社會媒體與太陽花學運 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學亞太研究英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in Asia-Pacific Studies College of Social Sciences National Chengchi University 碩士論文 Master’s Thesis. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. 社會媒體與太陽花學運. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Social Media and the Sunflower Student Movement. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Student: Katharina Böhm Advisor: Alex Chiang. 中華民國 104 年 7 月 July 2015.

(2) 社會媒體與太陽花學運 Social Media and the Sunflower Student Movement 研究生：凱琳娜. Student: Katharina Böhm. 指導教授：姜家雄. Advisor: Alex Chiang. 國立政治大學亞太研究英語碩士學位學程. 立. 政治大碩士論文. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 A Thesis. y. Nat. er. io. al. Studies. sit. Submitted to International Master’s Program in Asia-Pacific. n. v i n C h Chengchi University National engchi U. In partial fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master in China Studies. 中華民國 104 年 7 月 July 2015.

(3) Acknowledgments. I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Dr. Alex Chiang for his support, motivation and guidance throughout the process of writing my thesis. Additionally, I would like to especially thank Chen Wei-wei, Wu Nai-fei and Lin Zuyi who gave their time and willingness to be a part of this study as my interviewees. I wish to thank my very good friend Delphine. Thank you for always being there for me and sharing this part of my academic journey with me. I am really grateful to have you as a part of my life.. 政治大 you all made the thesis writing more fun and I will miss the late night talks and 立 discussions we had.. Thanks also goes to my English Corner family: Bernise, Mark, Kelvin, Gina and Jérôme;. ‧ 國. 學. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents for their continuous encouragement and moral support while writing this thesis and my sister who. ‧. encouraged me and expressed confidence in my abilities.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(4) Abstract. Social media plays a crucial role in recent social movements. The Arab Spring, the Indignants protest in Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in North America highlighted the special role of digital social media networks and its contribution to the facilitation of protest movements. This master thesis examines the role of the social media in the “Sunflower Student Movement” in Taiwan. It argues that social media and the “new media” have been a crucial factor to the prolongation and success. 政治大. of this movement. Besides the high penetration rate of social media, such. 立. as Facebook and LINE, among young Taiwanese, another important factor. ‧ 國. 學. for protestors to use social media was the mistrust in the traditional Taiwanese media. Through the “new media” ordinary citizens could. ‧. become a part of the protest and exert the same influence as the mainstream. sit. y. Nat. media. The “new media” may pave the way for a more transparent. io. er. democracy in Taiwan and raise more political awareness among the young citizens. The research of this thesis includes information collected from. n. a. v. Facebook and PTT asl well n i Additionally, interviews C as the “new media”.. hengchi U. among participants of the Sunflower Student Movement were conducted to assess their use of social media during the movement.. Keywords: sunflower student movement, social media, new media, Taiwan, social movements.

(5) 摘要. 社交媒體在最近的社會運動中扮演了非常重要的角色，例如阿拉伯之春、西班牙的 Indignants 抗議運動，以及在北美的佔領華爾街運動，皆凸顯出數位社交媒體的特殊地位與它對促進社會運動的貢獻。而此篇碩士論文主要探討社交媒體在台灣的「太陽花運動」中所擔任的角色。文中主張了社交媒體與「新媒體」已經是這個運動的延伸與成功的重要因素。除了台灣年輕人常用的 Facebook、Line 等社交. 政治大. 媒體之外，另一個使用社交媒體的重要因子是抗議者對台灣傳統媒. 立. 體的不信任。一般公民也可以透過「新媒體」成為抗議活動的一部. ‧ 國. 學. 分，發揮和主流媒體相同的影響力。這些「新媒體」會為台灣更清晰的民主鋪路，並同時提高年輕公民更多的政治意識。本論文的研. ‧. 究包含來自 Facebook 與 PTT 還有「新媒體」的資料，此外，此論文. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. 體的狀況。. y. 亦透過與太陽花學運參與者的採訪，評估他們在運動時使用社交媒. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1.1. Overview ......................................................................................................... 1. 1.2. Background ..................................................................................................... 3. 1.3. Purpose of Research ........................................................................................ 5. 1.4. Literature Review ............................................................................................ 5. 1.5. Definition of Terms ....................................................................................... 16. 1.6. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................. 17. 1.7. Methodology ................................................................................................. 17. 1.8. Limitations and Contributions ....................................................................... 19. Networked Social Movements in the Recent Years ............................................. 20 2.1 2.2. Background ................................................................................................... 31. 3.2. Origin of the Name ........................................................................................ 31. 3.3. Occupation of the Legislative Yuan .............................................................. 32. 3.4. End of the Protest .......................................................................................... 34. io. y. Social Media and the Sunflower Student Movement ........................................... 35. al. 4.3. v i n The Birth of “NewC Media” in Taiwan ........................................................... 37 hengchi U Facebook ....................................................................................................... 39. 4.4. Black Island Nation Youth Front and its use of Social Media ...................... 40. 4.5. PTT ................................................................................................................ 43. 4.6. News E-Forum .............................................................................................. 48. 4.7. g0v.tw ............................................................................................................ 52. 4.8. Watchout! ...................................................................................................... 54. 4.9. Democracy at 4am ......................................................................................... 57. 4.10. The special case of Twitter............................................................................ 58. 4.11. Translation Groups as a Channel to the International Community .............. 60. 4.10. Limitations and Contributions of Social Media ............................................ 65. 4.2. Social Media Landscape in Taiwan .............................................................. 35. n. 4.1. 5.. ‧. 3.1. Nat. 4.. Anatomy of the Sunflower Student Movement .................................................... 31. sit. 3.. Occupy Wall Street Movement in North America ........................................ 28. 學. 2.3. 政治大 The Indignants立 Movement in Spain .............................................................. 24. The Impact of Social Media on the Arab Spring .......................................... 21. er. 2.. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1. ‧ 國. 1.. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 66 5.1. Prospects and Future Research ...................................................................... 69.

(7) References ............................................................................................................ 71. 立. 政治大. 學 ‧. ‧ 國 io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. 6.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1. Facebook penetration rate in MENA countries at the start of the Arab Spring Demonstrations in 2011........................................................................22 Figure 2. Black Island Nation Youth Front [Facebook Status]........................,...........32 Figure 3. Internet users demographics in Taiwan by Age............................................36 Figure 4. The formation of the “new media” during the Sunflower Student Movement.........................................................................................................38 Figure 5. Facebook profile image.................................................................................40 Figure 6. On which Facebook sites subscribers to “Black Island Nation Youth Front” are active on......................................................................................................41. 政治大 Figure 8. Ptt.cc fans by country....................................................................................43 立. Figure 7. Number and type of posts on Facebook from March 16 – April 30, 2014...42. Figure 9. Screenshot of an article on PTT....................................................................45. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 10. Sunflower Student Movement advertisement in the newspaper.................47. ‧. Figure 11. Number and type of posts on Facebook from March 16 – April, 30 2014...................................................................................................50. y. Nat. Figure 12. Policy of g0v.tw..........................................................................................52. io. sit. Figure 13. Jiang Yi-hua and his stance on the CSSTA [Facebook status]...................55. n. al. er. Figure 14. Penetration rate of Twitter in the Asia Pacific (4/2014).............................59. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Table 1. List of Interviewees……................................................................................18 Table 2. Social media and “new media” practices in comparison...............................64.

(9) 1.. Introduction. 1.1. Overview. Social movements are an important political and social phenomenon in our contemporary world. Since the Arab Spring in 2010-11 many scholars are eager to research the role of digital media in social movements. The Arab Spring was the first of its kind in the Middle East that utilized social media as an effective instrument to disseminate information and mobilize people to take over the streets. The interplay of both the online and real life activity lead to profound social change in the countries. Some scholars even called this movement a “Facebook/Twitter revolution” 1 or. 政治大 as Facebook or Twitter since then have been the focus of research on social movements 立 with regards to their use in citizen mobilization for political and non-political issues.. “Democracy’s Fourth Wave” (Howard and Hussain, 2013). Social media networks such. ‧ 國. 學. In the past, communication and mobilization were mostly incited through leaflets or newsletters (Donk et al., 2004). However, after the introduction and. ‧. development of technologies such as telephones and computers, the mobilization process and communication structure of social movements have seen some change.. y. Nat. sit. These new technologies make our lives easier and allow us to communicate with people. al. er. io. from all over the world. Messages can be sent and received within a second and news. n. can be shared and commented by millions of people on social network platforms.. Ch. i n U. v. Digital media increased the communication and interaction pace rapidly and thus, the. engchi. pace for mobilizing people and movements also increased (Shirky, 2008). In the digital age, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and mobile phones with access to the Internet have become very important tools in social movements. Since the past two decades scholars began to research the impact of internet and social networking sites (SNS) have on political campaigns and political participation. Not only are they used by politicians to increase the political socialization of voters but they are also a useful tool for the political engaged citizens to express their opinions to the politicians directly if the formal channels for communication between. 1. However, this term caused some controversy among scholars. Castells (2012) supports the argument that the Internet played the most crucial role in the Arab Spring. Other scholars like Morozov (2011) dismiss that Internet or social media play hardly any role in the formation of social movements.. 1.

(10) the people and the government are blocked. With social networking sites like Facebook2 or Twitter3, the youth are able to acquire information within seconds. Younger citizens are starting to move away from parties and ideologies and thus give emergence to digital-mediated movements. They don’t think political parties and governmental institutions are sufficient channels to communicate about social issues anymore, and look consequently for other ways to engage in solving these issues (Bennett and Segerberg, 2013). Past studies paid more attention to the increasing use of social media in daily life. However, most of the research about Taiwan’s political advertising in social media was about the use of traditional media like television and newspapers. But since the last presidential election in 2012, Taiwanese social media has seen a sudden rise in. 治政大 “internet-mediated movement” the highest Internet penetration in Asia and had its own 立 experience last year. In the Sunflower Student Movement, the young Taiwanese proved importance for political campaigning as well (Shih, 2014). Taiwan is a country with. ‧ 國. 學. in March 2014 how digital media can help people to engage in political process and eventually bring about change in government policies. Students protested against the. ‧. “black box” negotiations for a Service-Trade-Agreement with the government of the People’s Republic of China. The protest reached its peak with the occupation of the. y. Nat. sit. Legislative Yuan (立法院), the chamber of parliament. It is the first time that the. er. io. Legislative Yuan has been occupied by ordinary citizens since the founding of the. al. v i n the Legislative Yuan kept inC contact with the protesters outside. This research will aim hengchi U at answering the question: “How useful was digital technology, particularly social n. Republic of China. The most remarkable fact however was how the protesters inside. networking sites, to participants in the Sunflower Student Movement?” The hypothesis of this research is that social media facilitates the traditional forms of protest. The activities at the scene and in front of the Legislative Yuan are by far not the whole movement. Social media played a crucial role in it and motivated people in front of the computer screen to actually join the movement.. 2. The world’s largest social network. It has more than 1.35 billion active users (3/2014). Individuals can create a personal profile, share updates and news and exchange messages with other users. (Retrieved from: http://www.internetworldstats.com). 3 Twitter is a social networking platform that allows people to exchange short-status messages limited to 140 characters.. 2.

(11) 1.2. Background 主流媒體不做實事報道，我們自己做4 Mainstream media doesn’t report the facts, [so] we will do it ourselves.. Taiwan has a history of significant student movements that were able to bring about change in government policy and raise citizens’ awareness of political and social issues. The Sunflower Student Movement is just another example of the willpower of Taiwanese citizens to make use of their democratic rights. It was in the beginning of March 2014 that the government was discussing and reviewing the Cross-Strait. 政治大 signed one year ago on June 21, 2013 (Mo, June 22, 2013). The opposition party, 立. Services Trade Agreement (CSSTA) (海峽兩岸服務貿易協議), which was already. Democratic Progressive Party (民主進步黨), requested an item-by-item review of this. ‧ 國. 學. agreement which was reneged by the review committee that decided to submit it to the Cabinet without a detailed review. This stirred up unrest among the young Taiwanese. ‧. who accused the government of a “black box” policy since the negotiations for the. y. Nat. agreement also took place behind closed doors. On March 19, 2014 a group of. io. sit. Taiwanese students stormed and occupied the Legislative Yuan for 24 days to protest. er. against the lack of monitoring mechanisms for the cross-strait agreement with China. al. n. v i n C h was able to garner Movement. This social movement e n g c h i U a lot of attention from the media. (Cole, March 20, 2014). Later this movement became known as the Sunflower. in and outside of Taiwan, and enjoyed high support among students and white collar. workers (Apple Daily, April 4, 2014). It also symbolized the ambiguous relationship that Taiwan enjoys with China and the skepticism over China’s political intention. One of the main aspects in this movement was how well-organized the protestors were. Social media was an important organizational resource in the context of emergence, organization and development of the movement. With the help of the internet and the social media the protestors were able to form two centers of command: one inside the Legislative Yuan and one outside the building. Later, on March 27, 2014 protest leaders called for a rally to pressure the 4. A statement made by the members of the „news e-forum“ in 2014, 26 March. In: TechOrange 科技報橘 (2014).. 3.

(12) government to meet the demands of the students. Until the official end of the occupation and demonstration social media, such as Facebook and PTT, played a major role for organizing and mobilizing this movement. Participants of the Sunflower Student Movement created several websites to inform and share news about the protest and the Cross-Strait Service Trade agreement. They used social media to counter traditional media, which, they believed, shed a false and negative light on the movement. Some scholars even claim that the activists created and made use of new media practices to organize sit-ins and marches outside the Legislative Yuan. One of the main actors who contributed to the news coverage about the movement was the “news e-forum” (臺大新聞 E 論壇) created by Students from the Graduate Institute of Journalism from National Taiwan University. A few members of this group were able to get inside the. 政治大協力：新媒體，新實踐, 立2014). Websites were created to inform people about the. Legislative Yuan and started to report news from the scene (匯集多元智能展現新型. ‧ 國. 學. CSSTA and to provide transparency for citizens. Facebook was used by the Taiwanese to let the world know what exactly is happening inside and outside the Legislative Yuan. Translation groups were formed and with the help of foreigners, news and information. ‧. about the movement were translated into other languages and shared on Facebook.. sit. y. Nat. Facebook sites like “Sunflower Movement” ( 太陽花學運 ) gained over 63,000 Followers and even now, after one year, the creators of the website are still posting and. io. n. al. er. sharing news and updates about the debate on the Cross-Strait Services Trade pact. i n U. v. negotiations. Another Facebook site, called “Against the Black Box Service Trade. Ch. engchi. Agreemen” (反黑箱服貿協議), which in particular made the Cross-strait agreement its topic has garnered over 390,000 people. Today the site puts its focus more on the general cross-strait negotiations of the KMT government and is sharing its discontent with the recent government’s decisions. The Facebook website of the Black Island Youth Front (黑色島國青年陣線) played a key role in this movement. The creators behind this Facebook website were the activists in the initial protest and its members Lin Fei-fan (林飛凡), Chen Wei-ting (陳爲廷) and Wei-yang (魏楊) quickly became the faces of the movement. Together with other Facebook communities they called people to join the mass rally at the Ketagalan Boulevard on March 30, 2014 (Cole, March 31, 2014). Furthermore, live-streams were set up during the occupation of the Legislative Yuan. Tang Fong, one of the activists in the movement, states that those. 4.

(13) live-streams helped to contain police force against protesters (How Technology and Citizen Media shaped Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement, 2014). The importance of social media during this movement is hard to deny and thus, requires further research.. 1.3. Purpose of Research. My research will focus on the use of social media by the participants of the Sunflower Student movement and how exactly social media was involved in this mass mobilization. This research will also have a closer look at some established theories of social movements and communication strategies to explain the appeal of SNS for the. 治政 of social media in this protest movement. I want大 to investigate to what extent the 立 Taiwanese student protesters used social media networks, such as Facebook, as tools activists in the Sunflower Movement. My research goal is to examine the complex role. ‧ 國. 學. for getting involved in the movement and raise political and social awareness to the case. In the first part of my thesis I will give an overview about the different theories. ‧. on social media to underline my empirical study for this research. I will define the terms social media and social movements as well as present theories emphasizing the role and. y. Nat. sit. impact of the internet on participation in social movements. For this I will also have a. al. er. io. look at recent social movements – the Arab Spring, Indignants Movement in Spain, and. n. the Occpy Wall Street movement - and their use of social media. I will give an overview. Ch. i n U. v. on the use of social media in Taiwan and outline the Sunflower Student Movement. In. engchi. the second part of my thesis I will evaluate my interview results with participants of the movement as well as examine how far the social media played an important role in this movement. For my conclusion, I want to compare if and in how far the Sunflower Movement resembles recent internet-mediated movements in the West and Middle East and how social media may help to improve democratic mechanisms in Taiwan.. 1.4. Literature Review. The following literature was reviewed due to its relevance to what will be studied in this thesis, i.e. collective action and social media as a mobilization tool. News articles dealing with the Sunflower Student Movement are numerous and can be found in 5.

(14) Chinese and English. However, none of the papers so far have conducted any in-depth research regarding the activists’ use of social media during the movement. This section will give an overview on the interdependence between social media and social movements. Back in the 20th century scholars were classifying social movements as unorganized mass protests without any clear goals. However, that changed in the 1960s when the middle-class took over the streets and scholars started to take social movements and its participants more serious (Donk et al., 2004). To understand why people participate in social movements many scholars focus on the theory of collective action proposed by Olson (1965). He argues that organizations such as labor unions, farm organizations, or the state all have one thing in common: they all further the. 治政大might not be able to pursue this ideas and interests, individual and unorganized action 立 interest in an adequate way. Organizations therefore serve as a tool to advance group. common interests of their participants. But, when more individuals share the same. ‧ 國. 學. and common interest. Arthur Bentley (1967) declares: “there is no group without its interest” (p. 211). In Olson’s theory it is said that collective action of a large group is. ‧. difficult to achieve since they have to face high costs in organizing and mobilizing a group. The individuals in the group don’t want to pay the costs of providing a collective. Nat. sit. y. benefit. Olson argues that individuals in large groups are likely to “free-ride” since they. al. er. io. still will get benefits from if the group is working to provide public goods. Thus, if the. n. group mainly consist of free-riders it will be difficult for them to achieve their goal.. Ch. i n U. v. However, Olson’s theory is written in a more rational and economic point of view and. engchi. thus lacks the psychological and emotional aspect that organized groups have. His model only gives explanation on why individuals do not participate in collective action. He neglects the psychological aspect of collective behavior as to why people participate in group movements. Social movements vary in their emergence and dynamics. Grievance is a driving force behind the occurrence of social movements but cannot be considered the only cause. In recent years, a certain interdependence between social movements and social media cannot be denied. Scholars have fierce debates whether social media, besides grievance, can actually cause social movements. Social movements are not institutionalized but resemble more a network with collective identity as its core (Donk et al. 2004). Social movements cannot survive without communication between its actors. Therefore, the use of ICT, especially social 6.

(15) media, is really appealing to social movement activists. Donk et al. (2004) argue that the internet became a new “strategic platform” that helps social movements to organize and mobilize. There are different specific types of social movements that researchers like to focus on. Dalton (1994) made out five types of approaches on how to analyze movements: from the perspective of collective behavior, the resource-mobilization theory, political opportunity structure, the ideologically structured perspective, and the social constructionist perspective. Scholars from the field of psychology have criticized the rational choice approach for pushing the social movement into an economic corner, reducing it to nothing more than activists weigh up their pros and cons for participating in the movement (Donk et al., 2004). Advocates of the resource mobilization theory. 治政 social movements. They measured the amount of大 money and numbers of staff and 立 participants in the so-called “SMO”s (Social Movement Organizations) which were. claimed that there can be observed a general trend towards organization-building in. ‧ 國. 學. powerful instruments to organize and mobilize movements as well as gather and distribute information to other members of the movement (Donk et al.,2004). “Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution: Reconsidering. ‧. In their essay. Resource Mobilization Theory” Eltantaway and Wiest (2011) use the Egyptian. y. Nat. sit. revolution in 2011 as their case study to prove that the resource mobilization theory is. al. er. io. able to explain social movements and their use of social media. They cite Porta and. n. Mosca (2005) who claim that ICT is an important resource for social movements. Ch. i n U. v. implemented by “resource poor” actors. The resource mobilization theory states that. engchi. the most important factors are the availability of resources and the actors’ efficient use of them. In the Egyptian revolution, protestors used social media as mobilization resource that also “address the world while events were unfolding” (p. 1215). Messages on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs also helped to develop and strengthen a collective identity among the participants. Van de Donk et al. (2004) criticize that the resource mobilization theory only focuses on ICT as an instrument to mobilize resources without considering the effect ICT can have on the organization of social movements in its whole structure. The Sunflower Student Movement saw a huge participation rate of the young people and the “free-rider” problem overall could be avoided. One reason could be the psychological aspect that played into the mobilization of the movement. Manuel Castells (2012) states that social movements are emotional movements. Movements 7.

(16) usually don’t start with a program. They have their origin in every individual’s emotion such as anxiety. Anxiety results from an external threat. Overcoming the fear eventually leads to another negative emotion: anger. Associated with anger is risk-taking behavior such as taking the action for social movements or protests. Olson’s model assumes that individuals act and make decisions on their own, isolated from other people. However, Castells (2012) argues, social movements require communication and sharing feelings with other individuals. Digital media allows individuals to realize that they share grievance and anger with other individuals. Social movements arise from a sociopolitical crisis in a country where society is having a deep distrust in the political institutions and thus, the normal channels of communication are blocked. The trigger is anger or grievance. Therefore, people call for collective action (Castells, 2012).. 治政大 from afar. Digital media in of gaining information and communicate with people 立 general reduces costs for political participation. Chen and Liao (2014) argue that digital Nowadays digital technologies like computer and mobile phone reduce the costs. ‧ 國. 學. media is the best platform to mobilize people and engage them in political activities. Social media allows people who are separated through distance to connect with each. ‧. other and to eventually mobilize. The problem of mobilization, however, is how people are assembled. Here the “logic of connective action”, proposed by Bennett and. y. Nat. sit. Segerberg (2013), comes into play. In this theory communication plays a crucial role. al. er. io. for mass mobilization. “Connective action” highlights the role of communication as an. n. organizing principle in personalized, digitally networked action (Bennett and Segerberg, 2013).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. ICT reduced the costs for collective action, but it did not change the dynamics of group mobilization gradually. The “logic of connective action” argues that ICT indeed plays a crucial role in recent social movements. With the use of social media mass mobilization can take place without a strong organizational control. In the past, social movements mainly have been characterized by the logic of collective action. In contemporary society, however, the use of social networks mass movements cannot be described by the theory of collective action alone. Rather than focusing on the point if social media was essential to the movement, I want to analyze the activist’s use of social media in the Sunflower Student Movement with focus on their role as means of mobilization of collective action. Atton (2003) says that new communication technologies can be “viewed” as a double response to informal capitalism and neoliberalism” (p. 4). The movement’s aims 8.

(17) and practices are concentrated on local struggles, however, they can also reach the global community. Other countries can learn from these struggles and learn from them as well as show their moral and political support (Ibid.). So, with new ICT innovations, movements can spread all over the world and are not concentrated on one place anymore. Russell (2011) examines in her article “Extra-National Information Flows, Social Media, and the 2011 Egyptian Uprising” the communication theory in correlation with the Arab Spring. She describes that this revolution stands for two characteristics within contemporary internet-mediated movements: the protestors made the technology such as social media work to their advantage. Also, networked communication is increasing the formation of grassroots movements. She also. 治政 “monopolies or near-monopolies on political news大 information has thinned” (Russell, 立 p. 1239). Also, there has been a shift from traditional media to “what networked expresses his fear that it is getting harder to keep control over ICT. She notes, as a result. ‧ 國. 學. participants in the drama were reporting and saying about what was happening” (Russell, p. 1239). As for the case of Egypt and the Arab Spring, citizens were not only. ‧. challenging the policies of the government but also its monopoly on the traditional news outlet. Protestors used ICT and primarily social media such as Facebook and Twitter to. y. Nat. sit. provide the background and on-scene information and made themselves independent. er. io. from the traditional news outlet.. After analyzing the protest of the “Indignants” in Spain, Anduiza et al. (2014). n. al. Ch. i n U. v. found characteristics in this movement that don’t correspond with the traditional. engchi. paradigm of collective action. In particular, contemporary internet-mediated movements have a different organization since they are leaderless. Online social networks play a big part as a form of mobilization channel. Also, participants are “younger, more educated and less politically involved” (p. 751). Digital media contributes to a higher participation of people who may not have been be politically involved before. The participation costs are reduced. Bennett and Segerberg (2013) argue that before and during the economic crisis in 2008, protests were organized through non-governmental organizations (NGO). However, for some time already, collective action was able to take place even without the involvement of NGO’s, i.e. in Spain: The “Indignants” movement in 2011, whose target the government was, stayed in contact and mobilized through interpersonal communication networks. Protestors used a mix of online media and offline activities 9.

(18) that included face-to-face organizing, encampments in the city centers, and marches across the country. This case shows that there are indeed different forms of mobilization. Bennett and Segerberg (2013) categorized them into organizationally enabled and crowd-enabled movements such as the “Indignants” and Sunflower Student Movement. Crowd-enabled movements are characterized by technology platforms playing the role of virtual political organizations in coordinating the actions of people operating in geographically scattered face-to-face settings. In this digital network mode, political demands and grievances are often shared in very personalized accounts that travel over social networking platforms, email lists, and online coordinating platforms. I argue that this is exactly why the Sunflower Student Movement had that mass outrage. The students made use of ICT in a way that enabled this once small movement to transform. 治政大 They used global social media Yuan did not have any formal organizational structure. 立 platforms to create different campaigns, Facebook pages and other websites (The into a mass movement recognized internationally. The protesters inside the Legislative. ‧ 國. 學. Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, 2014.). In recent years there has been a lot of studies about social movements such as. ‧. the Arab Spring or the Occupy Wall Street movement and their use of social media. Manuel Castells “Networks of Outrage and Hope” (2012) gives an overview on the role. y. Nat. sit. of social media in movements that emerged recently like the Arab Spring and the. al. er. io. Occupy Wall Street movement. He emphasizes the important role of the internet in. n. contemporary movements. He claims that without the internet there would have been. Ch. i n U. v. no Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street Movement. It “creates the conditions for a form. engchi. of shared practice that allows a leaderless movement to survive, deliberate, coordinate and expand (p. 229). Communication is crucial to the emergence of social movements and “the networked social movements of our time are largely based on the Internet, a necessary though not sufficient component of their collective action” (Casteells, p. 229). Statements like this however, imply that the Internet is its own actor in the emergence of social movements. Castells (2012) fails to mention the individuals in front of the computer and the smartphone. The Internet alone is not able to be the spark of a revolution or movement. The best example is that even after the government shut down the internet in the Middle East the protest movements were still going on. Donk et al. (2004) argue that social movements are prone to the use of ICT especially when they concern transnational problems like climate change. I can only partly agree with this argument. The Sunflower Student Movement was highly prone 10.

(19) to the use of ICT, especially social media, also due to the fact that the movement was divided into two camps: one outside and one inside the Legislative Yuan. Therefore they relied on the Internet to disseminate information and mobilize the people outside. Eventually, they also were able to mobilize groups from all parts of the globe to stand up with them and protest. I hypothesize that this movement was especially prone to the use of ICT because of the high Internet coverage of Taiwan as well as the high penetration rate of Facebook and usage of social media apps like LINE or PTT. The main concern of the protest was more or less a national one that didn’t tackle any global problems. Seen in a broader context the movement also used the slogan of “democracy” to mobilize more members and also get the attention of international media. However, in the beginning the problem itself only concerned the “black box. 治政 argument of Donk et al. (2004) that extensive use 大 of ICT is caused primarily because 立 of cross-national cooperation. Social movements emerge due to economic crisis or policy” of the members of the Legislative Yuan and thus, didn’t really prove the. ‧ 國. 學. mistrust between the citizens and the government. However, Donk et al. (2004) admit that social movements do not only arise because of those problems. The psychological. ‧. aspect also plays an important role. Emotions such as anger, fear or hope help to contribute in the engagement of individuals in social movements. Other movements. y. Nat. sit. that were successful in achieving their proclaimed goals give encouragement to other. al. er. io. individuals in other parts of the world who want to revolt against the government. Even. n. though the socio-political environment or the reason for the uprisings may not be the. Ch. i n U. v. same, one common feature can be found in today’s social movements: the involvement. engchi. of ICT. Castells (2012) argues that the recent social movements all are network-based, online and offline, and they are all intertwined. Since these networks are leaderless and decentered they encourage more individuals to participate. The fear of repression also decreases because of that: they are no targets to attack – when it comes to online networks. The offline networks in form of occupied public spaces still can be removed by force e.g. police. (Castells, 2012). Another common feature is that all these movements have their beginning in the internet which eventually leads to the occupying of public squares or symbolic buildings. Castells (2012) says that social movements are first concentrated in their own space and context. They address a local problem and start from that to build their own network. However, through connecting to the digital media, they can inspire individuals from other parts of the world and vis-versa. In addition, this linkage to the global 11.

(20) community also raises awareness of social issues and problems in a large global context and eventually call for demonstrations and movements in other parts of the world. Internet-mediated movements have a “cosmopolitan culture” as well as stay in a local specific identity (p. 223). YouTube videos haven been found crucial in social movements as a mean to mobilize the masses. The new generation of social movements is leaderless, so Castells, which might be due to the disapproval with the leaders and representatives in the government. Castells admits that there are certain dominant actors in movements, however, they are only accepted within the movement as long as they don’t make any major decisions. This “is setting the foundations of a future real democracy by practicing it in the movement” (Castells., p. 225). But he fails to explain what a “real democracy” is. He emphasizes that movements not come to be because of. 治政大 (p. 225). The new social movements are “highly self-reflective” (p. 225). This means 立 they are always in a constant process of change in terms of their demands. Through a community but of the feeling of “togetherness” created by online and offline networks. ‧ 國. 學. internet or blog discussions among participants and activists the movement is able to improve its strategies or change for the better. Social movements also use videos of. ‧. police violence against the activists as means to increase sympathy for the movement and thus, support. According to Castells movements seldom follow a certain program. y. Nat. sit. or scheme. For an internet-mediated movement it is difficult to fulfill any program built. al. er. io. around a certain goal. As seen in the uprising of the Sunflower Student Movement,. n. through its openness and appeal to all citizens, demands became multiple the more. Ch. i n U. v. individuals participated. However, according to Castells (2012), the primary role of a. engchi. social movement should not be that the government or institutions agree to its demands. Moreover, social movements are “aimed at changing the values of society”, (p. 227). Social movements allow the public to speak up their mind and create debates around social or political issues. Castells (2012) points out that even though the internet plays a crucial part in recent social movements ICT is by far not the basic cause for the emerging of social movements. Social movements as the name already implies are caused by conflicts of specific societies. Communication was and is still the core of social movements and their came-to-be. Morozov (2011) speaks of “cyber-utopians” and “internet’s cheerleaders” in his article “Facebook and Twitter are just places revolutionaries go”. He dismisses the role of the internet as a primary cause for social movements. He advocates the position of 12.

(21) cyber-realism, a term he introduced in his book “The Net Delusion” (2011). Morozov (2011) argues that the internet is merely a tool in social movements. Furthermore, he states that the Arab Spring was not a spontaneous internet-mediated uprising organized by random people. Long before the uprising, Google and other internet institutions organized workshops for tech savy citizens, such as bloggers or programmers, in Cairo, Beirut and Dubai. He quotes Malcolm Gladwell and his article “Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be tweeted” (2010) who tones down the role of social media in the Arab Spring. Even before the internet age, people came together and protested against the government. Gladwell thinks that people should not exaggerate the role of the internet. The driving force behind the movement is more interesting than the tools people use for communication. That said, Morozov (2011) claims that it is always in. 治政 movements. The emphasis of western scholars on 大 the role of internet technologies in 立 the Arab Spring shows their superiority complex towards the Middle East; only because retrospect that scholars put a lot of weight on the use of technologies within protest. ‧ 國. 學. the western countries introduced technologies, such as smartphones and mobile Internet, to the people in Cairo, the revolution could took place.. ‧. Stepanova (2011) also acknowledges that internet-mediated movement can have an impact on the political environment in the international community as well (p. 3).. y. Nat. sit. But she also warns to make generalizations. Only because a revolution or protest. al. er. io. movement is facilitated by the internet, does not mean that social movements in other. n. countries will become ICT-mediated as well. To claim that social media or ICT is a. Ch. i n U. v. catalyst of social movements ignores the socio-political contexts movements arise (p.. engchi. 3). Social movements are not a new phenomenon and existed even before the internet. The primary condition for internet-mediated movements to happen is that a large number of a country’s population has access to the internet. Thus, Stepanova (2011) predicts that internet-mediated movements are unlikely to happen in underdeveloped countries with low Internet penetration such as Iraq, Afghanistan or Myanmar (p. 3). Gerbaudo et al. (2012) put their focus on what difference social media makes in the ways in which participants are mobilized and how each protest is organized. They highlight the cases of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the “Indignados” in Spain, and the Occupy Wall Street Movement in tracing the different stages of their development and reconstructing the role played by social media. The main point of their argument is how social media mediates between online communication and actual faceto-face gatherings. The organization of collective action is described as a 13.

(22) “choreography of assembly”. Group activists believe that when people act together they will be able to achieve their common goal. They argue that the introduction of the internet and other new technologies such as smartphones would only help them to reduce the costs for mobilizing the masses. Thus, the “costs” for educating possible participants and organizing them would be reduced by the Internet. Through the use of social media they are also able to dictate the direction of the movement. Communication activism includes a variety of media used and thus communication tools may vary depending on the situation and conditions of a social movement. Based on the logic of collective action and connective action, Chen et al. (2014) came up with a new theoretical approach called the “logic of communitive action” to analyze the mobilization of the Sunflower Movement. They emphasize the emotional. 治政大indeed state that ICT played a government and the importance of leadership. They 立 crucial role in this movement, however, social media networks analysis were not the aspect on creating community consciousness such as dissatisfactions with the. ‧ 國. 學. main part of their research.. Hsiao (2011) categorized three waves of social movements in Taiwan that. ‧. brought about the end of martial law and political liberalization. In her conclusion she tries to predict the future of social movements in Taiwan and states that “labor, students’,. Nat. sit. y. and aborigines’ movements could face increasing difficulties in gaining higher. er. io. legitimacy from the public in their effort to bring about further changes in the states’ policies” (p. 252). Even though her article is a recent one, she fails to pay attention to. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. the role and power of ICT and social media have in shaping new social movements.. engchi. Shih (2014) on the other hand is giving an overview of how social media is used in Taiwan and how it influenced the 2012 Presidential Election. In his conducted survey he found out that the Internet plays an important role in the life of young Taiwanese. The results indicate that online and offline political participation are positively associated with the use of news sites and social media networks. However, his research only stresses the importance of digital and social media for political parties and politicians. It neglects the aspects of how citizens can use social media as instruments for getting political engaged. Lynn (2014) conducted an interview with Wei Yang, one leader of the Sunflower Student Movement, right after the end of the protest in April 2014. In her interview Wei Yang also attributed a major role to social media in the movement and stated that the use of Facebook and PTT helped to raise awareness of the trade 14.

(23) agreement, as well as get people to participate in the movement. However, he did not elaborate in detail to which extent social media was useful for them. With this thesis I want to give a comprehensive overview on the use of social in the Sunflower Student Movement. Therefore I also reviewed Chinese literature about the Sunflower Movement that was published recently and is not available in English yet. In April 2015 the book “我是公民也是媒體：太陽花與新媒體實踐 (Sunflower Movement, New Citizenry, and New Media)” was published. It is a collection of essays mostly written by students who used social media to engage in Sunflower Student Movement. The essays also talk about the appearance of a new social media form. The “new media” used traditional internet platforms such as Facebook and PTT to produce and disseminate information during the movement. The Sunflower Student. 政治大 newspaper, television or magazines were not the main actors producing the news and 立 information about the movement this time. Instead, traditional media relied on the “new media” and used it as their primary information source.. 學. ‧ 國. Movement made rigorous use of this new social media. Traditional media such as. Since the early 2000s scholars started to focus on the use of new communication. ‧. technologies in social movements. These media make the participation in democratic. y. Nat. practices such as protest movements a lot easier. However, one should keep in mind. sit. that online communication is by no means a substitute for offline behavior. It only. er. io. reduces the costs for people to gain information and organize movements. The driving. al. v i n In general it can be said thatC the literature on internet-mediated movements has hrecent engchi U concluded that social media is more of a contribution to the organization of social n. forces behind a protest movement are still those behind the computer and smartphone.. protests than a replacement for the traditional forms of mobilization. One should differentiate between the Internet technology and the social media. They are not equal in their use. The internet is useful for getting information and news as well as distributing them whereas social media connects people through messengers, photographs and personal blogs/diaries. What they have in common is that those technologies and web services bring together people from distant places. It gives ordinary citizens the control of their own kind of media when developing communication channels that are not controlled by the government like traditional media is. The interaction on Facebook, PTT and LINE kept the protesters of the Sunflower Student Movement updated. Live streams were set up and thought of as 15.

(24) deterrence to contain violent actions by the police. To conclude, most of the literature outlines the development of social media in social movements or political participation in general using different theoretical approaches. Since the Sunflower Student Movement is one of the most recent social movements, as is the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong, in-depth analysis in English about its use of digital and social media is still hard to find. I hope that my research will have some contribution to this topic.. 1.5. Definition of Terms. The term “social movement can be defined as organized efforts to promote or resist. 政治大 and McAdam, 1994, p. 73). Noninstitutionalized refers to “any action that takes place 立 outside of normal political channels.” (p. 73) However, Marx and McAdam admit that change in society that rely (…) on noninstitutionalized forms of political action.” (Marx. ‧ 國. 學. the later stages of a movement tend to be identified with formal organizations and follow a certain script and guideline (p. 72).. ‧. In the 20th century scholars started to differentiate between “Old Social. y. Nat. Movement” and “New Social Movement”. “Old Social Movements” are characterized. sit. by social, economic and political dynamics, whereas “New Social Movements” have. er. io. their origin in the political sphere (Chesters and Welsh, 2011). However, both forms of. al. v i n C h The term “collective identity and collective behavior. behavior” includes any group engchi U n. movements share the fact that their foundation is laid through a sense of collective. behavior and describes any social event that emerges in a spontaneous way. Collective behavior is relevant to everyone who wants to participate in a democratic society. Collective behavior gave rise to events of historical significance such as the French or Chinese revolution, and according to Marx and McAdam (1994, p. 5), “there is little sign that the role of collective behavior as a vehicle for social change is lessening.” In recent years, the term “social media” has been linked to “social movements”. Social media is defined as a varied category of Internet services inspired by Web 2.0 principles and enables the users of the site to create and share digital contents (Bredl et al., 2014). It is about connecting and communicating with other individuals. SNS, a sub-category of Social Media, is the abbreviation for Social Networking Sites. It is a term used “when speaking about technological platforms on the Net that enable and are 16.

(25) predominantly used for human-to-human communication” such as Facebook and Twitter. A “platform” or “medium” refers to separate services online that differ in structure, user base, and often owner (Bredl et al., 2014).. 1.6. Theoretical Framework. Nowadays, social movements see a high participation rate and cover many topics and issues due to globalization. A lot of research has been conducted regarding the use of digital and social media in social movements, however, the fast change and improvement of technologies contributing to the rise of movements as well as the. 政治大. analysis of the huge available data sets cause some challenges for researchers. Furthermore, the problem with analyzing social media is the unknown relation to offline. 立. behavior and data logistics. One cannot explain all sorts of these movements under a. ‧ 國. 學. macro theoretical framework since they all differ in their cause and development. Thus, doing research in this field requires a mixed theoretical approach. The thesis is based. ‧. on relevant theoretical approaches to the concept of social media and its significance for protest mobilization. I will base my study on qualitative research methods namely. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. literature review and in-depth interviews.. 1.7. Methodology. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Through literature review and in-depth interviews, my research focuses on the impact of social media on the social movement and how social media networks help in political engagement and organizing the movement. Observations of the Sunflower Movement can be found mostly in newspapers, blogs, and in short journal articles, as well as in social media networks such as Facebook and PTT. The analysis revolves manly around Facebook, PTT, and the so-called “new media”. But that does not mean that those social networking sites are the foundation of the protest. More, it indicates how digital media can facilitate different types of social networking sites. News reports and messages posted on Facebook and PTT will be analyzed. My thesis will use some of these formal and informal sources as general reference. I will also have a look into other recent internet-mediated movements and analyze in a small scale the similarities and 17.

(26) differences to the Sunflower Student Movement. One must know about comparable internet-mediated movements and learn about the similarities and differences. Furthermore, qualitative analysis will be provided through in-depth interviews. Social media networks were just one of many mechanisms linking individuals with each other and mobilize them to take action. To prove the relationship between the success of this movement and social media I want to conduct in-depth interviews among the activists of the National Taiwan University News e-Forum group, which occupied the Legislative Yuan, and will investigate their use of the social network services and how they provided the in-depth coverage of the Sunflower movement. The establishment of translation groups during the movement is another characterization of internetmediated movements. Those translation groups provided the outside world and people,. 治政 another interview will be conducted with Nai-fei 大 Wu, a former student of National 立 Chengchi University, who was in Germany during the protest movement. She was the. not capable of speaking Chinese, with news and information about the movement. Thus,. ‧ 國. 學. head of one translation group in Germany and will share her experience on how she got involved in the movement and assess the usefulness of the new media from her point. ‧. of view. In addition, the author of the thesis also conducted an interview with the head of the website “Watchout!”. “Watchout!” is known for setting up the live streams in the. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. Legislative Yuan and providing video material of the people occupying the building.. Table 1 List of Interviewees. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Date of the. Name of the. Background and role played in the. Interview. Interviewee. movement. Wei-wei Chen 陳芛薇. Graduate. 2015.5.26. Student. of. the. Journalism. Department, National Chengchi University. Member of the “news e-forum” 2015.6.17. Nai-fei Wu 吳迺菲. Undergraduate Student in University of Kiel, Germany. Member of the translation group in Germany.. 2015.6.26. Zu-yi Lin 林祖儀. Spokesperson of Watchout! and editor at PTT.. 18.

(27) In general, the in-depth interviews will cover questions about motives for the activists’ usage of social media, what kind of social media has been used and why. The opinions of the interviewees will complement the essays and experiences presented in the book “我是公民也是媒體：太陽花與媒體實踐 (Sunflower Movement, New Citizenry, and New Media)” (2015). This will give my research a more multi-layered approach. The types of sources for this research vary in order to give a better understanding on the issues from several angles.. 1.8. Limitations and Contributions. 政治大. Since I did not participate in the Sunflower Student Movement I will not have the profound knowledge about what happened on the scene of the event. I am a mere. 立. observer who will try to reconstruct the development of the movement and its use of. ‧ 國. 學. social media. However, this will also give me a healthy emotional distance. Furthermore, I realize that in-depth interviews might not be able by itself to capture the. ‧. breadth and detail of possible Internet uses and offline life of the general participants of this movement. However, in my research I want to lay my focus more on the activists’. Nat. sit. y. use of social media and how they covered the protest by using ICT. This will give me. io. er. a “birds eye” view of the activists and participants using these tools. Since the Sunflower Student Movement is a fairly recent phenomenon, it is hard to find literature. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. that has been written on this issue. Additionally, and due to the lack of literature on the. engchi. Sunflower Movement, I will review and analyze general literature on the topic of new social movements and their use of ICT. I hope that this selection of heterogeneous actors and sources will be able to lay a comprehensive foundation for my research question.. 19.

(28) 2.. Networked Social Movements in the Recent Years. When people think about the growing importance of social media within movements, the most prominent example that comes into their mind might be the Arab Spring or the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. However, using social media for mobilizing people not a recent phenomenon. Already in 1994 a group of indigenous people called Zapatistas in Mexico made use of the internet technology in its early stage. The use of the internet by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) resulted from a struggle the Zapatistas had against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its implications of global injustice. They demanded socio-economic reforms as well as respect for indigenous people. The government’s response: thousands of army troops. 政治大 EZLN called on the international community and organizations like the Red Cross to 立 support their struggle and monitor the conflict (Ibid.). Martinez-Torres (2001) describes conducted air and ground attacks on EZLN held areas (Ronfeldt et al., 1999, p.2). The. ‧ 國. 學. their uprising as the “first informational guerilla movement” (p. 364). However, their problem was mere a local one and their use of the internet played only a small part in. ‧. it. The Zapatistas wanted to raise awareness to the injustice they encountered and called for international support. Thus, with the help of e-mails, BBS and fax they were able to. y. Nat. sit. connect from their distant place to the rest of the world. Of course one need to consider. al. er. io. that the technology at that time was by far not as advanced as it is now. The Zapatistas. n. did not use the internet primarily as a medium to organize their movement rather than. Ch. i n U. v. to build a dialogue between them and the outside world. They used the ICT as it was. engchi. supposed to be used: disseminating information. On the contrary, the social movements nowadays know how to tweak its infrastructure to make it serve their own interest and use. The most prominent cases in 2010-11 were: The Jasmine Revolution, also called the Arab Spring, in the Middle East, the “Indignants” in Spain and the Occupy Wall Street Movement in North-America.. 20.

(29) 2.1. The Impact of Social Media on the Arab Spring. The term “Arab Spring” coins a series of protests in the Middle East started in 2010 and ongoing. The trigger for the uprisings in the Arab world was the self-immolation of a young Tunisian merchant. Physically abused by the police after trying to fight a small fine, he set himself on fire. The news of his death spread quickly and were not covered by the traditional news outlet in Tunisia (Howard et al., 2011, p. 8). Family and friends of the dead merchant, called Mohamed Bouazizi, shared the same anger and grievances. Images of Bouazizi, injured in the hospital, spread and resulted in the public’s anger against the government. After more YouTube videos spread about the violence and corruption of the government, people took over public spaces – also in. 治政 most well-known ones are the uprisings in Tunisia 大 and Egypt since the uprisings have their origin in these two立 countries.. Tunisia, Libya, and other Arabian countries (Howard &Hussain, 2013). However, the. ‧ 國. 學. Western media quickly labeled it as the “Facebook” or “Twitter” revolution. Social networking applications played an important role in organizing the Arab Spring. ‧. in the Middle East. However, one should not overemphasize the part social media played in this movement. As Khondker (2011) mentions in his article “Role of the New. Nat. sit. y. Media in the Arab Spring” this revolution was an interplay between the social and the. io. er. traditional media. News channels such as Al Jazeera, BBC and Al Hiwar were also raising awareness of the protests. They took video footage and updates of the activist’s. n. al. Ch. Facebook accounts and broadcasted it.. engchi. i n U. v. Stepanova (2011) notes, ICT alone was not the main cause for this revolution. In fact, the sociopolitical and socioeconomic issues of Tunisia and Egypt played the biggest role. Even though this movement had a huge impact not only locally but also on the global community, one cannot easily apply this movement’s use of social media to other regions or movements. The spark of the Tunisian revolution quickly spread through other Arabian countries. As a symbol of his discontent with the Egyptian government, a man set himself on fire in front of the Egyptian parliament on January 18, 2011. (Zayed, 2011, p. 219. As a reaction to this and to stand up against the corrupt government, the Facebook page “6 April Youth Movement” was created by the Egyptian opposition party and garnered over 70,000 subscribers. Another Facebook group named “We are all Khaled Said” was founded after a young activist got beaten to death by the police in 21.

(30) June 2010. His only “crime” was the distribution of a video showing police corruption (Castells, 2012, p. 54). Those Facebook sites called for supporters to go to the Ministry of Interior and protest against the police brutality. About two million people joined the protest and occupied the Tahrir square in Egypt (Ibid., p. 55). Facebook became an important tool for collecting information and connecting to individuals who share the same grievances. According to a report by the Egypt Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (2013) Egypt, with a population of about 82 million, has over 18 million Internet users in 2010. In the beginning of the Arab Spring Egypt had about 450,000 active Facebook users whereas Tunisia with almost 2 million users has one of the highest penetration rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (cf. Figure 2).. 立. Figure 1. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Facebook penetration rates in MENA countries at the start of the Arab Spring demonstrations in 2011. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. Source: Statista, n.d.. 22. i n U. v.

(31) Even before the movement started, bloggers in Egypt and Tunisia criticized their government on the Internet (Howard et al., 2011, p.2) Most of the active users are young educated people. However, later during the revolution also impoverished middle class joined to protest against rising food prices in the country (Castells, 2012, p. 67). Stepanova (2011) describes two key functions of social media in this movement: 1. Organizing the protests and 2. Disseminating information about them, which also involved interaction with the international community to publicize their demands (Howard et al., 2011, p. 2). The response of the Tunisian government was the blocking of certain websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The Egyptian government went even further: they called on telecommunication providers to shut down their service. After the companies gave in to the demands of the government, 93% of the. 治政大 a slow-down for the country’s for the continuation of the movement but also meant 立 economy. The shutdown of the internet only motivated the participants to find better Egyptian network was offline (Howard et al., 2011). But this not only was a hindrance. ‧ 國. 學. alternatives such as Google’s “Speak-to Tweet” applications. 5 Tech-savy activists created software that could get around the state firewall. Some activists used servers. ‧. that are not located in the Middle East and thus, were not affected by the shut-down (Howard et al., p. 3). Allagui and Kuebler (2011) state:. y. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. If we learned political leadership and coalition building from the Russian Revolution, and popular initiative from the French revolution, the Arab Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt demonstrated the power of networks (p. 1435).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The motivation for this movement can be found in a lot of reasons. The rigged elections in the years before as well as the women’s right struggle, and the bloody repression against the striking workers in a textile mill (Castells, 2012, p. 53). The demands of the Egyptian protestors were simple: bring down the Mubarak regime and establish real democratic elections. Howard et al. (2011) found out that the activists in Tunisia and Egypt were techsavy and also had help of computer programmers who were able to find alternatives to stay connected after the shut-down. What probably gathered the most media attention. 5. Engineers at Google, Twitter and voice-messaging company SayNow created this service especially for the uprisings in the Middle East. Individuals can post a message on Twitter by calling an international telephone number and leaving a voice mail. Google then would publish this message on Twitter with the hashtag #Egypt.. 23.

(32) was the fact that this movement primarily has its origin in the internet. At the end of 2010 about 80 percent of Egyptians had a cell phone. It is undeniable that social media played a big role in the movement. They used Facebook as a discussion platform. Twitter6 was a tool for organizing the masses and blogs were created to express one’s opinion (Castells, 2012, p. 57). In Aouraghs and Alexanders (2011) article, Noha Atef, a protestor, is cited the following: To have space, an online space, to write and talk to people, to give them messages which will increase their anger, this is my favorite way of online activism (…) When you ask people to go and to demonstrate against the police, they were ready because you had already provided them with materials which made them angry.. 政治大 protestors. Furthermore, the participants also “took care” of those without Internet 立 access: pamphlets were distributed in the slums (Castells, 2012, p. 59). After occupying Also, livestreams were set up, primarily to expose the police violence against the. ‧ 國. 學. the Tahrir Square, activists created a “media camp” to collect all the video and picture material produced by the participants (Castells., p. 60). Following the series of protests. ‧. against his government, Ben Ali flee to Saudi Arabia and was later sentenced to life imprisonment (Aljazeera, 2012). The Egyptian political leader, Hosni Mubarak,. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. 2014).. sit. stepped down and was eventually, given prison sentence in May 2015 (The Guardian,. 2.2. i n U. Ch. v. e n ginc Spain hi The Indignants Movement. The series of ongoing demonstrations in Spain, that took place in the same year as the Arab Spring, are also well known. In those political protests, social media also played a crucial role in it. The “Indignados Movement”, first known as 15M demonstration7, was a protest movement that has its origin in the economic crisis. In February 2011 the unemployment rate in Spain came to 22 percent, with youth unemployment even higher. This stirred up anger among the Spanish citizens and the Facebook groups “Real Democracy NOW” (Spanish: Democracia Real YA) and “Platform of Coordination of. 6. In western countries, Twitter is mostly used to talk about everyday life with a network of family and friends. 7 The name refers to the day of the first demonstration – May 15 (Castells, 2012, p. 114).. 24.

(33) Groups Pro-Citizen Mobilization” was created. It criticized how the Spanish government managed the economic crisis in Europe. They denounced the lack of representative democracy in Spain under its current leaders. Corruption scandals of political leaders, who are not able to handle the crisis, are perceived as another reason for Spanish citizens to take over the streets and call for protests. Anduiza et al. (2014) made out three distinctive features of this movement: the activists were not only criticizing social injustice but also the dysfunction of the democratic institutions. They demanded more transparency and more possibilities to actively participate in the government’s decision making process (Anduiza et al., 2014, p. 752). Furthermore, the traditional organizations of protests – trade unions or parties – were not involved in this protest since they were the cause for the anger of the public.. 治政大 of activists were decentralized existing websites (Castells, 2012, p. 110). The groups 立 and hence, Facebook was a useful tool to coordinate. The movement is said to be partly A discussion forum, a blog and an email list were created additionally to those. ‧ 國. 學. inspired by the Arab Spring in the Middle East.. Eventually, demonstrations were held on May 15 under the slogan “Real. ‧. Democracy Now! Take the streets. We are not merchandise in the hands of politicians and bankers” (Castells, 2012, p. 112). Tens of thousands of people took over the streets. y. Nat. sit. in big cities such as Barcelona and Madrid. Political parties or organizations were not. al. er. io. the motor behind the movement, as it would have been in the case of a traditional social. n. movement. The short-text-messaging service Twitter was used to organize this protest. Ch. i n U. v. and mobilize more people. The protestors in Madrid even occupied the symbolic Puerta. engchi. del Sol whereas in Barcelona it was the Catalunya Square. The IT specialist Daniel Vázquez, one of the occupiers of Puerta del Sol, tells about his experience during the movement in a interview with John Postill (2014).. He participated in the 15M. demonstration that was a peaceful sit-in with no violence involved. At that time the first assembly took place where the participants could debate about solutions for the crisis of their country. Vázquez, however, also admits that it was impossible to reach any conclusion or make decisions about anything. The Assembly just symbolized a space for people to speak out their mind and express their opinion. It was during the assembly that Vázquez decided to “form a small communication group” to reach more people who have the same feelings of anger against the government. After the sit-in, he even registered an account on Twitter (@acampadasol), although he had no idea in what way to use it. His first message was “We’ve camped at Puerta del Sol and are not leaving 25.