Making Sense of Life, Global Activism in the Cyberspace

Aide Esu

doi:10.13189/sa.2017.050303

Abstract

Several recent works have examined the relationship between social media and social movements in the latest cycle of protest. The article examines how media activism provides a cross-fertilising communication process by shaping a cosmopolitan imagination. First the article proposes the cases of Adbuster and Avaaz, as two examples of media activism, equally engaged in changing the state of the world. The similarities and the differences between the two case studies are highlighted in order to understand how a cosmopolitan imagination, as a new challenge to the global information society, is constructed. Second, I will explore how action shapes an online community, bypassing state borders and takes on a form that shares visions, actions and strategies and develops a new common language, representing a balance between two sets of tensions: the politics of universalism versus the acknowledgement of difference and the responsibility for action.

Highlights

In the recent cycle of protest, social researchers have paid great attention to social movements and social media links
Following the idea of a connective logic of action, Bennett and Segerberg are more inclined to see the relevance of social media activism as the mirror of the growing individualisation and personalisation related to the decline of traditional parties [10]
Media activism will respond to individual organisational needs rather than acting as an active content player of social mobilisation; the logic of connective action pays more attention to the organisational dimension rather than the cultural transformation generated by the collective action [10]

Summary

Introduction

In the recent cycle of protest, social researchers have paid great attention to social movements and social media links. Born in 1989 as one of a series of online campaigns of critical consumption, in June 2011 Adbuster played a pivotal role in diffusing the hashtag #OccupyWallStreet This call for action capitalised on past activities, such as campaigns and networking platforms set up by Adbuster and the World Social Forums. Adbuster and Avaaz might be defined as forums for media activism, which are engaged in changing the state of the world The discussion of those two cases aims to understand how media activism creates a challenging environment for a cosmopolitan imagination in the global information society and how this cosmopolitan imagination contributes to the symbolic and cultural dimension of social media activism. The last section brings into discussion the concepts of cultural citizenship, cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan imagination in order to understand if the two case studies might be considered as emblematic expressions of an emergent social phenomenon of our late modernity

Adbuster and Avaaz

Media Activism and Public Sphere

Media Activism and Cosmopolitan Imagination