Social Movements and the Internet

At the dawn of the digital age, many activists across the world looked at the Internet as a utopian place where an alternative world could thrive. Many social movement actors appropriated a diverse range of Internet functions and services that became progressively entrenched with social movements, both during protests and in the context of the daily lives of activists. Specifically, the Internet intertwines with and hence produces a change on three main dimensions that characterize social movements: (1) organizational patterns, (2) discourse creation, and (3) forms of protest. These transformations have been increasingly pervasive as the Internet and its services and platforms evolved over time from the so-called Web 1.0 of past decades to the present Web 2.0 that activists widely employ today. This entry ...