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This book examines how citizens use digital social media to engage in public discontent and offers a critical examination of the hybrid reality of protest where bodies, spaces and technologies resonate. It argues that the augmented reality of protest goes beyond the bodies, the tents, and the cobblestones in the protest square, incorporating live streams, different time zones, encrypted conversations, and simultaneous translation of protest updates into different languages. Based on more than 60 interviews with protest participants and ethnographic analysis of online content in Ukraine and Russia, it examines how citizens in countries with limited media freedom and corrupt authorities perceive the affordances of digital media for protest and how these enable or limit protest action.
The book provides a nuanced contribution to debates about the role of digital media in contentious politics and protest events, both in Eastern Europe and beyond.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Digital Media and Society in Ukraine and Russia
Chapter 3. Euromaidan Protesters: A Snapshot
Chapter 4. Space, Distance and Digital Media
Chapter 5. Socially Mediated Visibility and Protest Witnessing
Chapter 6. Protest Organising and Networked Communities
Chapter 7. Information Sharing and Protest Frames
Chapter 8. Russia: Protest in the Age of Networked Authoritarianism
Chapter 9. Conclusion: Beyond the Protest Square
References
Index
Endnotes
About the author
Tetyana Lokot is a Lecturer in the School of Communications at Dublin City University
Summary
The book provides an overview of existing theoretical discussions and field research on the role of digital technology, the internet, and social media in social transformations, civic culture, and protests.
