The Myth of an Egalitarian Internet: Occupy Wall Street and the mediatization of social movements (original) (raw)
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Amid a dizzying array of social media, the ground of activism has fractured into decentered knots creating a cacophony of panmediated worlds. Our analysis of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) offers a preliminary charting of the fragmenting of the old media world into a proliferation of social media worlds. On old media, OWS was stillborn, first neglected, and then frivolously framed. On social media, OWS’s emergence was vibrant, its manifestations much discussed, celebrated, and attacked. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube create new contexts for activism that do not exist in old media. Plus, social media foster an ethic of individual and collective participation, thus creating a norm of perpetual participation. In OWS, that norm creates new expectations of being in the world.
New Media, New Movements: Tracing the Construction of #OccupyWallStreet
[Awarded Highest Honors and Best Thesis in Sociology] Contemporary discourse has highlighted the role of user-generated media in social movements, such as the so-called “Twitter Revolution” of the Arab-Spring. Despite such discourse, little empirical research examines the use of user-generated media and social movements. To examine the role of not only user-generated media, but also alternative and mainstream media, this thesis asks: what role did multiple forms of media have in challenging or contributing to the growth of Occupy Wall Street? Using a mixed-method approach to analyze the first five weeks of Occupy Wall Street, this thesis samples data from 967 articles and transcripts, 90,000 YouTube videos, and 850,000 tweets, pooling from nine forms of mainstream, alternative, and user-generated media. Key findings challenge established notions of the relationship of power between the mainstream media and social movements posited by Gamson and Wolfsfeld (1993) given the role alternative and social media played in the growth of Occupy Wall Street when there was little to no mainstream media coverage. After Occupy Wall Street caught mainstream media attention, much of Occupy’s public support may have stemmed from deradicalized narratives of Occupy through the mainstream media. Finally, all mainstream coverage contained moments that discussed wealth and inequality in the U.S., perhaps significantly raising awareness towards the issues that Occupy sought to address.
Forgetting History: Mediated Reflections on Occupy Wall Street
Media and Communication, 2017
This study examines how Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors' practices and stated understanding of media act on social perceptions of networked media. It stems from a discursive content analysis of online commentary from OWS protestors and supporters, using different sources from the first Adbusters blog in July 2011 until May 2012. We demonstrate how the belief in the myth of an egalitarian Internet was incorporated into the offline structure of OWS and led OWS participants to adopt rhetoric that distances the movement from past protest actions by stating the movement was " like the Internet " .
While the Occupy movement has attracted popular and academic interest since 2011, there has been relatively little attention to the significance of feminist and queer practices and discourses to the movement. Drawing from feminist theory, social movement studies, and digital media studies, this paper presents empirical research conducted at Occupy Wall Street (OWS) that highlights feminist, queer, and trans contributions to OWS from its inception, with a focus on the Trans World Order Affinity Group (TOAG). Through its activities at Zuccotti Park as well at its website and on social media, TOAG has challenged gender norms, heteronormativity, and transphobia in both the physical and virtual domains of OWS, and been a key contributor to its online prominence. As such, the group offers an illuminating case study of the challenges and successes of realizing feminist and queer agency during key developments of a major social movement. More generally, this project provides an important corrective to the prominence of class in how Occupy has been discussed and conducted, pointing out how other axes of inequality have also stratified Occupy itself. In addition, it addresses central issues about new media and participation, including negotiating differences between diverse activist groups, the efficacy of digital activism, and the relationship between online and offline strategies.
Cyberactivism on the Participatory Web, ed. Martha McCaughey (Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture), 2014
Introduction: Cyberactivism 2.0: Studying Cyberactivism a Decade into the Participatory Web Martha McCaughey 1. Trust and Internet Activism: From Email to Social Networks Laura J. Gurak 2. Dark Days: Understanding the Historical Context and the Visual Rhetorics of the SOPA/PIPA Blackout John Logie 3. The Harry Potter Alliance: Sociotechnical Contexts of Digitally Mediated Activism Jennifer Terrell 4. Dangerous Places: Social Media at the Convergence of Peoples, Labor, and Environmental Movements Richard Widick 5. The Arab Spring and Its Social Media Audiences: English and Arabic Twitter Users and Their Networks Axel Bruns, Tim Highfield, and Jean Burgess 6. Twitter as the People’s Microphone: Emergence of Authorities during Protest Tweeting Alexander Halavais and Maria Garrido 7. From Crisis Pregnancy Centers to TeenBreaks.com: Anti-Abortion Activism’s Use of Cloaked Websites Jessie Daniels 8. Art Interrupting Business, Business Interrupting Art: Re(de)fining the Interface Between Business and Society Constance Kampf 9. Cyberactivism of the Radical Right in Europe and the USA: What, Who, and Why? Manuela Caiani and Rossella Borri 10. Young Chinese Workers, Contentious Politics, and Cyberactivism in the Global Factory Dorothy Kidd 11. Women Activists of Occupy Wall Street: Consciousness-Raising and Connective Action in Hybrid Social Movements Megan Boler and Christina Nitsou 12. Emergent Social Movements in Online Media and States of Crisis: Analyzing the Potential for Resistance and Repression Online Lee Salter
Occupy Wall Street: The movement in its third anniversary
UOC R&I Working Papers, 2017
The emergence of networked social movements in 2011 has opened a new door in the social movements’ literature. By adopting a technopolitical and situated approach, in this paper, we explore the case of the Occupy Wall Street movement three years after its formation in September 2011. Through an online survey and a nonprobabilistic sampling procedure, we pay special attention to the perceptions and opinions of the movement’s participants. We distinguish seven thematic sections: the relationship with the movement, previous political participation and motivations, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the emotions experienced, the evolution of the movement, its influence on institutional politics, and its impacts on several aspects of social life. The results show that the respondents (N=522) are overall adherent to the movement and that the majority participated at some point. Most think that the movement still exists in one way or another, and perceive its imp...
Occupy Wall Street: The Struggle in the Creation and Reception of a Discourse of Protest
Occupy Wall Street was a movement of many faces. Its impact on the public debate was significant, sparking support and criticism from a variety of sources. The occupation of the park, a ‘privately owned public space’, awoke the interest of the media, triggering nationwide media coverage and generating significant online activity. Behind an almost two-month occupation of a 3,100 m2 park in downtown Manhattan, an element crucial to Occupy Wall Street gaining scale and achieving significant media coverage emerges: Its discourse. Acknowledging that a discourse encompasses a set of ideas, values, identities and activities signified by the use of certain semiotic choices, this paper explores how the different bits and pieces of the Occupy Wall Street discourse play out in the social, political and communication arenas. The methodology is based on empirical and exploratory research. Interviews are conducted with professors, activists, protesters, journalists and editors, most of them based in New York City. Meanwhile a media analysis is performed based on online activity, mainstream media coverage and tag clouds generated out of hundreds of articles from three leading newspapers of various types and political inclinations. Results reveal a social movement represented by protesters whose one common aspect was their frustration with the economic, social and political systems in the United States. This responds to an ideology named “the critique of capitalism.” Despite lacking a single, unified message, Occupy Wall Street managed to deliver strong semiotic choices behind the narrative of “We are the 99 percent,” ultimately producing a compelling, media savvy discourse. OWS also accomplished influencing the public conversation by relying on social media networks. This was reinforced by the very occupation of Zuccotti Park, which would symbolically reenact the movement’s narrative and serve as a storefront for journalists to gather constantly changing stories. In contrast, OWS’ depiction in the news varied considerably, showing a constantly shifting and volatile narrative particularly subject to events of a violent or unsettling nature. This generated increased media coverage, but ultimately affected both public support and the movement’s morale. Still, if there is one thing that Occupy Wall Street indisputably achieved, it is bringing back the public debate on the aggravating issue of economic inequality and its repercussions on the American people.