‘twitted or not’?

online revolutions?

- ‘ old’ social movementsclass/economy: struggles of distribution;print media played a major role in the mobilization of the movements

- ‘new’ social movementsidentity politics: struggles of recognition;broadcasting played a major role in the communication of the movements

- a third wave? return of the politics of social issues (unemployment, poverty, class)

social media play a major role in the coordination (organization and communication) of the movements

social movements

-political movements and activists use new media for mobilization and organization - technologies are reoriented toward transformational goals

-networked technologies themselves are ‘reprogrammed’ to become sites of action and change - politics is media politics

- mediated action

from the standard approach viewing media and ICTs as tools to be used by movements

to the idea that the use of new media and information might in fact constitute movements and actions in themselves

departure point a

from the traditional point of view that mediated and interpersonal communication are fundamentally separate and different modes of communication (media help movements to propagandize and deliver their messages; while interpersonal communication helps to recruits participants and create loyalties)

to the perspective that the use of networked ICTs and new media crosses and integrates both levels

departure point b

traditional binaries associated with movement mobilization and communication are under consideration

... the distinction between individual and collective action, or between global and local sites of action

distinctions blurred

origins: Zapatista resistance in Chiapas in Mexico (early 1990s)

critical point: the ‘Battle in Seattle’, 1999 - World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting; thousands of protesters, clashes with the police, attacks on property, beginning of the Indymedia movement

a transnational online movement, global activism

- the global justice (anti-globalization) movement

new communication technologies draw together a wildly diverse range of groups and causes into a globally scattered, loosely articulated, self-organizing movement capable of responding to major multinational policy bodies and staging high-visibility events all over the globe

... they have enable a new politics that is fundamentally different in its global scale, networked complexity, openness to diverse political identities; and capacity to sacrifice ideological integration for pragmatic political gain, to continuously reconfigure itself around shifting issues and protest events

‘new politics’

activists object to the neo-liberal, corporate, capitalist vision of globalization

instead, they advance an alternative, social centered vision (global justice) that emphasizes social and political equity, fair trade, environmental responsibility, and direct participation of the poorest populations in global-scale economic decisions that affect them

aims

activists, programmers and technologists created their own media production facilities; on-the-ground coverage that provided a dramatically different perspective on the protest events from those in mainstream press and broadcast media

the internet was used not only to distribute information, but also to recruit and instruct protest participants, to organize and publicize protest-related events, to feed Indymedia content to mainstream media, and to implement hacktivist actions against targeted organizations’ websites

in practice

communication technologies are integral feature of contemporary movements, inseparable from movement values, action, lifestyles, identities, and interests

activists are not mere users of networked media and information technologies; but have actually absorbed the cultural logic of networking in all aspects of movement values and action, online and off (Juris, 2008)

‘cultural logic of networking’

... April 2009, Twitter Revolution in Moldova

... June 2009, Twitter Revolution in Iran

... December 2010/January 2011, Arab Spring

… May 2011, European movements

… September 2011, Occupy Movement, USA

… June 2013, Gezi Park, Turkey

• contemporary protests & social media

media/Twitter/Facebook revolution?

Yes: liberating technologies - Shirky 2008, 2011; Sullivan 2009; Diamond 2010; Ghonin 2012; Smith 2012; Vargas 2012; Mason 2012

No: slacktivism; a kind of feel-good online activism that has zero political/social impact - Dean 2005, Morozov 2009;

weak ties of social media; a kind o activism not involving high risk- Gladwell 2010

- technological deterministic approaches

‘networked social movements of the digital age representing a new species’ (Castells, 2012); focus on the network

‘connective action’; based on personalized content sharing across media networks (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012); focus on interaction ‘choreography of the assembly’; symbolic construction of public space/togetherness (Gerbaudo, 2012); focus on performance

- approaches on the interplay between new media & activism

context – structural dislocations, antagonisms, histories of contention in each country

wider mediascape - the role of other media formats in these social movements, and their interactions with social media

critical evaluation

need to focus on the dialectical relationship between agents (subjects) and structures (objects)

evaluating thus the nexus of media, movements, and societ(ies) along its contradictions

that influence the emergence and the prospects of the protests, amplifying or limiting their potential

concluding

December 2010/2011, Tunis (Jasmine Revolution); January 2011, Egypt (Tahrir/Facebook Revolution); spread of protests around the Middle East and North Africa: Bahrain, Yemen, Libya,

Syria, Jordan, Israel, Algeria

the role of media is prominent here both as a means of repression (lack of freedom of expression) and a tool of emancipation (new media practices)

role of interpersonal communication (social networks: friends, families, schools, work places) important too (despite the fact that the Egyptian regime shut off the Internet on January 28th protests continued)

- Arab Spring

the anachronism of the Merkantilist/Machievelist Nation State model; transition from Ba’athis ‘closure’ to global neoliberalism

educated unemployed masses; urban poverty; precariat

political oppression; from ‘revolutionary’ populism to bureaucratic authoritarian corruption

context: structural issues

- 1991: FIS wins elections in Algeria; but the elections suppressed by the government to prevent ‘Islamist threat’ leading to a long lasting civil war

- annual bread protests particularly in North Africa

- women’s disobedience actions in Saudi Arabia…- Iraq War

- Turkish transition

background

mediascape

hybrid media environment:

-mass media, conventionally the major ideological

apparatus of state oppression

-WikiLeaks’ reports on corruption;

-Anonymous’ operation against government sites;

-social media, channels of expression for the first time;

-Al-Jazeera’ role in the Egyptian movement;

-social media and the repression of new media uses

12

reflections

back to ‘normal times’ …

a genuine break with the bureaucratic authoritarian ‘ancient regime’ cannot be observed

Libya, Syria: degeneration of the ‘Spring’ into tribal pro-imperialist civil war

12

Portugal-March 2011 Spain-15 May 2011Greece-June 2011

significant role of social media: arrangement of demonstrations through relevant calls; mobilization of supporters; coordination of activities

the use of Facebook and Twitter constructed resonant emotional conversations across the internet and managed to harness a widespread collective indignation transforming it into a political passion driving collective action in public space

- European summer

transnational dimension: global financial crisis, unemployment, inequality, poverty

national dimension: political crisis, corruption, unequal distribution of power and resources

context: structural issues

[global justice movement: moving from the transnational to the national, and the local, della Porta, 2012]

European movements: moving from the local and the national to the transnational?

- national perspective(s): national political opportunities (or the lack thereof) and pre-existing repertories of action/resistance

background

disaffected individuals seized upon opportunities to organize collectively and protest on the streets, addressing another repertoire of action

development of participatory and discursive practices in the very camps built in squares, and through social media

… any transformative potential?

reflections

- background … - context …

- reflections …

• Gezi Park - workshop

* Bennett, W. L. and Segerberg, A. (2012) The logic of connective action, in Information, Communication &

Society, 15 (5)

Bennett, W. L. (2003), ‘New media power. The Internet and Global Activism’, in Couldry, N., Curran, J. (eds) Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield

Castells, M. (2012) Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. London: Polity Press.

Gerbaudo, P. (2012) Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism. London: Pluto Press.

Gladwell, M. (2010) ‘Small change: why the revolution will not be tweeted’, The New Yorker, 4 accessed at: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell

Hands, J. (2011) @ is for Activism: Dissent, Resistance and Rebellion in a Digital Culture. NY: Pluto

Lievrouw, L. (2011) Alternative and Activist Media. Cambridge: Polity Press

Sullivan, A. (2009) “The Revolution will be Twitted”, The Atlantic, accessed at: http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/print/2009/06/the-revolution-will-be-twittered/200478/

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thank you for your attention