Testimonial tweeting. People’s voice (and eyes) on anti-impeachment protests in Brazil

Abstract

Though the idea of horizontal networked, bottom-up communication processes is present in many discussions of the role of digital media in the context of social movements, not many studies point to the processes behind the creation and publication of authorial testimonial content by regular people, that is, content produced in situ at the heat of the moment whose author is neither media nor political actors. Through 10 interviews structured according to Proulx and colleagues' ICT social appropriation framework (2017), with users that have created and published such type of content on Twitter with the hashtag #ForaTemer in the aftermath of Rousseff 's impeachment in Brazil in 2016. This paper discusses why and how ordinary people take media matters in their own hands as a form of political action, even though it may apparently be dressed up with different communicative functions, such as emulating the pretense neutrality and objectivity of media discourse. Findings point to a convergent media critique as main motivator, followed by the aim to connect the absent and to scrutinize police abuse. The aggregated result seems to point to a manifestation of collective intelligence, characterized by swarm-like logics and alienation from the complete result of the #ForaTemer publications.

Politicizing witnessing: Testimonial user-generated content in the aftermath of Rousseff’s impeachment in Brazil

“…They certainly were a relevant contender to mass media's narrative for those who followed them, or the hashtag used as entry point for the data of this study. It is important to notice that, though content creators have expressed their appreciation for other people's UGC (Santos, 2018), Twitter users in general seem to choose alternative media over tUGC, either because of algorithmic bias and/or perhaps audience subconscious preference.…”

“…Not only they present by far the higher rates of retweeting but they also have an important activity. They must be seen, then, as important mediators of testimonial content either created by them or incorporated via the contribution of their audience (Santos, 2018). They certainly were a relevant contender to mass media’s narrative for those who followed them, or the hashtag used as entry point for the data of this study.…”

“…In the context of social mobilizations, Meunier and Condeza (2012) sustain that ‘modes of use [of communication technologies] do not exist prior to the action, but that they are activated (…) in contingent situations which, in turn, trigger action during which different uses are produced’ (par 11, my translation). Though ordinary citizens are growingly aware of the tool on their pocket and its potential, they react, instead of acting, caught in an opportune situation to do so, moved by triggers such as awe, a sense of injustice (Santos, 2018), the pursue of notoriety or others. tUGC is opportune , more than planned .…”

“…A tUGC creator goes through at least the three first levels of Proulx and colleagues’ (2007) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) social appropriation model: (1) access, (2) technical and cognitive mastery and (3) significant use (Santos, 2018). While the first level may be understood as a prerequisite (Proulx, 2007), the others help define at which stage an individual or a collective stand, regarding technology appropriation in their activity.…”

“…It is here that I introduce the distinction between mere use of a technical device, on one hand, and a user’s enrolment of it in social practice, on the other hand’ (Proulx, 2007: 2). The spontaneous but conscious creation and dissemination of testimonial content over the digital networks, mainly social media, with a purpose--in this case, challenging mainstream media accounts of the protest (Santos, 2018)-- is, therefore, a social communicative practice.…”