‘An original protest, at least’. Mediality and articipation

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have largely contributed to widening the gap between two ways of understanding social mobilisation. One focuses on its efficacy, understood in terms of influence on the political system. The other approach does not grasp mobilisation in reference to the a posteriori effects, but as what is happening here and now. Our question here is whether media can be considered as merely tactical factors for collective actions or whether their presence modifies the means/ends relationship of political participation and social mobilisation. What happens if, in the heat of the mobilisation, activists are unable to differentiate, in experiential terms, between mediation and the mobilisation goals? Marshall McLuhan’s infamous slogan ‘media is the message’ could be read as mediality prevailing over any other consideration, such as political mobilisation goals, following Scott Lash’s thesis (Lash, 2002) about contemporary societies. Before describing the way in which ICTs are taking part in contemporary social movements and analysing some of the empirical and theoretical consequences of such participation, some aspects of the complex relation between media and social participation – in the context of political collective action – will be discussed.