A Study of Indian Consumer’s Participation in Boycott and CancelCulture: A Media Literacy and Ethical Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66635/dbaryy62Keywords:
Boycott and Cancel culture, Ethical Consumerism, Media literacy, Digital activism, social mediaAbstract
Boycott and Cancel culture have empowered a new wave of digital consumer activism in the modern social media-constructed public sphere. In the Indian context, these campaigns and movements arise out of normative ethics, cultural concerns, political storytelling, and rapidly producible and distributable content on social media platforms. This research analyzes the Indian consumer’s involvement in boycott and cancel culture in the context of media literacy, focusing on the critical evaluation of digital information and outrage in the social media narrative. With a descriptive research model, the research study relies on primary research using a structured questionnaire submitted among 105 Indian consumers, supported by secondary research from existing literature. Chi-square and Spearman’s rank correlation techniques were applied statistically in the analysis of the correlation of social media influence, the subsequent reaction of the consumer, and the impact on the communication and marketing activities of the brand. The research results suggest that social media constitutes a critical platform in the spread of the boycott and cancel culture campaigns and remains unaffected by the demography of the Indian consumer, namely, the age and gender divide. Indian consumers boycott a brand majorly due to practices of un-ethically moral business, misleading advertisement, and politico-cultural disputes, largely due to emotionally constructed and unascertained digital contents of the social media narrative. The study also suggests that consumers act responsibly when they critically understand and evaluate the content as compared to people who lack the ability to evaluate, they act impulsively by immediately boycotting the brand. The study also proposes a critical need for media literacy, educational outreaches and critical digital ethics in the management of critical awareness and responsibility in the consumption of digital activism.
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