Media and Social Movements

Introduction

Social movements:

Social movements are defined as networks of informal interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in political or cultural conflicts, on the basis of shared collective identities. 

Elements involved in  movements:

Element in the movements' success (Klandermans 1984). In the literature different methods of mobilizing people are distinguished, varying from direct mail, mass media, and formal organizations, to more informal networks of friends and relatives, or what McAdam calls 'micro mobilization contexts' (Klandermans andOegema 1987; McAdam 1988; Walgrave and Manssens 2000). It is clear that after the recent 'anti-globalization' protest.

Media and social change:

This issue can be addressed quite summarily. Most analysis of social change in media studies comes under three headings: development communication, cultural studies, and political communication. The first focuses mostly on underdevelopment issues, the second on fast-moving styles and cultural trends, and the third on shifts in the formal political arena.

A great deal of media studies research, however, presumes a rather stable economic and political environment, which may match United States, Canadian, or European realities at this point in time, but has little purchase on everyday life in large parts of the rest of the world. Social change is, obviously, at the heart of social movement research, but especially in the rational actor/resource mobilization mode, a great deal of work has had little or no cultural referents built into it, with the result that social movement actors are implicitly construed as operating as though they were mute pieces on a social chessboard, duly anticipating or responding to each other’s structured moves. But never communicating in any other fashion, never shaped by the complex cultures they inhabit rather than the rigid social rules they observe. Some recent work in this field has begun to address this anomaly, but primarily and perhaps predictably within anthropology (e.g., Nash, 2004) rather than sociology or political science, where it largely remains a lacuna (but see Williams, 2004; Earl, 2004). A focus on social movement media would go a long way to remedying that omission of basic perspective, especially if the definition of ‘‘media’’ is stretched, as it should be,

beyond broadcasting, cinema, print, and the Internet to embrace graffiti, murals, street theater, popular music, dance, dress, and other media of communication. Correspondingly, social change of a no incremental variety—think of life in the post-Soviet zone, in Congo, in Indonesia, in Iraq, in Lebanon, and in Bolivia—needs to be placed at the forefront of media research. We need to dethrone from their privileged position the stable replication studies of stable media communication processes in politically and economically stable nations. Yawn! Not all significant social change by any means issues from social movements, but they are a core component of that central dimension of our world.

Types of social movements:

There are two types of social movements:

One is in which there is an obvious distinction to be made between single issue movements whose focus is upon a single limited objective,

The other type is in which movements group together a heterogeneous constituency and a variety of specific concerns under the umbrella of some loose organization, general principle, or view of the world.     

Theory’s related to social movements:

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND DIFFUSION THEORY

Social movements refer to group action undertaken by social actors, including individuals, groups and organizations, for the purpose of affecting social and political change (Green 2009; Hangman 1991). Early proponents of diffusion theoryexplain that the diffusion process involves four elements: transmitters or those who initiate the diffusion of the innovation; adopters or those who receive the innovation; the innovation or item that is being diffused; and the channel or the means by which diffusion occurs (Katz 1968). Scholars in the field generally refer to two models of diffusion: hierarchical and proximal. The former, as the label suggests, follows an ordered top-down approach. The latter, however, corresponds more closely to the structure facilitated by social media, whereby actors engage with others with whom they identify or are spatially or culturally relevant (Soule 2004)

Importance of diffusion of ideas for peaceful social movements:

The Arab uprisings and revolutions are an important case for the study of social movements and diffusion theory. A diffusion of ideas about the viability of peaceful protests in seeking political reform and regime change is clearly observable across the countries of the MENA region. Ideas central to establishing and maintaining these social movements for freedom anddemocracy, such as the use of nonviolent tactics; the framing of actors, goals and objectives in terms of freedom and democracy; and communication with the international mass media, were all diffused within and between social movements in the various countries.

The Interdependency of Mass Media and Social Movements

Why social movements need mass media (and vice versa)

One of the first scholars to analyze the importance of the mass media for social movements was Todd Gitlin. In his seminal book ‘The Whole World is watching’ (1980), he describes the interaction between mass media and the U.S. New Left movement in the sixties.Gitlin documents how the media and their framing of the movement initially helped it to gain broader support. However, the requirements for movement events to have characteristics that make them newsworthy — such as drama, conflict and personalization — made the movements’ main leaders increasingly focus on media strategies. Intensive coverage of internal struggles and anomalies within the movement ultimately resulted in erosion of its public support.  But the interests of movement actors and journalists most often do not coincide. As movements are interested in getting their message out their aim is to direct the media’s (and the public’s) attention to an issue, journalists often do not focus on the problem or issue the movement is signaling, but rather consider other things newsworthy. They are, for example, more interested in covering the violent

Characteristics of contentious confrontations, the internal conflicts in the movement, or personal details about movement leaders. In many ways, the interaction between movements and media resemble that between politicians and journalists.(page5)RensVliegenthartStefaanWalgrave

Social movements are politics:

Social movements are political because, directly or indirectly, immediately or ultimately, they make demands upon the state. The extent to which social movements take a recognizably political form depends in large part upon whether the state itself is, or is perceived to be, an important actor, object, or constraining structure.

Social movements and students:

It is difficult to unite few activists to form a party. In western countries small Marxist parties were established and many relied on their energies but as it were a part of students but not party for students, so they failed. In West Germany, the only activists who maintained their political ambition were successful in becoming political parties. (page87)

Social movement and Gender:

The women in old days who were excluded from the mainstream was their own reason because they were too shy or lazy to stand in front of the men and now women have become more confident to stand in the male dominated society and work.  (page 88)

Body

 Social movements and mass media: 

Understanding the relationship between social movements and the media’s coverage of their actions is crucial, especially if this increasingly important political resource is to be utilized effectively for progressive social change. This article aims to analyses this pivotal relationship from two directions.

Firstly, it will examine incidents where the media facilitates social change via protest actions within democratic countries, which will be followed by an examination of the media’s role in catalyzing major social change, that is, revolutions in authoritarian nations.

 Secondly, the article will chart the ways in which the media (in democratic countries) can act to undermine social movements in the public sphere. Finally, the article will attempt to understand why social movement protest coverage is so variable and conclude by making recommendations for how progressive organizations may best address their relationships with the media.

 Social Movements and Public Opinion in the Online Environment:

As noted above, there is substantial literature in media and social movement studies regarding the role new media technologies can play in social mobilization and formation of collective action. Given the proliferation of new phenomena such as social networking sites and micro-blogging, some recent studies have focused on the roles played by specific types of online platforms.10 However; the present study does not differentiate among the various platforms and outlets in the online arena. Instead, it treats the Internet holistically as an information environment. The decision to adopt a “holistic perspective” is based on the consideration that, in reality, people move very easily from one platform to another in the online environment, and that the contents from various platforms often interpenetrate each other. For example, a person may, through a shared Facebook link with his or her friend, encounter an article originated from a movement Web site, while clicking on another link may bring the individual to another Web site with other contents (page148)Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph Man Chan

                                       

Social media and the social movements:

The use of social media in the Arab uprisings raises a number of important implications for diffusion theory. Firstly, social media facilitated a proximal process of diffusion. The decentralised and non-hierarchical nature of social media facilitated this dynamic. Secondly, social media enabled actors in the MENA region to communicate directly and constantly across national boundaries. This facilitated the diffusion of ideas across the region in respect to calls for freedom and democracy, and the use of nonviolent tactics (McAdam&Rucht 1993). It is also noteworthy that similar outcomes are appearing across the region. Where electionshavebeen held, ideologically similar Islamic political parties, including An-Nahda in Tunisia, Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt and the Justice and Development Party in Morocco have won the largest plurality of votes. Thirdly, social media played a particularly important role in facilitating communication between transmitters and adopters who identifywith one another. Social media’s potential to connect groups that share high levels of identification was critical to the diffusion of ideas among them. Fourthly, social media facilitated a common framing of the tactics and slogans that were diffused between the social movements and instrumental to their success (Soule 2004). This success was achieved in terms of attracting the support of international mass media organisations which, in turn translated into pressure on Western governments to provide rhetorical support for the protestors and their cause. This support for the protesters simultaneously strengthened the uprisings and weakened the regimes (dellaPorta&Kriesi 1999). (page109)The research and history of collective action provides some useful concepts forunderstanding another type of decentralized network: radicalized groups. The Internet hassignificantly lowered the cost of organizing collective action (Van Aelst&Walgrave, 2004),which may be especially useful to radical groups and movements that do not depend heavilyon formal funding. For instance, Earl &Schussman (2008, p. 75) argue that such low operatingcosts have and will continue to enable people to rally around causes that may not have beenthe subject of offline organized protest. Radical groups may not rally on the Washington Mallbut they can still communicate and mobilize online as a result of much lower overhead costs.

Another insight from previous research is that groups that are already politically activehave derived relatively greater benefit from these new communication technologies. Someexperts would argue that these politically active groups are more likely to come from elitesocioeconomic demographics (Van Laer, 2007). While radical groups may (or may not) comefrom elite socioeconomic demographics, it is relevant that when the groups’ purposes arepolitical, the benefits of their Internet use may be greater than when their purposes arenonpolitical (such as commercial or cultural). In other words, having overtly political goals maybe a catalyst for increasing benefits of the Internet to radical groups.Radical groups are clearly part of the mix of Internet users. While ICTs are not typicallythe most important mobilizing mechanism for radicalized groups, these groups haveenthusiastically adopted technology to help them reach their intended goals.    

Media ‘Supported’ Social Movements:

Gaining positive media coverage is crucial for many social movements,(in Belgium on 20 October 1996), as the way they are portrayed in the mass media can have important implications for their ability to mobilize citizens to participate in their protests. Indeed in 1987, social movement researchers Bert Klandermans and Dirk Oegema found that only 5% of the people who agreed with the objectives of a peace protest were motivated enough to participate in the subsequent protest. 

Social movements in modern societies

Mass media and Public opinion:

Can social movements, via the mass media, impact public opinion? Many studies in the broad realm of political communication have claimed that media frames have an effect on the audience and may change what people think about particular issues (Scheufele& Tewksbury 2007). The same most likely applies to the frames social movements want to communicate to the public. When movements manage to get their frames in the news, it is likely that (parts of) the public will develop attitudes that are favorable to the movement’s issue.

Mass Media and Social Movements

Media ‘Supported’ Social Movements:               

Gaining positive media coverage is crucial for many social movements, as the way they are portrayed in the mass media can have important implications for their ability to mobilize citizens to participate in their protests. Indeed in 1987, social movement researchers Bert Klandermans and Dirk Oegema found that only 5% of the people who agreed with the objectives of a peace protest were motivated enough to participate in the subsequent protest. [6]Despite such evident barriers to participation, in Belgium on 20 October 1996, a brand new social movement (formed in the wake of the controversy surrounding the arrest of murderer Marc Dutroux) mobilized the White March. What made this event remarkable was that the White March involved around 300,000 citizens and was Belgium’s largest ever demonstration. (StefaanWalgrave and Jan Manssens) studied the media coverage of this mobilization and concluded that, contrary to most social movement research, it was the media itself that made the White March successful. In fact, they described how the media “undertook large-scale and unconcealed motivational framing efforts” to actively break down barriers to participation.

Media-Facilitated Revolutions (and Democracy?)

Since the recent revolution in Serbia, which ousted President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, a series of ‘coloured revolutions’ have swept across Eastern Europe. These were the Rose revolution in Georgia (2003), the Orange revolution in Ukraine (2005) and the Tulip revolution in Kyrgyzstan (2005). In each case, after stolen elections, the media played an important role in catalyzing public participation in mass protests, which led to success of each of the revolutions. To many political commentators and media scholars, it was clear that the independent media in Serbia “facilitated the regime change and paved the way for democracy”. As in Serbia, Georgia’s independent media played an important role in challenging legitimacy of their authoritarian government led by President Eduard Shevardnadze. Consequently, this meant that the independent media was often viewed by Shevardnadze as an enemy of the state (page4)

Contemporary social Movements:

   1. Democratic movements that work for political rights

   2. Labor movements that work for control of the workplace

   3. Ecological movements that are concerned with the environment

  4.  Peace movements that work toward, well, peace

 New media:

New media refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation. Another aspect of new media is the real-time generation of new, unregulated content

Digital media and the political change:

There is a connection between technology diffusion, the use of digital media, and political change. But it is complex and contingent. Demonstrators and dictators alike recognize that the Internet and mobile telephones have become part of the fundamental information infrastructure for political conversation where there are few face-to-face opportunities, especially for women. However, the use of that infrastructure, the push and pull between repression and change, takes many forms as is evident in the articles by Lim, by Tufekci and Wilson, and by Pearce and Kendzior. Digital media compound attention on poorly performing governments. Lim,for instance, finds that authoritarian Egypt failed to respond to the communitiesof opposition that coalesced online well in advance of 2011, while Tufekci andWilson illustrate how social media reduced the threshold for the mass expression ofopposition in Tahrir Square in early 2011. Bailard shows that Internet use predictedcynicism about transparency during a Tanzanian election; Hassid demonstratesthat Chinese bloggers lead in the framing of issues when the ruling political andmedia elites do not appear to be acting responsibly; and Valenzuela, Arriagada, andScherman’s study of Facebook use in Chile in 2010 shows how social media canmobilize those who are not already involved in political activitism. (Philip N. Howard & Malcolm R. Parks)

                          

New media and social movements:

the reason why new media might deliver tools of power that could foster political engagement “lies in the idea of autonomous spheres of communication in which citizens can freely engage in reasoned debate away from the controlling influence of the state, large media corporations and structures of social inequality that impinge on their daily lives” (Chadwick, 2006; 92). Thus, new media might be seen as a platform that brings citizens closer to this ideal concept of the ‘public sphere’. Especially social movements could take the chance to exploit those autonomous spheres of communication as they often try to oppose state or economic authorities. An existing social force therefore might use technology in order to improve its efficiency of exercising participatory democracy. However, one should be careful to claim the Internet created anything, deus ex machina, and it must be underlined that “the internet is less applicable [to] the creation of new forms of democratic spheres  than [to] the support of already existing ones” (Bennett, 2003; 145).

How Governments Use New Media?:

Presence of new media in politics:

Examining the government use of new media, both positives and negatives emerge. new media is a help and a hindrance to movements. Networks of activists form easily through new media platforms, allowing the formation of movements. These same tools are utilized by the government to monitor activists, spread different opinions and, most extremely, shut down the Internet to cease communication. All major politicians have a presence in new media, i.e. twitter accounts, Facebook pages and websites. New media is used by the government to directly respond to citizens. It is utilized to promote civic engagement. Government figures have responded to comments and questions on OWS through new media channels..McChesney, R. W. (1997) corporate media and the threat to democracy, New York: Seven Stories Press.

 Conflicts in new media

New conflicts arise in cultural areas: 

In the last ten to twenty years, conflicts have developed in advanced Western societies that, in many respects, deviate from the welfare-state pattern of institutionalized conflict over distribution. These new conflicts no longer arise in areas of material reproduction; they are no longer channeled through parties and organizations; and they can no longer be alleviated by compensations that conform to the system. Rather, the new conflicts arise in areas of cultural reproduction, social integration, and socialization. They are manifested in sub-institutional, extraparliamentary forms of protest. The underlying deficits reflect a reification of communicative spheres of action; the media of money and power are not sufficient to circumvent this reification. 1981 Telos Press Publishing.

4. Computer technology used as a platform for new media:

New Media as Computer Technology Used as a Distribution Platform – New Media are the cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition. e.g. (at least for now) Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, Blu-ray disks etc. The problem with this is that the definition must be revised every few years. The term "new media" will not be "new" anymore, as most forms of culture will be distributed through computers.

5. Language of new media:

New Media as Digital Data Controlled by Software: 

 The language of New Media is based on the assumption that, in fact, all cultural objects that rely on digital representation and computer-based delivery do share a number of common qualities. New media is reduced to digital data that can be manipulated by software as any other data. Now media operations can create several versions of the same object. An example is an image stored as matrix data which can be manipulated and altered according to the additional algorithms implemented, such as color inversion, gray-scaling, sharpening, rasterizing, etc.

New Media as the Mix Between Existing Cultural Conventions and the Conventions of Software – New Media today can be understood as the mix between older cultural conventions for data representation, access, and manipulation and newer conventions of data representation, access, and manipulation. The "old" data are representations of visual reality and human experience, and the "new" data is numerical data. The computer is kept out of the key "creative" decisions, and is delegated to the position of a technician. e.g. In film, software is used in some areas of production, in others are created using computer animation.

Importance of internet in social movements:

The internet can be seen as a fundamental medium for civil society and the informal public sphere. In particular, the internet, with its global reach could be said to be of value to social movements. The internet enables social movements groups and organizations to communicate, to generate information and to distribute this information cheaply and effectively, allowing response and feedback.  (page129) Democracy, new social movements and the internet

Importance of new media in shaping social movements:

As noted by Carroll and Ratner, social movements depend heavily on the mass media in order to communicate their message to the general public (1999:2). In addition, Hackett and Carroll introduce the idea that there exists an asymmetrical relationship of dependency between social movement organizations and the media. This relationship describes a situation whereby social

movements “greatly depend on the media to help them mobilize, and to validate their standing,

while news organizations are less dependent on movements for the stories they feature”; as a result

the media have the power and ability to influence how events are perceived (Hackett and Carroll, 2004:1). social movements can be seen to depend on the media for three main purposes: to mobilize and attract wide support of the public, to validate their existence as a political collective and to enlarge the scope of conflict by bringing in third parties in order to alter the balance of forces in a favourable direction (Carroll and Ratner, 1999:3). Gamson and Wolfsfeld further contend that social movements are concerned with gaining legitimacy, preferred framing, and sympathy in terms of the issues they are attempting to elucidate (Carroll and Ratner, 1999:3).             (page40) Social Movements and the NewsMediaKatherine Phipps, KatrynaSzagala

Effects of the media on the movements:

The hypotheses here treat media characteristics as independent variables and examine their effects on three different movement outcomes:

(1) leadership, that is, the role of the media in influencing who has stand-in in the movement;

(2) action strategy, that is, the role of the media in influencing which collective-action strategies and tactics are pursued

(3) Framing strategy, that is, the role of the media in influencing how the movement represents its message in the contest over meaning. (page123)

Importance of internet:

Traditionally organizers of social movement events could either use the bonds they had with their members or -to reach a wider audience- use the weak bonds created by the mass media. These weak bonds are the only means through which organizers can reach those people unconnected to them. But the mass media are very expensive or hard to control (Klandermans2000). However, technological advances have opened up new opportunities for social movements. New mobilizing means, e.g. Internet; websites, email lists, MSN,

twitters and text messaging are supplementing the already existing ‘traditional’ mobilizing means, e.g. face-to-face contact or the media: the ‘mobilization repertoire’ is expanding. In contrast to traditional media the Internet is relatively cheap and easy to use, people can produce the content without depending on organizations, institutions or companies and spread their message with a speed and scale unthinkable before. The Internet has the same potential as the mass media to reach a wide and divers audience. Moreover, when access to the mass media is denied, the Internet might be a good alternative to reach those

people unconnected to the organizers.(page3)

Digital media and social change:

Accounts of the interplay between media technology and political activism is, to put it crudely, split between two conflicting narratives on the potentials of digital media in democratic development. New media technology is thus either celebrated as a vehicle for social change by expanding political discourse beyond the here and now into transnational political communities as well as closing the moral distance between world citizens (Chouliaraki, 2006; Fenton, 2006; Drache 2008) - or, alternatively, such technology is condemned for undermining the authenticity of discourse and interaction by failing to fulfil the ideal of co-presence in offline political action often coupled with the viewpoint that the internet fosters an ultimately neoliberal system of commodification requiring persuasion and impression management in order to be seen and heard in the cacophonic jungle of the world wide web. (Putnam, 2000; Dahlberg, 2005, 2007). These two conflicting narratives seem to beg the question of whether technological development leads to a degradation of political participation or an enrichment of democratic development.(page25)

Use of alternative media for social change:

The concept of alternative media is a much disputed one – as is the dichotomy of alternative versus mainstream media. The use and creation of media by political activists fall under various headings such as alternative media, citizens’ media, community media, tactical media, independent media, counter-information media, participatory media, Third Sector media, social movement media, etc. The term has no fixed meaning. It has been attached to a heterogeneous set of media practices developed by a very diverse range of groups and organizations and is used as a broad term for a disparate body of practices (Harcup, 2005). Research in this area consists of two somewhat overlapping types of research: studies on the use of ICTs for mobilization and coordination purposes and second, studies on the creation of independent media in an effort to challenge the hegemony of mainstream media (McCurdy, 2009). Definitions stressing the non-commercial character of alternative media underscore that while the message-based news format of mainstream media is designed to draw consumers to advertising and subscription services, the range of alternative anti-market and anti-authority news sources are free and participatory (Drache, 2008: 91). Other definitions highlight social change by stressing the fact “That alternative media should, in some way, advocate change in society (Atton, 2002:15). When referring to and using the term ‘alternative media’, we integrate these different positions and conceptualize alternative media as a non-profit, democratic space where people communicate, organize and debate for politically progressive ends” (page26)

Let’s control the internet:

After the show of power that the social-media has demonstrated during the Occupy

movement and the Arab Spring, countless new law bills have been pushed forward and proposed by influential world governments, which all had the same goal, restricting the use of copyrighted material and giving governments unlimited and unhindered access to personal data about socialmediausers, especially those of twitter, which has become itself known to refuse the divulge ofpersonal information about users, when requested by authorities. As seen in the 2011 riots inLondon, where twitter was the weapon of choice for the protesters to gather and organize. Thewebsite www.twitter.com was asked by the authorities not only to divulge personal informationabout protesters, but also to shut down their accounts and restrict access to known IP addresses, inorder to prevent further creation of additional accounts, The Telegraph reports in an interview16witha Twitter representative.Twitter, has proven itself to be a reliable organization for offering the protesters a platformfor communicating publicly, as stated by Twitter itself on one of the posts from the Twitter blog.“Our position on freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users' rightto speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed. (page16)

Traditional media and the social movements;     

In a historical perspective, traditional media channels have played a crucial role in the communication practices of social movements. One can regard the traditional media and social movements as interacting systems that shape and influence each other.  However, the ‘power dependency theory’ (Gamson&Wolfsfeld, 1993) demonstrates that this shaping process does most likely not proceed in a mutual, balanced way. The relationship between the traditional media and social movements is marked by value, which indicates the degree of dependence of movement actors on the media, and need, which indicates how much the media needs to rely on the demand of social movements for their reports. Usually, social movement actors need to struggle for value in order to reach a mainstream audience that represents potential followers of the movement in question. However, as the ones in charge of traditional media channels predetermine this language, the challenge for social movements is to convince traditional media journalists to communicate ideas, beliefs and goals of a movement as close as possible to their intended common language of struggle. Otherwise, the danger prevails that intended messages get lost in translation. “In pursuing collective action an important strategic relation is that between movements and media, as the former attempt  to ‘get the message out’ while the latter strive to maximize profit and market share through capturing audiences” (Carroll & Hackett, 2006; 86) (page11)

Communication by social movements:

Generally, Wall (2007) defines at least four important modes how new media communication by social movement actors might look like:

·        collection of information;

·        publication of information;

·        dialogue; and

·        Lobbying decision-makers (Wall, 2007; 262)

Social Movements and Public Opinion in the Online Environment:

As noted above, there is substantial literature in media and social movement studies regarding the role new media technologies can play in social mobilization and formation of collective action. Given the proliferation of new phenomena such as social networking sites and micro-blogging, some recent studies have focused on the roles played by specific types of online platforms.10 However; the present study does not differentiate among the various platforms and outlets in the online arena. Instead, it treats the Internet holistically as an information environment. The decision to adopt a “holistic perspective” is based on the consideration that, in reality, people move very easily from one platform to another in the online environment, and that the contents from various platforms often interpenetrate each other. For example, a person may, through a shared Facebook link with his or her friend, encounter an article originated from a movement Web site, while clicking on another link may bring the individual to another Web site with other contents (page148)Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph Man Chan.