## 5 Discussion and Hypotheses
The relevance of newspapers, national broadcasters, and even late-night comics is counterintuitive given the seismic shifts in how North Americans consume news. A growing array of research suggests print and televised media are being displaced by social media as a news source, especially for younger generations [57; 58]. Traditional media have been accused of lagging behind the social media news cycle and conducting lazy and cheap journalism by reporting on social media trends [59]. Yet, #buttergate offers a counter narrative. Here, it appears that social  
Figure 2: Twitter activity and media coverage of #buttergate 12 February 2021–1 February 2022.  
media actually lagged behind traditional media coverage and acted more as an amplifier than a source of influence in and of itself. **H3. **: _Digital activism will present far more diverse, overlapping, contradictory, and ephemeral demands on industry than traditional activism. Consequently, industry responses to digital activism will be more superficial and selective._  
#Buttergate neatly illustrates both the advantages and disadvantages of digital activism and how its unique features are conditioned by its targets. Skeptics of digital activism point out that, while it may mobilize more people, those people are bound by a looser logic of connective action and lack a common cause, tactics, and frames [9]. The result is a broad and loosely connected group of heterogeneous constituents who express their opinions based on diverging expectations, values, and norms [16; 27; 28; 60]. While this heterogeneity empowers participants to contribute in unique and positive ways, it can also create a lot of noise and distraction [61]. Or, as [PERSON] et al. [19] succinctly put it: \"although it is now easier for stakeholders to broadcast their perspectives and demands, the resulting cacophony has made it harder to be heard by those they seek to influence.\"  
The heterogeneity of digital activists also creates a condition of entropy wherein movements struggle to sustain pressure on target industries. Absent a common cause or the centrifugal force of a formal mobilizing organization, there is little to prevent factors of digital activists from losing interest and moving on with their lives. Thus, while digital activism is useful for engaging as many social media users as possible, the substantive engagement of most users remains quite low, falling within what [PERSON] and [PERSON] [5] label 'digital spectator activities' such as liking or sharing a post. These digital spectators are particularly susceptible to losing interest over time. It is for this reason that Twitter has been likened to a tempest in a teapot [62]. Twitter storms arise quickly and dissipate just as fast. An implication of this characteristic of industry-focused digital activism is that industries can alternately ignore the cacophony of contradictory voices or simply wait for them to go away. Proponents of digital activism counter that the heterogeneity inherent in digital activism allows activists to unite around a broader demand for change while maintaining different identities and views [28; 60]. This process is abetted by the use of 'empty signifiers' in the form of hashtags [60; 63]. Generic hashtags allow each social media user to append their own cause or values while uniting under a common demand for change. For example, the 2017 #deleteUber campaign did not possess a single cause but nonetheless succeeded in forcing the resignation of Uber's CEO. In this way, heterogeneous convergence can force an industry to respond by exerting reputational pressure on several fronts simultaneously, although the extent of change is highly variable [60]. The #buttergate data suggest a middle ground between these two camps. On one hand, #buttergate's status as an empty signifier certainly broadened the range of people interested in supply chain practices of the Canadian dairy industry.