Social movements and the use of social media: the Lyon Pour La Liberté case

Abstract

This text describes the communication structure of the French social movement Collectif Lyon Pour La Liberté from its creation in 2021 until the month of September in 2022. The first observations of the communication actions of Lyon Pour La Liberte revealed that the circulation of meanings did not only manifest itself as a product of mediatization, and took place in different media systems. In order to test such hypothesis it was necessary the development of a method focused on the analysis of intersystemic circulation (Carlón, 2020) supported by the evidential paradigm (Ginzburg, 1980) and by the analysis of correlations and contexts of discourses collected from the interaction channels of the collective. The theoretical framework that triggered the investigation includes theories such as mediatization (Verón, 2014), circulation of meanings (Boutaud & Verón, 2007; Carlón, 2018) and social movement studies (Jamison & Eyerman, 1991). From the research, it was possible to verify the use of groups on Telegram as the main channels of mobilization of Lyon Pour La Liberté and therefore the core of its communication structure, in addition to the use of circulation of meanings as a communication strategy by the Collective confirming the initial hypothesis. Finally, it was possible to observe significant changes in the organization of the Collective as an effect of the circulation, indicating its possible institutionalization.