Media Technologies and Social Movements: Present Challenges and Future Developments

在一个媒体泛滥的世界里，社会和政治抗议深受媒体做法和进程的影响，提出了关于社会运动行为者与不同媒体形式和技术之间的复杂关系的关键问题。随着网络2.0技术的发展，社交网站使用量的快速增长，以及最近影响欧洲和世界许多国家的动乱浪潮，这种关系在理解当前的社会变革中发挥了基础性作用，迫切需要调查和解决。学术界对这一话题的兴趣激增，特别是在最近几年。一些学者把焦点放在主流异议的构建上，并探讨了主流媒体如何影响、塑造和转化对立话语。其他人则研究了“另类媒体”的产生，并研究了信息如何在具有抵抗力的媒体网络中传播，从而创建了精心设计的意义系统。此外，许多学者将注意力集中在分析社会运动行为者如何以战术方式利用媒体和网络技术，以协调抗议努力，吸引潜在支持者的注意，创造抵抗空间，如抗议营地和活动。尽管该领域的研究迅速增多，但似乎缺乏一个致力于这一研究领域的跨学科讨论的统一空间。除此之外，我们还面临着学术界对媒体、运动和民主的理解与活动人士、政府智库和公民社会组织的观点之间的过度分裂。这一系列研讨会的目的不仅是通过促进跨学科对话和国际学术活动，而且通过在处于不同职业生涯阶段的学术研究人员与非学术民间社会行为者和政策制定者之间创造对话空间，来克服这种割裂现象。为此，研讨会系列旨在开发有意义的分析、理论和方法工具，这些工具也可以产生超出学术界的影响，使我们能够了解和研究不同社会、政治、文化和媒体环境中的媒体/运动动态。为了实现其目标，研讨会系列将组织六个为期两天的研讨会，讨论以下问题：1)研究媒体和运动--方法和途径2)社会运动和主流媒体：对立关系？3)社会运动和“他们的”媒体--超越定义探索过程？4)数字激进主义的过去和现在--通过观察旧的东西来理解新5)大众动员、抗议活动和网络2.0技术--理解跨文化差异6)社会运动和媒体--下一步是什么？激进主义、数据激进主义和监视。研讨会上介绍的所有书面或视听版本的论文都将上传到一个互动网站上，该网站的目的也是成为一个互动对话和合作的平台，供许多潜在的学者、活动家和公共部门从业人员访问。

In a media-saturated world, social and political protest is profoundly affected by media practices and processes, raising crucial questions on the complex relationship between social movement actors and different media forms and technologies. With the development of web 2.0 technologies, the rapid growth in the use of social networking sites, and the recent wave of unrest that has affected many countries in Europe and across the world, this relationship has come to play a fundamental role in the understanding of current societal transformations, and needs to be urgently investigated and addressed. Academic interest in this topic has proliferated especially in recent years. Some scholars have focused on the framing of dissent in mainstream and explored the ways in which mainstream media influence, shape and transform oppositional discourses. Others have instead investigated the production of 'alternative media' and have looked at the ways in which information travels across resistant media networks creating elaborated systems of meanings. Furthermore, many scholars have directed their attention to the analysis of how social movement actors employ media and web technologies in tactical ways, in order to coordinate protest efforts, to gain the attention of potential supporters, to create spaces of resistance such as protest camps and events. Despite the rapid proliferation of research in the field there seems to be a lack of a unified space for interdisciplinary discussion devoted to this field of study. In addition to this, we are confronted with an excessive fragmentation between academic understandings of media, movements and democracy on the one hand, and the perspectives of activists, government think-tanks and civil society organisations on the other. This seminar series, is intended to overcome this fragmentation not only through the stimulation of interdisciplinary dialogue and international scholarly activity, but also through the creation of a space for dialogue between academic researchers at different stages of their career and non-academic civil society actors and policy makers. In doing so, the seminar series aims to develop meaningful analytical, theoretical and methodological tools, which can have an impact also beyond academic circles, and which will enable us to understand and study the media/movement dynamic across different social, political, cultural and media environments. To achieve its aims the seminar series will organise six two-day workshops addressing the following issues 1) Researching Media and Movements - Methods and Approaches 2) Social Movements and Mainstream Media: An Oppositional Relationship? 3) Social Movements and 'their' Media - Moving beyond definitions to explore processes? 4) Digital Activism Past and Present - Understanding the New by looking at the Old 5) Mass Mobilisations, Protest Events and Web 2.0 Technologies - Making Sense of Cross-cultural Differences 6) Social Movements and Media - What Next? Hactivism, Datactivism and Surveillance. All written or audiovisual versions of the papers presented in the seminars will be uploaded on an interactive website, which is intended also to become a platform for interactive dialogue and collaboration, which will be accessible to a wide number of potential scholars, activists, and public sector practitioners.