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Networks, Movements and Technopolitics in Latin America pp 17–41Cite as

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Digital Media Practices and Social Movements. A Theoretical Framework from Latin America

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Abstract

Starting with the alternative digital media experiences that have taken place in the last two decades in Latin America, this chapter proposes a theoretical and methodological framework inspired by the critical tradition of participatory communication for social change as it developed in Latin America. The chapter is structured as follows. Firstly, we underline the latest framework of collective action that has characterized the new cycle of struggles in Latin America. Secondly, we delineate our proposal, which will consider three pivotal aspects of the process of appropriating and using digital media. Afterwards, we explore how the bonds that are formed between the media and the protagonists reflect a “new” community of reference distinguished by horizontal processes. Finally, we analyse how the net activism practice leads the participating people to experience a process of empowerment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Spanish Escuela Latinoamericana de Comunicación.

  2. 2.

    A fundamental episode that marked the end of citizen participation was the repression at the G8 protests in Geneva in 2001, with the murder of a young activist, Carlo Giuliani, by Italian police.

  3. 3.

    This co-option also involved a group of hackers who had helped create dozens of projects and virtual networks, which were then absorbed by defence and military intelligence departments through different companies for creating and managing espionage, surveillance, and remote arms control software.

  4. 4.

    Villeros are people who live in suburbs of large Latin American cities like Buenos Aires or Santiago del Chile. These working-class barrios and neighborhoods are excluded from all sorts of facilities in terms of education, culture, health, etc. Chavos banda are very young people, generally from rural, poor villages, who live like beggars in urban areas such as Oaxaca, Mexico City, Guadalajara. Cartoneros are people who make their living collecting and selling salvaged materials to recycling plants. This movement began in Argentina in 2003 and has since spread to countries throughout Latin America. Most of these people live under the shadow of the informal economy; they do not exist for nor are they represented by the ruling class.

  5. 5.

    “We, the ordinary, working people” was and still is the way in which the people of the Water and Life Defence Coordination Group in Cochabamba, Bolivia, describe themselves.

  6. 6.

    Trueque is the exchange of material or immaterial goods or services for other goods or services, and it is different from normal sale/purchase because money is not involved in the transaction. It is a pre-Hispanic custom common in many Latin American indigenous communities, and is now widespread in urban areas too.

  7. 7.

    Significant data in Latin America on the use of the Twitter and Facebook social networks can be found only for the period after the Spanish language versions were launched: 2008 for Facebook and 2009 for Twitter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Journalism I, University of Seville, Office D7, Americo Vespucio s/n Isla de la Cartuja, 41092, Seville, Andalusia, Spain

    Francisco Sierra Caballero

  2. Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Sciences and Humanities (CEIICH), National Autonomous University of Mexico, Torre II de Humanidades, 6º piso, Circuito Interior, Ciudad Universitaria, Delegación Coyoacan, 4510, Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico

    Tommaso Gravante

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  1. Francisco Sierra Caballero
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Correspondence to Francisco Sierra Caballero .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Francisco Sierra Caballero

  2. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Tommaso Gravante

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Caballero, F.S., Gravante, T. (2018). Digital Media Practices and Social Movements. A Theoretical Framework from Latin America. In: Caballero, F., Gravante, T. (eds) Networks, Movements and Technopolitics in Latin America. Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65560-4_2

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