Lugo-Ocando, J, Hernández, A and Marchesi, M (2015) Social Media and Virality in the 2014 Student Protests in Venezuela: Rethinking Engagement and Dialogue In Times of Imitation. International Journal of Communication, 9. pp. 3782-3802. ISSN 1932-8036
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between social media, political mobilization and civic engagement in the context of the students’ protests in Venezuela of 2014. The authors ask whether these technologies were used by participants as catalytic element to trigger the protests and amplify them across the country or if they were instead a galvanizing factor among more general conditions. The analysis uses cultural chaos and virality/contagion as theoretical approaches to discuss these events in order to provoke discussion around the relationship between protests and social media. However, as the authors clarify, far from a techno-deterministic assumption that sees social media has somehow having agency in itself, their argumentative provocation highlights its role as a platform for political engagement through “imitation” and emotions while rejecting false dichotomies of rationality/irrationality among the crowd.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 (Jairo Lugo-Ocando, Alexander Hernández, & Monica Marchesi). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). |
Keywords: | Venezuela; protests; guarimbas; social media; Internet; chavismo; dialogue; virality; contagion; cultural chaos; democracy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Media & Communication (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Aug 2015 15:51 |
Last Modified: | 17 Jan 2018 08:13 |
Published Version: | http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3416 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:88913 |