By Annabelle Linders

On February 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida experienced a school shooting, leaving 17 students and staff dead. In response to this tragedy, 28 survivors founded March for Our Lives (abbreviated as MFOL), a non-profit dedicated to preventing gun violence in the United States, with a focus on school shootings. , they registered 50,000 new voters on a tour across the USA and registered another 800,000 people to vote in the midterm elections on National Voter Registration Day. Although it is difficult to determine how much of an effect they had on the 2018 midterm election, it is notable that this midterm had the highest ever youth voter turnout, with an increase of ; there were also 46 NRA-backed incumbent candidates who lost their seats.

MFOL has used various forms of alternative media in their activism, including social media, speeches to legislative assemblies, and interviews on national television. They have implemented various tactics and forms of DIY media. They have used ‘price tag buttons’ with the amounts donated by the NRA to state legislators. They have also created a ‘Color For Our Lives’ colouring book and they wrote a song performed during their march in Washington in March 2018, and published with open submissions from supporters across the US. Most notably, they have encouraged the use of homemade protest signs at their rallies across the country, which have included satirical messages, quotes from activists, and anti-gun-violence slogans.

The price tag buttons feature the amount per state that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has donated to legislators divided by the number of students in that state. For example, the calculates the price per student to be $1.05 and includes the names and donation amounts for five politicians. The central themes present are the commoditization of students by politicians, as well as critiques of the NRA. These are shown through activists using their bodies as a medium in combination with these price tags, as they satirically present themselves as objects that politicians and the NRA negotiate with. The text reading “Florida politicians who receive NRA blood money” associates NRA donations with incentives for politicians to avoid stricter gun restriction, despite the frequent occurrences of mass shootings.

The protest signs featured many issues, as there have been thousands of handmade signs in cities across America. However, the most prominent one has been the young ages of protestors. This can be seen through connecting the sign to the person carrying it through text and symbols, using their bodies as a medium of protest as was the case with the price tags. An reads “I am the future pls [sic] protect me!!” on pink bristol board. Using ‘I’ language forces the reader to consider the 11-year-old protestor holding the sign.

Second, the theme of depicting a choice of ‘the right to life’ versus ‘the right to guns’ which challenges primarily the NRA’s protection of the second amendment. This argument is used often in challenging the NRA, politicians, or the general public to consider which option is more important; often tie this notion back to the identity of the protester with language such as “When you right to own a gun outweighs my right to live, there is a problem”.

Stoneman Douglas High School’s Drama Club wrote a song entitled “Shine”, which was performed at the March 2018 rally in Washington. The song highlighted resilience in the face of gun violence and government inaction toward youth activism. Their lyrics go as the following “together we have the power to change the world around us”, and “we refuse to be ignored by those who will not listen”.

In the context of MFOL, have been used by Mainstream media to shift the focus away from gun violence and toward “the identities of the protestors”. Chronotopes are used by media to bring an event or movement closer to their audience; for example, CBC Ottawa might interview an athlete from Ottawa at the Olympics to make Ottawans more interested in the event through this connection. The use of the chronotope by Mass media in their coverage of the MFOL showed the sympathetic approach towards protestors taken by mainstream American media.

coverage of MFLO focused on the young ages of protestors, the commoditization of students, and government inaction toward youth activism. They highlighted signs that focused on the age of the attendees, such as a sign that read “am I next?”. They also showed and explained the price tags, juxtaposing them with the response from Senator Marco Rubio, whose quote was presented as quite apathetic towards MFOL. They used a chronotype in the form of an interview with Stoneman Douglas’ school newspaper photographer which provided another connection between the movement and the young age of those involved. They noted at the end of the segment that many protesters were still not old enough to vote, again referencing their age.

included many shots of protest signs, including one held by a young child which read “Not One More”, alluding to the ‘Enough is Enough’ slogan. However, the focus of their coverage was on the speeches of activists, including Edna Chavez who said that she “learned to duck from bullets before [she] learned how to read”. This quote once again emphasizes mainstream media’s focus of the young age of those in attendance.

focused on two interviews, one with MFOL founder David Hogg and one with pro-gun survivor Kyle Kashuv. They allocated 50% more speaking time to Kashuv, a conservative activist challenging MFOL’s agenda. They also covered which celebrities were performing at the rally, which none of the other news networks mentioned in more than one line.

about this protest used the words young, youth, teenager, or child many times in their coverage. All the photos featured in their article included either price tag buttons or handmade signs. They also included a chronotope of Lucia Smith, age 6, holding a sign that read “Your right to rifles, my right to life, choose”. This reminds the audience of the age of the protesters. Although Smith was protesting near the US Embassy in Spain rather than in the US, the photo of a young girl protesting paired with details about her life creates a connection between the movement and the viewer.

Three of the four networks placed emphasis on the age of protesters, a theme that is also found in the handmade posters. However, the other critique of the NRA such as the commoditization of students and government inaction were not dominant over the mainstream media. The DIY media of the protestors created a more sympathetic image of MFOL protesters in mainstream media, but this positive attention was mostly driven towards the young age of protesters. The DIY media created a sympathetic audience but were not enough to deliver all of the protestors’ critiques and demands.

Annabelle Linders is a third-year student in the Public Affairs and Policy Management program, specializing in Communication Technology and Regulation. Annabelle has written about social and health policy as a staff writer for Kroeger Policy Review, a student publication at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, and is an executive member for AKCESS. She is from Halifax, Nova Scotia and enjoys painting and soccer in her free time.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Glue guns, not handguns appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Mariya Mubeen 

Protests and activism are always about a cause, or a change. It involves imagining the world as a better place, even if the ‘better’ changes from protest to protest. At the end of the day, protests represent a group of people coming together to change something and usually this involves the use of imagery, flags and symbology, to either enunciate the message of the protests better or to hold the protest to a standard. This article will be focusing on two fictional characters and their symbology as they relate to two respective protests, to argue that fictional characters and associated symbology, similar to memes, can be a valuable tool to associate within activism and protest efforts. They echo sentiments and encapsulate the woes of the protesters into a resonating cultural figure. The two characters/symbology of characters and their respective protests are as follows: Guy Fawkes mask, worn by V in by Moore and Lloyd, in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Joker, specifically from the movie, in the Lebanese protests. The guy Fawkes masks were also seen during the George Floyd protests, especially after the hacker group Anonymous made its appearance in the midst of the protests.

was a British soldier who was a part of the gunpowder plot in 1605 that was against the oppression of Roman Catholics in England. He was executed, but his legacy lived on in the Guy Fawkes mask that was designed by David Lloyd as a plot element in the popular graphic novel V for Vendetta. In the graphic novel, the mask is used by the mysterious V with anarchistic tendencies towards a fascist and oppressive political environment. In the graphic novel, V used to be held in a concentration camp by the totalitarian British government and eventually makes a bomb to set it ablaze and escape. He then spends his life plotting to kill the guards that survived, all while wearing the mask to remain anonymous. Because of this association with anonymity, anarchism and the ideology to stand up against and oppressive government, the Guy Fawkes Mask has showed up in many protests all around the world, usually those that are against wealth inequality and corrupt governments.

The Occupy Wall Street movement was a movement started in New York city to protest economic and social inequality, corruption and the influence of corporation on the American government. The movement spread all across the globe as these issues transcended geographical boundaries. The OWS became one of the most popular places that the Guy Fawkes Mask started being used in the context of protests. It during the OSW and even after. It also became a recognizable symbol of the hacktivist group Anonymous and was used widely during the 2020 BLM protests as well. Masks embodied a few different sentiments that the protesters felt.

Firstly, the mask provided them with anonymity from surveillance cameras, media and the police, thus protecting their identity as they protested the authority. The Guy Fawkes Mask was primarily used for anonymity by V as well. Second, the mask also embodied V’s discontent with the oppressive government, a sentiment echoed in the protests as they protested the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the corrupt as the people suffered. Finally, the masks’ ubiquitous use strike fear into the authority. As large groups of people showed up wearing them, there was a sense of eeriness to the protesters and made onlookers (the police, the media and the authority that inevitable consumed the media). This is again associated with the character V’s way of intimidating the authority as he slowly chipped away at the guards. The symbology of the mask incited fear into those that perpetuated the corruption and inequality that day to day people experienced. These three elements of the Guy Fawkes Mask were used to encapsulate the wants of the protestors, to safely be able to tell their woes, to represent a cause and to show their power in numbers to scare the despotic ruling class.

The Joker is a very famous DC comics villain who is Batman’s long-term nemesis. He is often depicted as an insane serial killer that enjoys torturing people and terrorizing Gotham City. The new Joker movie takes a different take on the character. In the movies, before he became known as the Joker, Arthur Fleck was a comedian with a disorder that caused him to laugh at in appropriate times and depended on social services for the medication due to poverty. Over the course of the movie, changes in the political system that slashed social services, maltreatment from folks of higher classes (he is attacked by businessmen who work for a wealthy corporation) cause unfortunate ripple effects in his social life. Feeling isolated from those her loves, betrayed by the system and powerless to change any of it, Arthur is slowly nudged onto a violent path.

Around the time this movie was released, had taken to the streets to protest corruption, economic inequality and the dropping standards of living. Protesters were stirred due to the unnecessary sectarian divides in politics and burning forests that could not be maintained because the ruling class had been lining their pockets instead of investing in the welfare of the country. Due to similar feelings of loss of dignity and neglect from those in power, the Lebanese protestors identified with his plight and donned the face paint themselves. Walls were filled with art or Joker wearing the Lebanese flag on his shirt and Lebanese protesters with joker face paint flocked to the streets. Lebanese artists photoshopped him into images from the protest.

The image of Joker embodies three ideas that resonated with the Lebanese. First, it (quite literally) gives a face to the downtrodden. The face of the Joker is embodied by all those that came out to protest. That irrespective of who they are and what sect they belong to, they are all experiencing the same thing, the same issues that the Joker did. They have all lost their dignity, irrespective of who they are. Secondly, it embodies the feeling of powerlessness. The idea of being abandoned by their government, the entity that was responsible to take care of them. The same sentiment experienced by Arthur under the political environment of Gotham City and the concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite as the city devolved into crime and squalor. Finally, it is a representation of the same downtrodden being forced into ugly means to survive because of the way the system is built. The Lebanese people were forced to turn out in masses to protest and sometimes the protests turned violent as people clashed with the police. Similarly, Joker was forced into violent actions as he slowly lost his grip on sanity due to a lack of medication. In both cases, the trail of chaos leads directly to a greedy elite class, in Gotham it is the Wayne Corporation and in Lebanon it is the politicians and its affiliates.

These cases are not the only ones that express the use of fictional characters and symbology to express their views. There’s the that is often used by white supremacist and the Blue Lives Matter counter ‘movement’ (for lack of a better word), an anti-hero who often killed his victim, thus implying that the police were willing to do the same. The symbol of the Punisher was widely displayed by police in the form of bandanas or flags, disseminating the chilling prospect that those who opposed them would be killed. Another example is the three fingered salute from Hunger Games, a fictional symbol of protest against the elites living in the Capitol with excess and opulence, being used in the this year to fight for democracy. These fictional characters and their symbology are multipurpose and multi-faceted, which make them a valuable tool, both use physically in the form of body protests by using masks and face paint.

The symbols are immediately recognizable and therefore act as a visual tool to recruit those individuals that resonate with the message and alienate those that do not. This helps protestors build a visual brand and expedite recruitment for the activism as those that identify with the symbol in the context of the protest will be willing to rally behind it. Due to the versatility and visual nature of the symbols, it is easy to disseminate in different formats, like facemasks for the Guy Fawkes masks or face paint and graffiti for the Joker. A protest’s views can be encapsulated into one visually striking symbol that can then be printed and painted on walls, stickers, flags, posters and published online. They are similar to memes that they retain a similar polyvocality and multimodality. People resonate with the ideas of fictional characters and symbology, irrespective of geographic bounds, making it easier to boost their view.

Mariya Mubeen is a fourth year Communications and Media studies student. She has a passion for storytelling, writing, photography and illustration . In her free time, she likes playing video-games and taking care of her plants.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Fictional characters and their symbology as a powerful tool for activist expressions appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Oriana Santana Macias

“” is a recurrent phrase that has captivated the focus of Latin American feminist activism. The region includes 5 of the 12 countries with the highest rate of femicide in the world. According to throughout January 2019, in 15 Latin American countries, there were about 282 femicides. . Thus, while femicide is a global human rights concern, Latin Americans were the first to express the political strength to strive for equality, justice, visibility, and ultimately terminate the rampant impunity of these human rights violations.

For the past years, a social movement in various countries of Latin America has mobilized themselves to demand the end to violence against women because, despite the measures taken by governments and the efforts of human rights protectors, the number of victims confirms how far the eternal issue of femicide is from being resolved. One of the main movements that initially started in Argentina in 2015 and now further has spread across several Latin American countries and gained worldwide recognition is the “” movement. “Not one [woman] less” is a Latin American feminist movement, which descended from perceptions such as “we have had enough of femicides” and aims to denounce ““. The feminist movement broke onto the global political scene in 2015, when the streets of the world’s central cities were crowded with thousands of women denouncing the various forms of violence to which they are exposed daily. This article demonstrates the relevance of exposure of femicide through the “Ni Una Menos” feminist movement.

Thus, when interpreting the “Ni Una Menos” movement’s communicative landscape, it is evident that it popularized the assumption that social media has been the principal tool to amplify the voices of the activists. This conventional approach is evident in various headlines, such as; ““, “” and ““.

Although social media has been employed as a tool, it is not fundamentally the central mechanism that shed light on the femicide issue. However, the “Ni Una Menos” movement’s coverage was subjugated to a spectacle that dehistoricized and decontextualized the movement by excluding historical, political, and national contexts. Therefore, many forms of alternative media that were not technological and key for the protests were neglected due to this technological emphasis on broadcasting.

Media Coverage

The coverage of “Ni Una Menos” movement from its origin in 2015 up to 2020 reveals a standard framing overpowered by the ‘Technological Sublime’ discussed by scholars such as and . This utopian aspiration is evident in the way mainstream news coverage has followed a model that idealizes as having the sole capacity to have influenced the region’s political and social landscape. A technologically utopian view of technology has the bedrock for the reporting of the feminist movement. Countless articles about “Ni Una Menos” focus on and thus pushing women’s rights to the top of the agenda. This utopian approach describes the movement through social media itself instead of concentrating on the movement’s complexity. For instance, articles emphasize Twitter and use hashtags as headlines such as , , , and headlines that include “” and Twitter Feminist Revolution. Similar to the way how technological utopianism was present in the coverage of other movements such as the Arab Spring when media “”, the “Ni Una Menos” movement also was promoted and displayed as “media spectacles” and ““.

Mass media consistently portrayed social media platforms as subjects, as the single center of the whole movement instead of shedding light on the issue. Thus, the activists of the movement are presented as the object of the social media and given less importance. For instance, they would state that ““.

tells us that the external coverage of recent movements reveals how they are now defined by their tools rather than the causes themselves, meaning that social media tends to be glorified while the cause’s importance is dismissed. Although digital media has been involved in a particular limited manner, it is essential to look at other types of non-digital media and consider how they reveal the complexity of the movement and provide a complete interpretation of how this movement has progressed. For example, the fundamental media of communication for the “Ni Una Menos” movement has been face-to-face interactions in public spaces. The movement has also managed to impact public opinion, such as securing the authorities’ attention and triggering institutional and normative changes, by using the . The use of , such as gathering over in the capital Mexico City at the Plaza del ZĂłcalo and the crowd of women packed into the historic square of . Similar to the when tens of thousands of people who generally depended on public transit refused to ride the city’s buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest over the bus system’s policy of racial segregation, women, in support of “Ni Una Menos,” from all walks of life were absent from public transportation, workplaces and the streets all over the country; for example, in Mexico, they did “,” where women stayed home from work or school so society can feel the impact of the absence of women. This followed with pictures being circulated of nearly empty college classrooms, bus seats, and metro cars with only men. The public space also provides a strong irony since women are typically not safe in public. Thus, being conspicuously absent from public space calls for worldwide attention. The revolutionary technology was not the main force behind the protests; rather, it was the social, political and cultural discussions and gatherings in public.

Bodies were also engaged in the protest, and they were sites of contestation. The body’s role in a movement is not simply about the body or the flesh but also related to what is called ““. One of the most prominent examples is the performance of “” (A rapist in your path) conceived in 2019 by the Chilean feminist collective Las Tesis. Groups of women worldwide began to replicate the movement themselves and adapt it to their context, from Argentina to France and India. This performance did not gain recognition by solely being online but instead it utilized the body and the public space by involving “”. But most importantly, something that made the embodiment unique was the emphasis on the oppressor; it directly states, “the rapist IS you.” It is intending to enact some of the transformative theories of the feminist perspective, in this case, explicitly referring to rape as a, which derives from traces of the in the privileges and social inequalities that characterize the context in which these acts of violence are taking place. It is holding accountable those with authority by directly pointing and singing at them. Therefore, using different media, the women were able to visualize their claims and find a way to appear in the public sphere, which allowed them to demand their right to be recognized as equals and call for action combating .

To conclude, the technological utopian lens does not function when understanding the social movement “Ni Una Menos,” since instead of showing the historical and political complexity and the material progress, it merely portrays this story of . However, despite the coverage, the movement has shown its prime triumphs. It has been successful in pushing women’s rights across the region and accomplished a particular significant outcome, which is transforming people’s perception of femicides by revealing the injustices and the cause of the violence associated with the. But first and foremost, it has sparked a sense of hope in Latin America in pursuit of gender equality.

Oriana Santana Macias () is a fourth-year student pursuing a Double Major in Communication & Media Studies and Political Science at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. She is currently working at The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, in , which mobilizes social sciences and humanities research to address emerging economic, societal and knowledge necessities for Canada and is the Project lead at a non-profit organization called The Vision Movement, where she produces content to amplify the voices of womxn. Her studies at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ consist of two international internships; CMTS World Media Internship (2019) in Vietnam, supported by the School of Journalism and Communication and Virtual External Relations Internship (2020) in Colombia. Additionally, Oriana was chosen from the Communication and Media program to present her research paper at the . She aspires to develop a career in the domains of human rights, media, and international relations.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Why a hashtag isn’t enough for a feminist revolution: The “Ni Una Menos” movement appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

Jami E McElrea

India is one of the fastest growing economies, yet corruption is rampant. More than of Indians have bribed government officials in 2019. In 2010 transparency international ranked India out of 178 countries. Corruption has a huge economic and social cost in India and has created a system of mistrust between the citizens and the government. Moreover, widespread petty corruption means individuals will feel powerless to fight it, and so then they become used to bad services and paying bribes to receive them. Citizens within India have become increasingly frustrated by the corruption elected officials and bureaucrats engage in. This exasperation with the system has led to ordinary citizens leveraging their voices through , an innovative social media outlet that provides direct action tools to diminish corruption within the county. The internet has become a key rallying point for mass movements against corruption as it gives citizens a voice to share their experiences where previously they did not have the opportunity, and to use their experiences to contribute to policy advocacy against corruption. IPAB (I paid a bribe), a social movement in India, is one of those resistant actions that were facilitated by the Internet and which advocated for procedural reform to mitigate corruption and to educate the public. The movement has found success through the effective use alternative media, its organizational structure, and its ability to influence public policy.

The original IPAB website was founded by the Janaagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy, a nonprofit based in . The website asks citizens to anonymously report incidents of bribe giving, as well as amounts of money transferred. The movement focuses on everyday forms of petty crimes or retail corruption; for example, the bribes paid to obtain birth certificates or driver’s licenses. The site also gives citizens the opportunity to report times where they refused to pay bribes, or when they came across honest officials who did not ask for them. The Janaagraha Centre then makes policy recommendations that are grounded in the advice and experiences of Indian citizens. Since its creation, the site has had over 15 million visitors.

IPAB takes a two-pronged approach by advocating for procedural reform that lowers corruption and educates the public. IPAB recommends changes for how public services are delivered to reduce . They also educate citizens on their legal entitlement to public services as well as how to avoid and resist bribes. Their mission is not to target specific politicians or bureaucrats, but rather to amplify the voices of citizens to highlight systematic patterns of corruption and to improve governance. IPAB’s focus on public education is highlighted by the sections of the website that inform the public on measures. In the ask Raghu section, there is a Q and A portion where users seek advice from a former senior level civil servant. There has been high engagement with 1050 questions answered, which is indicative of the success of the website and the movement. The website provides updated news related to anti-corruption efforts, as well as a how-to section that explains legal facts and documents on more mundane but practical matters encountered by citizens. The more educated citizens are on their rights, and how to navigate governmental bureaucracies, the less likely they are to fall prey to corruption.

In terms of the productivity of the movement, IPAB’s use of alternative media has effectively contributed to the strength of the social movement. The IPAB website is not only exposing corruption but providing in depth analysis for how to improve the and to reduce corruption. While the Indian government is sympathetic to anti-corruption measures, it is with the help of a nongovernmental organization such as IPAB amplifying the voices of citizens, that has been effective in reducing corruption. The content created and posted on the IPAB’s site is responsive to the communities it serves, in this case Indian citizens, by providing user friendly, informative, and detailed content on anti-corruption efforts.

The organization structure of IPAB is also key to its success as a social movement. Mainstream media institutions often aim to maximize profit or use advertising for its main source of revenue in a way that “virtually always structured in accord with and to help reinforce society’s defining hierarchical social and is generally controlled by and controlling of other major social institutions, particularly corporations”. Therefore, if an organization is committed to altering society and pushing for positive change, it cannot hold the same incentive structure as the mainstream media. IPAB circumvents these issues of hypocrisy since it is a nonprofit. While it does pay its employees to ensure high quality deliverables, the goal of the organization is to eliminate unethical transactions. Its decision making is not influenced by profit incentives as that would be antithetical to its goal. IPAB has a coherent organizational structure as the Janaagraha organization employs a full-time staff for web maintenance, content creation verification, policy advocacy and overall strategy . The centralized structure of the organization provides strong foundational support for the anti-corruption campaigns through the online bribe reporting platform. With the platform, the campaign utilizes its highly decentralized citizen base for its reporting mechanism which creates a stronger. The success of this movement in India has earned international acclaim, and the various versions have diffused to 17 other countries including Bhutan, Pakistan, and Kenya. IPAB is also endorsed by high level government . The practical organization structure of IPAB is integral to its accomplishments as a social movement.

In addition, key to IPAB being a successful social movement is its ability to advocate for actual solutions and to create systematic change. The Janaagraha Centre has successfully worked closely with the government to change administrative processes to mitigate corruption. For example, IPAB provided a 40-page report to the transport department that summarizes patterns of bribery connected to transport and provides corresponding recommendations. The report thoroughly tracks administrative processes, fees of procedures, and the legal requirements of obtaining a permit of . Grounded in citizen input, it also alerts readers of zones in the process which are more prone to graft. IPAB not only alerts the government of instances of bribery but recommends concrete measures specific to departments to reduce bribe taking. Specifically, to the department of Transport, IPAB recommended replacing manual driving tests with simulator tests and requiring departments to wear identity badges. They also recommended the medium-term reform to remove the region-specific nature of transport offices, which introduces competition to improve services. Another example of IPAB’s success is when it changed processes in land registration to reduce corruption. Traditionally citizens had to register the sale and purchase of land and obtain approval from the land registration office within the jurisdiction where the parcel is located. Reports to the IPAB website indicate that bribery is higher on the periphery of the city rather than the . This finding prompted the Janaagraha Centre to advocate for citizens to be able to register at any regional office, not just the one corresponding to their land parcel. After several months of advocacy directed at the department of stamps and registration, they were successful. The ability for IPAB to achieve its goals and provide policy solutions for corruption illustrates its effectiveness as a movement.

IPAB is a movement that advocates for procedural reform to mitigate corruption and enhance public education. It has found success through its correct use of alternative media, its strong organizational structure, and its ability to influence public policy. The utilization of citizen voices through Ipaidabribe.com, is innovative in battling corruption, which otherwise can devastate social and economic communities. The success of IPAB’s advocacy serves as an example of how alternative media can be used to make positive change.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] I Paid a Bribe: How a crowdsourcing digital campaign took on corruption appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

Introduction

by Ghadah Alrasheed

With the outbreak of COVID-19, life feels surreal and strange as our sheltered world has been overbalanced. The ensuing circumstances, however, have also thrown into sharp relief social inequality, inefficient governance and racial disparity as we have seen clearly who had been the most impacted by COVID-19 . The disproportionate impact of the virus has shown how important for people and institutions to reshuffle their systems and think of alternative visions of future. It has also become more crucial than ever to locate and rediscover media and tactics that aid activists in amplifying their voices and getting more attention to their causes even when circumstances block access to previously available media. These activist tactics and media do not need to be technological, but they can combine what is possible in a certain socio-historical context. They do not need to exist as technical artefacts but can materialize as forms of social organization that can help create and harness collective action.

The five articles in this issue emerged from COMS 3411 Alternative Media and Social Activism class, which was taught at the School of Journalism and Communication at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University in Fall 2020. Approaching a diverse array of movements and activist actions, the articles reflect on the communicative landscape of each case and explore both their contexts and communication opportunities: ranging from the farmers’ protests and I Paid a Bribe campaigns in India to Ni una menos in Latin America against gender-based violence to imagery and symbolism in Lebanon’s 2019 protests and March for our Lives in the United States against gun legislation.

There have been competing interpretations of what constitutes ‘alternative media’ but the contributors take a broad approach to alternative media as sites that stand in opposition to social and political oppressions and mainstream media’s narratives. They look at a wide range of alternative media, including imageries, bodies, zines, leaflets, online campaigns, speeches, interviews on mainstream media, gatherings in public space and other sites and means of activism. While exploring these media, they provide a critical assessment of the implications of the rise of digital and social media and of techno utopian visions of new media’s role in changing societies and creating revolutions. Through their assessments of the various activism sites and tools, the articles capture communication in its complex and nuanced shape and highlight human agency, eschewing technological determinism when exploring power and resistance.

• Bread and butter, but at what cost? – A glimpse Into the Indian farmers’ protest movement
• I Paid a Bribe: How a crowdsourcing digital campaign took on Twitter
• Why a hashtag isn’t enough for a feminist revolution: The “Ni Una Menos” movement
• Fictional characters and their symbology as a powerful tool for activist expressions
• Glue guns, not handguns

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Issue 6: Current activism and alternative media appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.

By Keya Shirali

At the time I began synthesizing my research for writing up this article about some of the media attention and government retaliation the Indian farmers’ protest movement has garnered, it was still mid-December 2020. Now in the midst of February 2021, there has been an influx of rapidly developing information and updates. From international public figures like Rihanna and Meena Harris tweeting in support of the movement to several Indian celebrities rushing to defend their government’s inexcusable actions in the false guise of patriotism – many have fuelled what is now being dubbed a proverbial “Twitter war”. The following article further addresses the extent of the Indian government’s censorship and penalization of its citizens that use their voices to speak out against the ongoing injustices. That being said, one such voice is that of Disha Ravi, the 22-year-old climate activist who was arrested recently for merely “”. This document is the same protest toolkit that led the Delhi Police to file an FIR against its creators when Greta Thunberg tweeted about it earlier this month and arguably amplified the discourse about this topic in Western mass media.

In the month of December 2020, when a swarm of protesters gathered outside the Vancouver offices of Facebook, it was not to dispute the typical policy or privacy-related controversies that the company has often faced lawsuits for. This specific protest was motivated by an act of censorship, a recurrent theme surrounding Facebook’s censorial practices, and a topic oft-debated amongst citizens and government officials alike. The cause that the protesters were fighting for in this instance was to bring the corporation to hold accountability for censoring posts that show support for, demand change, and bring light to the ongoing farmers’ protests in India that have begun to expand globally in their influence.

​This movement is also a real-time study of the shape that alternative media and social activism take in the current era, and how some of the protest strategies used by this cause resonate strongly with past and other ongoing social and political movements. who is legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization stated that â€œindividuals using hashtags such as #ISupportFarmers or #Sikh have been finding that their posts have been either removed from those platforms or censored [and that] this isn’t the first time that the hashtag #Sikh has been clocked on Instagram and Facebook”.

Governmental counterattacks have been executed with verbal charges, with ministers labeling said farmers as “leftist” and “Maoist elements”, as well as “goons” and “anti-nationals”. However, slandering the farmers is not the only tactic used by politicians; there is also a great deal of physical assault and police brutality hurled upon protesters under several circumstances. As evidenced in countless images at the protest sites, while in one instance, armed services have “”; another image published by the BBC depicts a paramilitary policeman swinging his baton at an elderly Sikh man who appears to be unarmed.

​Consequently, Facebook’s censorial actions create another avenue that allows the Indian government to further oppress the voices of its citizens. In relation to the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo, Egypt, an article featured in Wired mentions that even in states where governments are unable to employ physically violent strategies, in the digitized world they have adapted and have “”. When a militarized response incites further concerns regarding safety and possibly implicates a government in serious human rights breaches, that government then finds other means of limiting the channels through which the public can voice their agitation. When combined, Facebook’s disputed censorship policies and the force of the Indian government work against its famer communities and citizen protesters. Hence, this is a demonstration of how state and corporate actors in this instance are antagonistic forces attempting to subvert the movement’s narrative, by defaming, downplaying, or destroying its objectives.

To the movement’s benefit, the expression of this cause is not limited to social media, and it extends itself to the concrete world using in-person, bodily protesting styles as well. In discussing the limitations of technology during protests, Malcolm Gladwell engages with issues surrounding racial injustice in the United States in the 20^th century, mentioning that the “required the participation of tens of thousands of people who depended on public transit to get to and from work each day”. This is prevalent throughout the farmers’ protestations, for  conjures up a similar visual, with the article stating that since “late November, tens of thousands of Indian farmers have marched to New Delhi and blocked the highways leading into the city” as a means to speaking out against the passing of the bills in Parliament, all of which drastically affect their livelihoods.

In the same article, Gladwell critiques particularly in relation to Facebook, by stating that an online post “succeeds not by motivating people make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice”. Gladwell does proceed to explain that the value of weaker ties in social media activism is beneficial in obtaining and dispersing information to and from larger contexts, in that engaging with platforms that mass communicate resources and messages regarding social issues could be deemed more productive as opposed to a closer network where personal acquaintances might be potentially uninformed about the issue at hand.

As for Gladwell’s point regarding sacrifice, it is said that at least â€œâ€, with an additional 25 dying due to the harsh cold, one by suicide, as well as “at least 10 people [who] died in separate road accidents as their travelled from Punjab and Delhi states to participate in the protests”. Despite the efforts of corporations and governments to censor the voices of the public over the Internet, the cause has managed to garner the attention that it has because of the visceral sacrifices of the farmers, most of which are leading to not just the loss of their livelihoods, but also their lives eventually.

The reason why the bodily presence of the farmers at protest sites ultimately trumps the level of impact caused potentially caused by social media outreach is that resistance that is created via the occupation of public spaces has profound effects on its delivery. The Habib Borguiba street (Tunis), Central Hong Kong, and Tahrir Squares (Egypt) marches bear testament to the collective power created by the people’s unity, which allows people to forge themselves into the political sphere and in the public eye.

Of course, social media arms the public with the ability to occupy the online public space, however, “ [and by] occupying public spaces with visible bodies, social movement presents itself vis-Ă -vis the power it seeks to challenge, symbolically and corporeally”. Therefore, the Indian farmers’ protest movement is not simply an entity that exists somewhere in the cloud of digital systems; it is a visceral experience that will be marked by the physical displacement, fatal deaths, and economic strifes faced by the agricultural community as a result of the government’s oversight. Hence, alongside the current wave of social media activism and public awareness initiatives, the message of the cause was delivered through a poignant use of bodily spaces that helped the movement garner public visibility.

In terms of media initiatives, the farmers’ movement is retaliating against skewed and false mainstream media representations through their own digital efforts as well. Reporters and media outlets have painted them with propagandistic depictions, and an individual named Vimal Kumar Sharma expresses that idea in a statement that the “”.

However, the farmers are resilient to the slander and have consequently initiated media campaigns that will aid them in owning their narrative. â€œTractor to Twitter” is one such farmers’ initiative with severe guidelines so as to avoid publishing online content that might garner controversies. Additionally, a recently created farmers’ collective social media cell introduced a web conference to discuss the three farm bills and the protest against them, and declared that it would be hosted on the web-conferencing platform Zoom and would “”, making the updates widely accessibly and opening a channel for collective engagement.

Despite efforts to create disengagement from both corporate and state actors, as well as propagandized mainstream media portrayals, the farmers and other protesters in support of the cause continue to voice their struggles via claiming visible spaces with bodies through in-person protesting. However, they have also adapted to the digital sphere by adopting numerous media channels such as social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, as well as web conference through Zoom to claim control over their own narrative. All of these factors have aided the movement to become what may possibly be the â€œâ€ so far.

Keya Shirali ( )is a fourth-year student pursuing a Combined Honours Bachelor’s degree, double majoring in Communication & Media Studies and Film Studies at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Film Society, publishes regularly on her garnering thousands of monthly views, and has bylines in multiple publications such as ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´’s official newspaper The Charlatan, Her Campus ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, Literary Heist, Obscur Magazine, The Times of India Official and Readers’ Blog, and ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Awards and Financial Aid Office’s CU Money Blog. She aspires to forge a career path in film production, especially in screenwriting.

The post [Millennials’ Voices] Bread and butter, but at what cost? – A glimpse into the Indian farmers’ protest movement appeared first on ALiGN: Alternative Global Network Media Lab.