Digital social media have been widely adopted in protest mobilizations. Are social media thus the leaflets and political posters of the early 21st century? Or do they, as some authors have claimed, fundamentally alter the conditions for the emergence of protest and social movements? This chapter discusses the findings of existing studies on social movements and social media and assesses to which extent some authors’ claims about the fundamental importance of social media technologies in recent protests and uprisings can be substantiated in empirical studies of protest mobilizations or whether the results lend more support for the claim that social media did not fundamentally influence the mobilization dynamics. Continue Reading →

19. December 2015
by shaunss
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