Making Sense of Life, Global Activism in the Cyberspace

Abstract

Several recent works have examined the relationship between social media and social movements in the latest cycle of protest. The article examines how media activism provides a cross-fertilising communication process by shaping a cosmopolitan imagination. First the article proposes the cases of Adbuster and Avaaz, as two examples of media activism, equally engaged in changing the state of the world. The similarities and the differences between the two case studies are highlighted in order to understand how a cosmopolitan imagination, as a new challenge to the global information society, is constructed. Second, I will explore how action shapes an online community, bypassing state borders and takes on a form that shares visions, actions and strategies and develops a new common language, representing a balance between two sets of tensions: the politics of universalism versus the acknowledgement of difference and the responsibility for action.

tenue frontera perceptual entre la acción política real y la virtual: un estudio en jóvenes universitarios mexicanos

“…Si la acción política manifestada en el ciberespacio fuera tan sólo un reflejo del mundo real, estaría más que justificada la cautela sobre los alcances de las RS y las TIC como herramientas efectivas de cambio social. Por eso, se coincide con la idea de que el ciberutopismo ingenuo sobre el carácter emancipatorio de la acción política en los entornos virtuales puede resultar peligroso (Esu, 2017), máxime al existir evidencia de que al menos al nivel de la percepción individual, la línea divisoria entre la acción política real y la virtual parece ser muy tenue.…”