Digital activism: How social media and dissensus inform theory and practice

• Lyotard’s (1988) dissensus is an illuminating concept for public relations practice and theory.
• Chaos and uncertainty can provide potentially fruitful insights.
• Social media are platforms for ideological debate.
• Public relations practitioners function as custodians of discourse.

Through thematic analysis of user-generated comments to posts on Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page, this article explores the postmodern concept of dissensus (Lyotard, 1988) as an area for development in activist and social media research. This article examines which dissenting perspectives emerged, how dissensus was expressed, and the implications of this for practitioners and scholars. Several areas for embracing dissensus suggest how social media may impact public relations practice and theory.