Media Synchronicity Theory & Ad Hoc Groups:
An Exploration of the Women's March on Washington
Beckermann, K.M. with Walden, J., (2018)
The Women’s March on Washington heralded a new era of organized protest, with hundreds of marches across the world protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017. This protest presents an opportunity to consider how groups of previously unconnected individuals from various states came together to organize an event of this magnitude in less than three months. In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews with Women’s March organizers (n=16) to understand this how ad hoc and spatially-distant group used technology to communicate its intentions and create shared meaning among members. This study draws upon media synchronicity theory (MST) to consider the communication processes that were critical to creating shared understanding in this group. While MST has been used in a variety of studies, little research has been conducted regarding this theory and ad hoc and spatially distant teams.