Online Mediation of Minority Dissent

Abstract

Often marginalized from government services and markets and with limited access to mainstream media, the expansion of the reach of the Internet to previously underrepresented sectors inspires an examination of the place of online media for minorities, and in turn the role of these new actors, in shaping the future of media. In the Philippines, minority groups have recently developed online narratives, discursive spaces and productions in websites, blogs and social networking sites that allow them to bypass traditional distribution systems to articulate their respective struggles. This article engages ‘Buechler’s historical-dialectical-structurational approach’ in analyzing the interdependence between these activist online media practices and the local, national, and global enabling and constraining structures that surround online cultural activism. Through an analysis of case studies representing ethnic, ethno-religious and sexual minorities in the Philippines, the article shows that minority groups’ online political mobilization strategies are influenced by the historical, cultural and social circumstances and global power dynamics that surround their respective struggles and online activism. This situated analysis veers away from presenting minorities as mere recipients of technology but as online political activists creatively working their way through multiple structures and opportunities that come with online mediation.