This article explores the attitudes of New Zealanders to the social marketing campaign ‘Give nothing to racism’. Thematic analysis was applied to a series of comments posted on the New Zealand Human Rights Commission (HRC)’s Facebook page. The analysis revealed four key themes: ‘It starts at the top’; ‘White people are victims too’; ‘What is racism anyway?’; and ‘We are all equal’. These themes showed that the campaign did not create a single, unified desire among audiences to overcome racism. Posts from the public ranged from commending the HRC for stamping out racism to condemnation for shedding light on an issue that some felt was non-existent in New Zealand society or which unfairly targeted ‘white New Zealanders’. The campaign appeared to produce ethnocentric and prejudiced responses, and the comments were evidence of in-group favouritism and othering of Māori. This article contends that social media platforms are spaces where “bullying, offensive content and hate speech” (Mondal, Silva & Benevenuto, 2017, p.85) can undermine social marketing and attempts to establish social cohesion and unity.

META DATA

Creator | Kaihanga
Angelique Nairn
Year of Creation | Tau
30/11/2020
Publisher | Kaiwhakaputa
New Zealand Sociology
Keywords | Kupu
Racism; Social marketing campaign; Social media
Main Language | Reo Matua
English
Submitter's Rights | Nga Tika o te Kaituku
I represent the publisher or owner organisation of this resource
This Research has
been peer reviewed by academics at a university
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