Social Media Logics : Visibility and Mediation in the 2013 Brazilian Protests

This book offers a unique perspective on the Brazilian communication environment in the middle of its most serious political crisis after a military dictatorship. The 2013 protests were an important turning point in the political life of the country, and are often seen as the trigger of many communicational and political dynamics that have led to recent political events, such as the election of a far right wing president. Understanding the transformation of the communication environment at that moment, as well as its consequences, helps to explain what is happening in the country today. The books argument finds its foundations in the following: a systemic view of the communication environment, a conception of technology as structured and transformed by its use, and an understanding of communicational dynamics as an essential part of democratic systems. Drawing on both interviews with key actors in the protests and on analysis of a corpus of tweets, the book assesses the relationship between the use of social media and the formation of mainstream discourses surrounding the concept of mediactivism. It also investigates alternative paths of information made possible by the use of social media when new mediators emerge, going on to search for an understanding of the consequences of social media visibility dynamics on the construction of the common world. Nina Santos is a Post-doctoral fellow in Digital Democracy at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology, Brazil. She is also an Associate Researcher at the Centre d'Analyse et de Recherche Interdisciplinaires sur les Medias (Universite Paris II), France. Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures List of Tables Chapter 1: Introduction Theoretical Assumptions and Problematic Contributions of This Book PART I Chapter 2: A Meaningful Starting Point: The Experience of Managing Lula’s Facebook Page Chapter 3: Protests and Digital Communication: Issues on New Forms of Political Action The Emergence of a New Sociability Individual X Collective Actions Temporality and Spatiality of the Movements Online and Offline Overlaps Chapter 4: What Did 2013 Tell Us? Recent Political Developments in Brazil and Links with the 2013 Protests From a Non-partisan Movement to the 2018 Elections The Phenomenon of Fake News The Unmediated Leader Janaína Lima and the Cabinet 24/7 PART II Chapter 5: Why Twitter Matters From the Actor’s Discourse to Tweet Analysis: Our Methodological Approach The Actor’s Narrative Twitter’s Data Chapter 6: Mediation and Gatekeeping Challenges in a Social Media Environment Journalists and Social Media: Displacing the Value of Professional Mediation The Utopia of the Disintermediated: The Live, the Unedited, the Real Dilma Bolada Mídia Ninja Chapter 7: New Visibility Dynamics: Who and What Is Really Gaining Attention Retweeting as a Practice of Visibility Who’s Being Retweeted? Followers: Facilitators But Not Decisive to Gain Visibility on Twitter Hyperlinks: Where to and Where From: Twitter in a Hybrid Media System Alternative Media, Organizations, Political Parties and Media Repositories Social Media Mainstream Media Twitter’s Visibility Dynamics: What and Who Does It Favor? Chapter 8: Conclusion Mainstream Media Continue to Be Important Drivers of Conversation Yet Not as Before Twitter Is a New Space of Contestation of the Established Media System New Social Actors on the Streets and on Digital Networks With Social Media, Mediation Processes Have More Dimensions Rather Than Less Sociability Is Building a New Information Path to Visibility Final Remarks References Index