Kassandra Rothenstadt
reconfiguration of time and space,“ opening doors of perception and new spheres of action to mankind”( McLuhan & Carson 2003, p. 66‐67). The formation of the emotion‐action connection that is so essential to political engagement has been facilitated by the Internet and new media through their many affordances: widely accessible public sphere permitting to express one’ s views, connect with the likeminded and organize activist events, thereby lowering the threshold for political participation and, in turn, altering the power dynamics of participation. However, after twenty years of living with online media, it is clear that there is a need for a more nuanced view of digital technology than the celebratory assumptions that the Internet, credited with great democratising and liberating potential from disinformation and domination, is going to be the catalyst of change and an agent of glorious revolution.
Rather, the evidence implies that technological tools, irrelevant of their affordances, are embedded into the antagonistic and power matrix of contemporary society, thereby having no pre‐dertermined or in‐built effects or determinations. Beyond determinist or instrumental views of technology, it is useful to discern that the actual implications depend on contexts, power relations, individuals’ ability for autonomy, discernment and independent thought, which in turn shape the capacity for struggle and mobilization. The tensions in the ideological, political and economic structures of society create politics of dissent, rather than technical affordances per se. Thus, In addition to an in‐depth theoretical review of the existing literature, the research path that I will follow is to conduct qualitative and quantitative empirical studies with the aim of ascertaining, first, to what extent, then, activism has actually become‘ digital’ and what configurations of technical, social, and political skills were present in the Occupy protesters which enabled the movement to be formed and sustained. Second, how have‘ online mediascapes’ enabled or transmutated the exercise of power by means of ideologies and their associated subjectivities( but specifically, capitalist ideology, and how have these affected the way political dissent movements as is the Occupy have been framed and perceived( emotionally and cognitively). Finally, what implications do these changing landscapes of power involve not only for the way protest is done, but most importantly for the ethical‐existential conceptualisations of‘ authentic’ human existence as the ultimate human good. I plan to use critical discourse and content analysis methodologies, applying a triangulation method of interviews, observations, questionnaires and documents( web archives) of the movement.
Despite the study’ s relevance for a more nuanced understanding of the place of digital activism as well as of political emotion within a context of shifting landscapes of power, the study does entail a number of limitations. First, the conceptualisation and operationalisation of‘ emotion’ is challenging to define on its own, but the specific political emotions of indignation and moral outrage pose special difficulties. Second, the quantification of emotion in textual form is very complex and can have multiple interpretations, thus involving a certain degree of risk of misinterpretation. Third, similar problems are foreseen to be encountered with the concept of‘ authenticity,’ which can prove to be limiting and / or too broad and vague. Other unforeseen limitations must be factored in, such as interviewees’( non) compliance, issues of access to archives, structural constraints, etc.
References
Appadurai, A.( 1990) Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 7, pp. 295‐ 310.
Achbar, M. & Wintonick, P.( Directors).( 1992) Manufacturing Consent: Chomsky and The Media( Documentary film).
Australia, Finland, Norway, Canada: Zeitgeist Video. Agre, P.( 2002) Real‐time politics: The Internet and the political process. The Information Society, Vol. 18, pp. 311‐331. Bakardjieva, M.( 2009) The Internet in Everyday Life: Exploring the Tenets and Contributions of Diverse Approaches. In
Burnett, R, M. Consalvo and C. Ess( eds) The Handbook of Internet Studies. Wiley‐Blackwell. Beck, G.( 2011)“ What happened to Glenn on the O’ Reilly Factor?” [ online ] http:// www. glennbeck. com / content / show / 2011‐10‐17 /
Bershad, J.( 2011)“ Journalists allege censorship and violent treatment during Occupy Wall St. eviction.” [ online ] Mediaite. com. http:// www. mediaite. com / online / journalists‐allege‐censorship‐and‐violent‐treatment‐during‐occupywall‐street‐eviction /
Blair, R. J.( 1995)“ A cognitive developmental approach to morality: investigating the psychopath.” Cognition, Vol. 57, pp. 1 – 29.
Brundidge, J.( 2006)“ The contribution of the Internet to the heterogeneity of political discussion networks: Does the medium matter?” Paper presented at the International Communication Association Conference, Dresden, Germany.
Callan, E.( 1997) Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy. Oxford Political Theory, ed. D Miller, A Ryan. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
621