Evolving repertoires: Digital media use in contentious politics

Self Cite

Many scholars discuss the role of social media in the context of social movements, but there remain major disagreements regarding the precise role that social media plays. One area that deserves more in-depth study is the affordances of social media for constructing collective identity. This article examines the case of an Iranian women's rights campaign page on Facebook, "My Stealthy Freedom," using an analysis of textual and visual content. The article examines how online campaign pages on Facebook contribute to the formation of collective identity and the construction of a campaign narrative. Following the analysis, the authors discuss how photobiographic campaigns-social media users sharing personal photos and adjoining personal narratives in support of a cause-illustrate two affordances of social media for construction of collective identity: affordances for discourse and affordances for performance. Affordances for discourse contribute to the collective action framing process through sharing of grievances and collectively negotiating meaning. These affordances also contribute to a collectively and incrementally constructed narrative by sharing personal stories that resonate with the group. Affordances for performance focus on the enactment of protest through transgressive photobiographies deliberately staged to convey the movement message to broader audiences. Here, transgressive photobiographies are defined as modular performances that can be adopted for the repertoires of contentious politics through protesting of laws and norms, such as the mandatory hijab. These transgressive performances create group solidarity through engagement in risk, thereby contributing to the formation of group identities.

Section: Discussion and Reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such features convinced Iranian authorities to censor Facebook, while Instagram, though it is owned by Facebook, is not blocked in Iran. Khazraee and Losey (2016) argue that this different treatment of platforms relates to the minimal affordances of Instagram as a digital repertoire for contentious politics.…”

Section: Discussion and Reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digitally Mediated Protest: Social Media Affordances for Collective Identity Construction

Khazraee

Novak

2018

Self Cite

“…This is closely connected to the concept of surveillance capitalism (Dencik & Wahl-Jorgensen, 2017; Zuboff, 2015) which examines the increasing interdependencies of platforms (and their data mining operations) and state-based projects of surveillance and control. These relationships have been examined through case studies examining the Snowden leaks, revealing the capacity of the NSA to access metadata and private communications of citizens via telecommunications providers (Hintz, Dencik, & Wahl-Jorgensen, 2017), as well as state use of digital technologies to intervene in activist communications in Iran (Howard and Hussein, 2013;Khazraee & Losey, 2016) and Egypt (Tufecki, 2017;Tufecki & Wilson, 2012) by shutting down mobile networks or using deep packet inspection systems to slow information flows (Howard and Hussein, 2013, p. 2). These states were also said to be involved in paying informants to spread misinformation or biased information on activist websites and social media (Howard and Hussein, 2013, p. 2).…”

Section: State Surveillance Manipulation and Freezing Of Participatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has also been a return in the scholarship to Morozov's claims that rather than democratizing media and empowering everyday citizens, social media more easily lend themselves to manipulation and repression by authoritarian states, corporate platforms, and socially divisive actors (Morozov, 2011). Much of this literature concentrates on government laws to interdict speech, or blocking and filtering technologies to disrupt digital infrastructure, interrupting vital flows of communication between organizers and protesters (Howard & Hussein, 2013;Khazraee & Losey, 2016;Tufecki, 2017). There is also a growing focus on more subtle techniques adopted by states to manipulate "affective publics" (Papacharissi, 2015(Papacharissi, , 2016, that is, through trolls and misinformation campaigns (Bradshaw & Howard, 2017;Kelly, Truong, Shahbaz, Earp, & White, 2017;Woolley & Howard, 2017), affecting capacities for "informed citizenship" and the functioning of democracy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling the Chill:Bersih 2.0, State Censorship, and “Networked Affect” on Malaysian Social Media 2012–2018

Johns

Cheong

2019

In 2007, Bersih-a Malaysian social movement for "clean and fair elections"-rode a wave of anti-government sentiment to mobilize 40,000 citizens to take to the streets. In particular, young Malaysians, fueled by "outrage and hope" at old oligarchies and lives put on hold by economic, social, and political inequality, were key actors in Bersih rallies staged between 2011 and 2016, driven by social media platforms and networked publics, which enabled the enthusiasm of the streets to connect with and drive the movement's online formation. In response, the then government began to use media and security laws to disrupt digital networks and engage in arrest of activists and "ordinary" citizens. This, combined with allegations that the government has used astroturfing (commonly referred to as "cybertrooping" in Malaysia) to shape voter sentiments and suppress the momentum of Bersih and popular forms of online political dissent, has been strongly condemned by human rights organizations. This article draws upon findings from PhD research on cybertroopers and ethnographic interviews conducted with 29 Malaysian-Chinese youth between 2016 and 2018 (in Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, Australia) to map and analyze the effects of the government's use of "affective techniques" to manipulate social media publics and crackdown on online political communication, with media reports connecting these strategies to declining participation in Bersih's street rallies from Bersih 4-5. The article will draw on theories of "networked affect" and "affective publics" to examine the role affect has played in this downturn in participation and a growing sense of hopelessness among Malaysia's digital citizens.

“…During the subsequent year, when there were no calls for street demonstrations, some more individualized forms of offline activities (such as writing political messages on the wall or cash money) and online activities (such as campaigning, blogging, and petitioning) came to the fore (Honari, 2013). Increasing online activities of the IGM coincided with the substantial growth of the practice of state repression on the Internet (Bailey & Labovitz, 2011;Ghobadiha & Clegg, 2015;Khazraee & Losey, 2016). This was followed by the gradual decline of online and offline activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Will Either Find a Way, or Make One”: How Iranian Green Movement Online Activists Perceive and Respond to Repression

Honari

2018

While studies on the effect of repression of online activism mainly focus on the capabilities of states in surveillances and filtering on the web, this article focuses on individuals' responses to repression. Using data gathered by in-depth interviews of online activists of the Iranian Green Movement-the pro-democracy movement which emerged after the disputed 2009 elections-this article attempts to shed light on online activism under repression. The article focuses on two questions: How do activists perceive repression? How do they respond to repression? The research distinguishes three dimensions of perceived repression which interactively influence activists' choices in their response to repression: the importance of the repression, the external assessment of this repression, and the internal assessment. Regarding the response to repression, five distinct strategies are identified (1) de-identification, (2) network reformation, (3) circumvention, (4) self-censoring, and (5) being inconspicuously active. The study has a number of important theoretical and empirical implications for future studies on repression and online activism under authoritarian contexts.