Abstract
Though the idea of horizontal networked, bottom-up communication processes is present in many discussions of the role of digital media in the context of social movements, not many studies point to the processes behind the creation and publication of authorial testimonial content by regular people, that is, content produced in situ at the heat of the moment whose author is neither media nor political actors. Through 10 interviews structured according to Proulx and colleagues’ ICT social appropriation framework (2017), with users that have created and published such type of content on Twitter with the hashtag #ForaTemer in the aftermath of Rousseff’s impeachment in Brazil in 2016.This paper discusses why and how ordinary people take media matters in their own hands as a form of political action, even though it may apparently be dressed up with different communicative functions, such as emulating the pretense neutrality and objectivity of media discourse. Findings point to a convergent media critique as main motivator, followed by the aim to connect the absent and to scrutinize police abuse. The aggregated result seems to point to a manifestation of collective intelligence, characterized by swarm-like logics and alienation from the complete result of the #ForaTemer publications.Research funded by CONICYT-PCHA/Doctorado Nacional/2016-21160426.
Highlights
Dilma Rousseff was Brazil’s first female president
Though the idea of horizontality of networks, bottom-up communication processes is present in the foundations of many discussions of the role of digital media –and in particular social media– in the context of social movements and street demonstrations (Bastos & Mercea, 2015; Condeza, Santos, Lizama & Vázquez, 2016; Juris, 2004; Santos & Condeza, 2017; Sey & Castells, 2004) not many studies point to the processes behind the creation and publication of authorial testimonial content by regular people -excluded activists, politicians, celebrities and organizations in general
This research adds evidence to a political significant appropriation of ICT as a means to fight back media bias against social movements in Brazil, by organized groups –such as notorious mediactivists of Mídia NINJA– but by ordinary citizenry as well
Summary
Dilma Rousseff was Brazil’s first female president. Elected in 2010, following two mandates of party colleague Lula and reelected in 2014 by an extremely narrow margin, she would complete four consecutive presidential elections’ wins for Brazilian Worker’s Party (PT), the strongest left-oriented political party in the country. The increasingly mediatized society implies a digital ubiquity (Ganesh & Stohl, 2013) that lead to a sort of omnipresence of mobile digital technologies in the hands of ordinary citizens (Chouliaraki, 2010), which enables the creation of alternative registries of important events In such context, the value of alternative narratives as those created and/or circulated on social media is magnified, especially when accounting for such an important “out of the ordinary” event (Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke & Roberts, 1982) with national and international transcendence, since social crises as such are associated with both high uncertainty and high relevance, leading to a higher need for orientation (Weaver, 1980), pushing people to consult with alternative sources of information such as social media
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