Boycotts

A boycott is an organized refusal to purchase from, trade with, or work for an organization in an effort to influence or reform it or otherwise draw attention to an issue that it represents. Boycotts are publicized and sometimes organized by news organizations, as well as targeted at them. After considering the history of boycotts, this entry describes different kinds of boycotts aimed [Page 208]at or originating from news organizations, notes how boycotts have proliferated due to the affordances of digital and social media, and concludes with an examination of the politics of boycotts, in terms of their effectiveness and their structural role in the media system.