"Argentina"

ANNUNZIATA, ROCÍO; ARPINI, EMILIA; GOLD, TOMÁS; ZEIFER, BÁRBARA

Political Activism in the Era of the Internet

Plataforma Democrática

Lugar: San Pablo; Año: 2016; p. 36 - 110

This paper aims to explore the convergence between online and offline environments in the new forms of citizen participation in Argentina. This exploration considers three case studies: #NiUnaMenos mobilization, the Partido de la Red and the online petitions platform Change.org. In analyzing these three experiences we consider both mobilizations born of networks as platforms for participation in networks. After describing each of the experiences, we conclude on: the relevance of convergence or mutual empowerment between online and offline environments; the storytelling register that characterizes the online field and the importance of empathy; the relative role of negativity in the new forms of citizen participation as well as its meta-democratic features; the questioning of leadership and the parallel emergence of non-institutional leadership supported by pre-political capitals such as knowledge; the loss of relevance of the category of "social movements" to understand the forms of contemporary participation in which the role of the organizers is blurred. After a first moment of utopian enthusiasm with the potential of the new technologies of information and communication it has been verified that by themselves these are limited; but it is no less true that alone the action of more traditional organized actors is insufficient and invisible if it aspires to produce effects in the contemporary world ignoring the online field. It is in the convergence where the new actors of participation are born and grow today