has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States[2] and Canada[3] are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.
[4] Cohen, de la Vega, and Watson (2001) state that this definition does not encompass the notions of power relations, people's participation, and a vision of a just society as promoted by social justice advocates.
It has been argued that the Internet helps to increase the speed, reach and effectiveness of advocacy-related communication as well as mobilization efforts, suggesting that social media are beneficial to the advocacy community.
The Library of Congress has assembled an extensive list of social issues in the United States, ranging from vast ones like abortion to same-sex marriage to smaller ones like hacking and academic cheating.
For instance in 2008, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama utilized such a meaning when he said, "this was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long; when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause.
[14] The Advocacy Institute,[15] a US-based global organization, is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of political, social, and economic justice advocates to influence and change public policy.
Transnational advocacy networks are more likely to emerge around issues where external influence is necessary to ease the communication between internal groups and their own government.