Open AccessTwitter-revolutioner og fejlslagne protestbevægelser:
Author(s) -
Rikke Louise Alberg Peters
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
slagmark
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1904-8602
pISSN - 0108-8084
DOI - 10.7146/sl.v0i71.107315
Subject(s) - technological determinism , skepticism , social media , sociology , sensibility , the internet , order (exchange) , hegemony , social movement , epistemology , politics , relation (database) , social order , determinism , media studies , social science , political science , computer science , law , philosophy , finance , database , world wide web , economics
This article explores the interesting connection between social movements and new social media also referred to as web 2.0. It is argued that the public as well as parts of the scientific debate about the impact of new media on social change is to a large degree dominated by two rigid camps, namely Internet-utopians on the one side and Internet-sceptics on the other side. Both positions tend to degenerate into technological determinism. Furthermore, they ignore the long tradition for the critical study of alternative media and their role as critical and oppositional communication tools for social movements. In order to analyse how social movements challenge dominant and hegemonic worldviews, the article calls for a socially oriented media theory with a sensibility for analytical concepts and frameworks. Such a theoretical and contextual framework can be used in order to produce empirically based insights into the relation between protest movements, social media use and actual political change.