July 15, 2013Brian M. Conley, PhD

Mediating the Public Sphere

Mediating the Public Sphere

Core Research Question:In what way has the rise of so-called social media impacted the nature and development of social movement organizing?

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Mediating the Public Sphere

Outline: Defining our Terms

1. Politics/Public Sphere2. Social Movements3. Social Media/Web 2.0

It is always important to try to define your terms.

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Mediating the Public Sphere

Defining Our Terms:

Politics (Public Sphere?)One definition…

“Politics is who gets what, when, and how.” -Harold Laswell.

Any others?

Mediating the Public Sphere

Defining Our Terms: Social Movements:

Jasper and Goodwin:“…are conscious, concerted, and sustained efforts by ordinary people to change some aspect of their society by using extra-institutional means.”

Tilly: …involve the expression of “contentious politics…”

Freeman:Involve “a pre-existing communication system that is co-optable to the ideas of the emerging SM, and a event or the emergence of a leader.”

Tilly: Views Social Movements as distinctive form of contentious politics:

Contentious: to the extent that they “involve collective making of claims…that…conflict with someone’s else interests…”

Politics: “in the sense that governments of one sort or another figure … in the claim making…as claimants, objects of claims, allies of the

objects, or monitors of the contention. ”

Origins of Social Movements

Defining SM: Three (3) Elements:

1) Campaigns: sustained, organized public collective claim-making which link Claimants, Objects of claims, and the Public.

2) Repertoire: the development of special purpose public displays (rallies, marches, media campaigns, vigils) that are integrated into a

sustained campaign.

3) WUNC: Public displays of Worthiness, Unity, Numbers and Commitment.

Defining Social Movements

Campaigns: Link Claimants, objects of claims, and the “public”

Defining Social Movements

Claimants (SM)

Objects of Claimants (State, Corporation, religious leadership)

Public

Sustained Effort

Campaigns: Link Claimants, objects of claims, and the “public”

Defining Social Movements

Claimants (SM)

Objects of Claimants (State, Corporation, religious leadership)

Public

Sustained Effort

Institutional

Campaigns: Link Claimants, objects of claims, and the “public”

Defining Social Movements

Claimants (SM)

Objects of Claimants (State, Corporation, Religious leadership)

PublicRepertoire

Meetings, Processions, Vigils, Rallies, Demonstrations, Petitions, Media Campaigns

Campaigns: Link Claimants, objects of claims, and the “public”

Defining Social Movements

Claimants (SM)

Objects of Claimants (State, Corporation, Religious leadership)

PublicSocial Media ?

“a pre-existing communication system that is co-optable to the ideas of the emerging SM.”

Campaigns: Link Claimants, objects of claims, and the “public”

Defining Social Movements

Claimants (SM)

Objects of Claimants (State, Corporation, Religious leadership)

PublicSocial Media ?

“a pre-existing communication system that is co-optable to the ideas of the emerging SM.”

Brecher, Costello and SmithSocial Movements 2.0

What's New and What's NotSocial networking is not new and not about technology.

What is Technology? Social Networking? It's not about MySpace, Facebook or YouTube; instead it's about what all of us do every day: kindle and expand networks of friends, family, co-workers, etc.

In PoliticsIn the politics, it's about finding and building communities of interest, linking common struggles and acting collectively.

Social Movements 2.0

Revolutionary Potential: from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0During the past several years, the Internet has evolved from its first generation as a static information portal (e.g. websites) to what is now referred to as Web 2.0: user-generated and interactive content.

Web 2.0Could amount to the "largest increase in human expressive capability in history."

Social Movements 2.0

Revolutionary Potential: from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0What makes the web 2.0 potentially revolutionary:

1. Group Formation2. Scale and amplification3. Interactivity4. Destruction of hierarchies5. Cheapness and ease of tools

Social Movements 2.0

Problems and QuestionsWeb 2.0 also raises an number of challenging questions:

1.What does it mean when individuals begin organizing outside and without the help of traditional organizations?2.It's easy and cheap for organizations to bring people together into a swarm or smart mob, but what do you do with them then?3.Will offline social movement organizations be willing to cede control as ordinary people increasingly leverage social networking tools to channel their own activities? 4.How does offline and online social movement building fit together?

Captain: Occupy Geeks a Facebook for the 99%”

Building Their Own Network “I don’t want to say we’re making our own Facebook. But, we’re making our own Facebook,”

Their Vision: A Semantic Web“They hope the technology they are developing can go well beyond Occupy Wall Street to help establish more distributed social networks, better online business collaboration and perhaps even add to the long-dreamed-of semantic web — an internet made not of messy text, but one unified by underlying meta-data that computers can easily parse.”

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Facebook for the 99%

Moving Beyond Existing (Corporate) Networks“Now it’s time for activists to move beyond other people’s social networks

and build their own.”

It is a Question of Trust: “We don’t want to trust Facebook with private messages among activists.”

Facebook for the 99%Moving Beyond Existing (Corporate) Networks: Facilitating Trust“One challenge that all of the new efforts face is a very difficult one for noncentralized services: ensuring that members are trustworthy.

Why Does Trust Matter? “That’s critical for activists who risk injury or arrest in all countries and even death in some. To build trust, local and international networks will use a friend-of-a-friend model in Knutson and Boyer’s projects.

Need Group to Join “People can’t become full members on their own as they can with social networks likeTwitter, Facebook and Google+.”

Facebook for the 99%Facilitating Trust: How it Works“In the new OWS tech, an activist’s local-occupation network can vouch for a

user to another network, and the local networks all trust each other, they all trust that activist. Someone can sign into one network and post and comment on them all.”

Need Group to Join “People can’t become full members on their own as they can with social networks likeTwitter, Facebook and Google+.”

Facebook for the 99%

Alternative Networks in the Works:

Global SquareDiaspora

Activists Sites:Take the Square (Spanish 15M Movement: Track Occupations

Globally)US Day of Rage (US: Campaign Finance Reform Movement, OWS co-

founder)

Facebook for the 99%

The Goal: Build an International Network“Through all those connections, Knutson has focused on building the technology for an international occupations network.

Working Ideas:Federated General Assembly (US occupations)

A Semantic Web: The TechnologyResource Description Framework, or RDF, a universal labeling system.

Facebook for the 99%

The Goal: Build an International Network“Through all those connections, Knutson has focused on building the technology for an international occupations network.

Working Ideas:Federated General Assembly (US occupations)

Facebook for the 99%

Build an International Network: The Challenges

Universal Agreement:“The problem the coders face will be the same one that’s faced the web for years – getting people to agree on standards and to then adopt them.”

Politics of Networking“But the politics are tricky. Some of the people in Spain are kind of resentful of OWS, because they got all of the credit,” he said, noting that the Spanish occupations started first and are still far bigger.”

Critics: Social Movements 2.0

Malcolm Gladwell: Small Change

Traditionally, Social Movements depended upon, and represented “strong-tie” connections between people and groups.

Examples: Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-InFreedom Summer (Mississippi 1964)East German Resistance groupsRed Brigades (Italy)Mujahideen (Afghanistan)

In each case, it was the strength of a person or group’s connection to others that got them involved, and kept them involved.

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Critics: Social Movements 2.0

Social Media: Too Often Baced on weak connections “The platforms of social media are built around weak ties.”

Tools Before Causes“Where activists were once defined by their causes, they are now defined by their tools …”

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Critics: Social Movements 2.0

Social Media: There is a Strength in Weak Connections Social Media is “terrific at the diffusion of innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, seamlessly matching up buyers and sellers, and the logistical functions of the dating world.”

“But weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism.”

Limitations: Might Inform, But Does It compel Action, Participation“Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.”

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Critics: Social Movements 2.0

Social Media: Not a Fully Formed Social NetworkSocial networks don’t simply inform or motivation, they compel people to act, and keep their involved, and some cases alive afterwards.

Greensboro Example: Students Part of a Network

Social Media: Networks that lacks Hierarchy“Facebook and the like are tools for building networks, which are the opposite, in structure and character, of hierarchies.” In particular, they lack discipline and strategic thinking, and rely instead on “resilience and adaptability.”

“How do you make difficult choices about tactics or strategy or philosophical direction when everyone has an equal say?”

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Critics: Social Movements 2.0

Social Media: Works Better in Low rather than High Risk Situations“But it is simply a form of organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger.”

An Inconsequential Life: Such a system “makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact.”

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Questions

Questions:

Social Media: Has It Changed Anything?Gladwell: “In order for an innovation to make a real difference, it has to solve a problem that was actually a problem in the first place.”

Turkish Example: Who Controls Web 2.0?Does the use of social media empower the state (or corporations) to the extent that its content or functionality may be controlled by either the government or the companies that manage/own the network?

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