-Government

67%32%

1%

Anti-Government

Pro-Government

Mixed

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Refining the Analysis

u Sentiment was negative at a level of about 67%.

After a contextual analysis on 12,000 posts, it may

even be higher by 10%.

u Sarcasm was a common form of expression.

u One example:

TT @Lecriminologues - I love Québec and it's

because I love it unconditionally that tomorrow, 2

pm, I choose the voice of the street! #ggi (May 22).

This is marked as a positive but it is a negative.

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Which Social Media? Twitter Dominates With 99%

Twitter is the main student main communication vehicle– about 99% – for the 3 hashtags of the student movement.

Battle of Ideas

uThe red squares tweets (student movement) completely overpowered the green squares (back-to-school movement) and the white squares (pro-negotiations).

uThe analysis of a five day sample shows that green and white squares only occupied 12% of the share of voice.

uTheir conversations were often timid – not overtly against the strike, but pleading for an end of the conflict or more access to their classes.

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Influencers by Number of Posts

Name Number of Posts Volume Followers

Tintin1957 2,802 374

Addictolifeca 1,452 1194

Lepoidsplume 1,825 302

Globalmindz 1,670 587

Frogsarelovely 1,185 1,540

Dan Bigras 686 19,410

JournaldeMontreal 677 12,654

SPVM 501 36,692

Josée Legault 452 11,859

LaPresse 306 209,071

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The Language Factor

568 23580%

140 32920%

French

English

Coverage:# GGI and # Manifencours

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The English Community

u The English-speaking community was involved - 20% of the posts.

u Though the English-speaking universities (McGill, Concordia and Bishop) and the colleges network did not walk out.

uWe may conclude that a minority of the English-speaking community was highly committed.

u Example: RT @EthanCoxMtl: "I have tendonitis from the last two weeks of #casseroles, and I'm really happy about it." -Patrick Watson on CBC radio #cdnpoli #ggi #loi78

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The Police Topic – 114,000 Posts

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The Police Topic – 2

u 14,000 conversations about the police.

uMost conversations provide information on the police moves: where they are, where they seem to be going...

uMany conversations deal with students being hurt during the demonstrations.

u Example of a conversation on the presence of the riot police on site.

uRT @JaggiMontreal: Reliable reports of riot police (both SPVM & SQ) already mobilized in & around Mtl worried about night demo after Charest announcement. #ggi

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Conversations With the MediaTotal : 3,585

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Total Media Followers 3,500,000

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Media Not Neutralu Media provided an extensive coverage about the student conflict

u They blogged and they tweeted. Total posts : 3,850

u IMPORTANT - Number of followers: 3,500,000

u On social networks, most journalists took sides. They were either Red

Square (pro-student) or Green Square (pro government).

u Examples:

o RT @denismaxime: Entrevue de Jean Charest avec Céline Galipeau. C'est à voir. #TJ22h #SRC #ggi #manifencours http://t.co/LEhjQ3ny

o RT @patrouilleurs: «Jusqu'à 51 000 $ de revenu familial, c'estl'équivalent de la gratuité scolaire.... Les assos se battent pour qui?» ditJ. Charest #ggi

o RT @LeDevoir: «Ceci n'est pas une grève étudiante: c'est unesociété qui s'éveille» à la #manifencours http://t.co/iLEX3v2X #CLASSE#ggi #casseroles

o RT @danyturcotte: Moi, c'est l'incompétence du gouvernement!

o“@MichelleBlanc: J'ouvre la TV et je suis scandalisée. Les casseursme lèvent le coeur #GGI”17

Conversations on the Premier –100,000 / All Negative

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Jean Charest’s Performance

u Out of 700,000 posts, the Premier is mentioned in 100,000. The general tone is negative : anger and frustration.

u RT @Lucanthropo: Charest aimerait bien queBergevin annonce le nouveau coach des #habsdemain... #ggi #assnat #manifvicto - Tristement bonnenuit

u RT @whimgrrl: Charest suspends classes in response to student strikes http://t.co/eNmKbVo2 via @globeandmail #ggi #assnat #manifencours

u RT @BDrainvillePQ: Charest a choisi de lutter contrela jeunesse plutôt que de lutter contre la corruption. #ggi #assnat #polqcó

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Conversation Cloud

u Of all the students’ associations (college and universities),

the CLASSE posts are the most tweeted.

u Their conversations are highly emotional and efficient, and are often

retweeted for days.20

Words in the Cloud

u No systematic message crafted by the student leaders and no

watchwords.

u The students chose not to have leaders, but only media

spokespersons.

u Tactics : Bottom-up initiatives: local member associations initiate

posts’ campaigns. No central command.

u The vast majority of the posts are spontaneous:

o Expressions of anger and frustration, humour and sarcasms;

o On the negative side: the students denounced neoliberal policies

or government corruption (or both);

o On the positive side: the students asked for social justice.

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Government : Absent from the networks

u IMPORTANT: The government chose to ignore

social networks.

uOn June 1, the government launched its first ad

campaign in all Quebec newspapers to explain its

last offer to the students. But nothing on social

networks.

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Conclusions - 1

u Students Associations : No social networks strategy (except at the

international level to rally support). Improvisation is key.

u They used social media “naturally” and entirely dominated them.

u Government : Absent from social networks.

u One exception: The Montreal police used Twitter to communicate

with the students (factual information on what was legal or not, what

streets were open, in what direction...).

u Tone of the conversations on Twitter : Highly emotional, a lot of

solidarity, and conversely many personal attacks.

u One recurrent theme: the government must “negotiate”, meaning it

must give up its tuition fees hike.

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Conclusions – 2

u The students speak web 2.0. They did not need organizational

expertise, they “borrowed” their structures from social media

(Twitter).

u The government lost the social media war – it neglected this

battlefield.

u This is to compare (in opposition) to the Obama election campaign in

2008.

u There is a direct link between the social media and the traditional

media. Further studies should be made on interactions between

social and traditional media.

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