Towards a Critical Understanding of Social Networks for the Feminist MovementTwitter and the Women’s Strike

  1. Dafne Calvo 1
  2. Eva Campos-Domínguez 2
  3. Iris Simón-Astudillo 2
  1. 1 Universitat de València
    info

    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

  2. 2 Universidad de Valladolid
    info

    Universidad de Valladolid

    Valladolid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01fvbaw18

Revista:
Trípodos

ISSN: 1138-3305 2340-5007

Año de publicación: 2021

Título del ejemplar: Gender and Media

Número: 50

Páginas: 91-109

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.51698/TRIPODOS.2021.50P91-109 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Otras publicaciones en: Trípodos

Resumen

The intensive use of digital platforms by the feminist movement has been identified as one of its main characteristics. Numerous studies address the tactical use of social networks by this movement, especially on 8 March in Spain. This paper studies the action repertoires of different actors who participated in the 2019 Women’s Strike conversation, including automated accounts. Empirical results demonstrate that Twitter is not an exclusive field for the feminist movement. Along with activists who promoted and informed the Women’s Strike, political parties proposed concrete policy measures, and conservative factions criticized the movement calling for demobilization. In this sense, for the first time in these M8 mobilizations, bots participated in this polarisation of the debate through partisan hashtags and the dissemination of fake news. The investigation thus confirms that automation techniques and contradictory flows of power are critical elements to understand the real potential of social networks for feminist social change.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Acker, Amelia (2018). “Data Craft: The Manipulation of Social Media Metadata”. Data & Society. Available at: <https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/DS_Data_Cra-ft_Manipulation_of_Social_Media_Metadata_.pdf>. Accessed 16 February 2021.
  • Baer, Hester (2016). “Redoing Feminism: Digital Activism, Body Politics, and Neolibera-lism.” Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), pp. 17-34. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1093070>.
  • Banet-Weiser, Sarah and Miltner, Kate M. (2016). “#MasculinitySoFragile: Culture, Structure, and Networked Misogyny”. Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), pp. 171-174. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1120490>.
  • Barassi, Veronica (2015). Activism on the Web. Activism on the Web. New York: Routledge. <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315870991>.
  • Beneito-Montagut, Roser (2011). “Ethnography Goes Online: Towards a User-centred Methodology to Research Interpersonal Communication on the Internet”. Qualitative Research, 11(6), pp. 716-735. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794111413368>.
  • Blais, Melissa and Dupuis-Déri, Francis (2012). “Masculinism and the Antifeminist Counter Movement”. Social Movement Studies, 11(1), pp. 21-39. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2012.640532>.
  • Boling, Kelli S. (2019). “#ShePersisted, Mitch: A Memetic Critical Discourse Analysis on an Attempted Instagram Feminist Revolu-tion”. Feminist Media Studies. 20(7), pp. 966-982. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.16208214>.
  • Bradshaw, Samantha and Howard, Philip N. (2017). “Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation”. University of Oxford, 12. Available at <http://blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk/political-bots/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/07/Troops-Trolls-and-Troublemakers.pdf>. Accessed 16 February 2021.
  • Brewer, Sierra and Dundes, Lauren (2018). “Concerned, Meet Terrified: Intersectional Feminism and the Women’s March”. Women’s Studies International Forum, 69, pp. 49-55. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2018.04.008>.
  • Buolamwini, Joy and Gebru, Timnit (2018). “Gender Shades: Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification”. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 81, pp. 1-15. <https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S126905>.
  • Calvo, Dafne (2020). “Free Software Meets Facebook: Placing Digital Platforms’ Usage by Free Culture Communities”. New Media & Society. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820971629>.
  • Campillo, Inés (2019). “‘If We Stop, the World Stops’: The 2018 Feminist Strike in Spain”. Social Movement Studies, 18(2), pp. 252-258. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2018.1556092>.
  • Carragee, Kevin M. (2019). “Communication, Activism and the News Media: An Agenda for Future”. Communication and Society, 32(4), pp. 361-378. <https://doi.org/10.15581/003.32.4.361-378>.
  • Cervi, Laura and Carillo-Andrade, Andrea (2019) ‘Post-truth and Disinformation: Using Discourse Analysis to Understand the Creation of Emotional and Rival Narratives’. Revista ComHumanitas, 10(2), pp. 125-150. <https://doi.org/10.31207/rch.v10i2.207>.
  • Chenou, Jean Marie and Cepeda-Másmela, Carolina (2019). “#NiUnaMenos: Data Activism from the Global South”. Television and New Media, 20(4), pp. 396-411. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419828995>.
  • Clark, Rosemary (2016). ““Hope in a Hashtag”: The Discursive Activism of #WhyIStayed”. Feminist Media Studies, 16(5), pp. 788-804. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1138235>.
  • Costanza-Chock, Sasha (2018). “Design Justice: Towards an Intersectional Feminist Framework for Design Theory and Practice”. Catalyst, pp. 1-14. <https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.679>.
  • Couldry, Nick (2015). “The Myth of “Us”: Digital Networks, Political Change and the Production of Collectivity”. Information Communication and Society, 18(6), pp. 608-626. <https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.979216>.
  • Croeser, Sky and Highfield, Tim (2014). “Occupy Oakland and #oo: Uses of Twitter within the Occupy Movement”. First Monday, 19(3). <https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i3.4827>.
  • Earl, Jennifer and Garrett, R. Kelly (2017). “The New Information Frontier: Toward a More Nuanced View of Social Movement Communication”. Social Movement Studies, 16(4), pp. 479-493. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2016.1192028>
  • Elsheikh, Dalia and Lilleker, Darren G. (2021). “Egypt’s Feminist Counter-Public: The Reinvigoration of the Post-Revolution Public Sphere”. New Media & Society, 23(1), pp. 22-38. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819890576>.
  • Eslen-Ziya, Hande (2013). “Social Media and Turkish Feminism: New Resources for Social Activism”. Feminist Media Studies, 13(5), pp. 860-870. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2013.838369>.
  • Fernández-Romero, Diana and Sánchez-Duarte, José M. (2019). “Feminist Alliances and Resistances on Facebook for the 8M Call in Spain”. Convergencia Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 26(81), 09. <https://doi.org/10.29101/crcs.v26i81.11943>.
  • Ferrari, Elisabetta (2020) ‘Technocracy Meets Populism: The Dominant Technological Imaginary of Silicon Valley’, Communication, Culture & Critique, 00, pp. 1-4. <https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcz051>.
  • Fischer, Mia (2016). “#Free_CeCe: The Material Convergence of Social Media Activism”. Feminist Media Studies, 16(5), pp. 755-771. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1140668>.
  • Fuchs, Christian (2014). Social Media. A Critical Introduction. London: SAGE.
  • Galdón-Corbella, Carmen (2018). “Feminist Worldviews in a Generational Aspect. From the 15M Movement to the 8M Feminist Strike”. Encrucijadas – Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales, 16, v1602.
  • Galis, Vasilis and Neumayer, Christina (2016). “Laying Claim to Social Media by Activists: A Cyber-Material Détournement”. Social Media and Society, 2(3), pp. 1-14. <https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116664360>.
  • Gámez-Fuentes, María José (2015). “Feminisms and the 15M Movement in Spain: Between Frames of Recognition and Contexts of Action”. Social Movement Studies, 14(3), pp. 359-365. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2014.994492>.
  • Gantt-Shafer, Jessica; Wallis, Cara, and Miles, Catilin (2019). “Intersectionality, (Dis)unity, and Processes of Becoming at the 2017 Women’s March”. Women’s Studies in Communication, 42(2), pp. 221-240. <https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2019.1616021>.
  • García-Albacete, Gema and Theocharis, Yannis (2014). “Opportunities and Challenges of Analyzing Twitter Content: A Comparison of the Occupation Movements in Spain, Greece and the United States”. In: Cantijoch, Marta; Gibson, Rachel, and Ward, Stephen (eds.). Analysing Social Media Data and Web Networks. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Grimme, Christian; Preuss, Mike; Adam, Lena, and Trautmann, Heike (2017). “Social Bots: Human-Like by Means of Human Control?”. Big Data, 5(4), pp. 279-293.
  • Guasch, Óscar (1991). La sociedad rosa [Pink society]. Barcelona: Anagrama.
  • Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio (2004). Multitud: Guerra y Democracia en la era del imperio [Multitude. War and Democracy in the Age of Empire]. Madrid: Debate.
  • Harp, Dustin; Grimm, Josh, and Loke, Jaime (2018). “Rape, Storytelling and Social Media: How Twitter Interrupted the News Media’s Ability to Construct Collective Memory”. Feminist Media Studies, 18(6), pp. 979-995. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1373688>.
  • Hine, Christine (2000). Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage.
  • Kay, Jilly Boyce and Banet-Weiser, Sarah (2019). “Feminist Anger and Feminist Respair”. Feminist Media Studies, 19(4), pp. 603-609. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1609231>.
  • Kensinger, Loretta (2003). “Plugged in Praxis: Critical Reflections on US Feminism, Internet Activism, and Solidarity with Women in Afghanistan”. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5(1), pp. 1-28.
  • Król, Afnieszka, and Pustułka, Paula (2018). “Women on Strike: Mobilizing Against Reproductive Injustice in Poland”. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 20(3), pp. 366-384. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2018.1460214>.
  • Kuo, Rachel (2018). “Racial Justice Activist Hashtags: Counterpublics and Discourse Circulation”. New Media and Society, 20(2), pp. 495-514. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816663485>.
  • Lasén, Amparo and Martínez de Albéniz, Iñaki (2011). ““An Original Protest, at Least”. Mediality and Participation”. In: Greif, Hajo de; Hjorth, Larissa; Lasén, Amparo, and Lobet-Maris, Claire (eds.). Cultures of Participation. Media Practices, Politics and Literacy. Berlin: Peter Lang, pp. 141-158.
  • Linabary, Jasmine R.; Corple, Danielle J., and Cooky, Cherly (2020). “Feminist Activism in Digital Space: Postfeminist Contradictions in #WhyIStayed”. New Media & Society, 22(10), pp. 1827-1848. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819884635>.
  • Lopez, Kimberly J.; Muldoon, Meghan L., and McKeown, Janet K. L. (2019). “One Day of #Feminism: Twitter As a Complex Digital Arena for Wielding, Shielding, and Trolling Talk on Feminism”. Leisure Sciences, 41(3), pp. 203-220. <https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2018.1448022>.
  • Losh, Elizabeth (2014). “Hashtag Feminism and Twitter Activism in India”. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 3(3), pp. 11-22.
  • Maclaran, Pauline (2015). “Feminism’s Fourth Wave: A Research Agenda for Marketing and Consumer Research”. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(15), pp. 1732-1738.
  • Matich, Margaret; Ashman, Rachel, and Parsons, Elizabeth (2019). “#freethenipple – digital Activism and Embodiment in the Contemporary Feminist Movement”. Consumption Markets and Culture, 22(4), pp. 337-362. <https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2018.1512240>.
  • Mattoni, Alice (2017). “A Situated Understanding of Digital Technologies in Social Movements. Media Ecology and Media Practice Approaches”. Social Movement Studies, 16(4), pp. 494-505. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2017.1311250>.
  • Milan, Stefania and Treré, Emiliano (2019). “Big Data from the South(s): Beyond Data Universalism”. Television and New Media, 20(4), pp. 319-335. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419837739>.
  • Munro, Ealasaid (2013). “Feminism: A Fourth Wave?”. Political Insight, 4(2), pp. 22-25. <https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-9066.12021>.
  • Núñez-Puente, Sonia; D’Antonio-Maceiras, Sergio, and Fernández-Romero, Diana (2019). “Twitter Activism and Ethical Witnessing: Possibilities and Challenges of Feminist Politics Against Gender-Based Violence”. Social Science Computer Review, pp. 1-17. <https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439319864898>.
  • Núñez-Puente, Sonia and Fernández-Romero, Diana (2017). “Transformative Narratives and Ethical Witnessing: The 7N Feminist Platform’s Discursive Strategies Against Gender-based Violence”. Comunicación, 7(3), pp. 269-281.
  • Orgad, Shani and Gill, Rosalind (2019). “Safety Valves for Mediated Female Rage in the #MeToo era”. Feminist Media Studies, 19(4), pp. 596-603. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1609198>.
  • Pariser, Eli (2011). The Filter Bubble. What the Internet Is Hiding from You. London: Penguin.
  • Pavan, Elena and Mainardi, Arianna (2018). “Striking, Marching, Tweeting: Studying How Online Networks Change Together with Movements”. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 11(2), pp. 394-422. <https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v11i2p394>.
  • Piñeiro-Otero, Teresa and Martínez-Rolán, Xabier (2016). “Memes in the Internet Feminist Activism. #ViajoSola As an Example of Transnational Mobilisation”. Cuadernos.Info, (39), pp. 17-37. <https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.39.1040>.
  • Poell, Thomas and Borra, Erik (2012). “Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr As Platforms of Alternative Journalism: The Social Media Account of the 2010 Toronto G20 Protests”. Journalism, 13(6), pp. 695-713. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911431533>.
  • Powers, Shawn and Kounalakis, Markos (2017). Can Public Diplomacy Survive the Internet? Bots, Echo Chambers, and Disinformation. Washington D.C.: Department of State.
  • Rentschler, Carrie (2015). “#Safetytipsfor-ladies: Feminist Twitter Takedowns of Victim Blaming”. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), pp. 353-356. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1008749>.
  • Schradie, Jen (2019). The Revolution That Wasn’t. How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives. Boston: Harvard University Press.
  • Treré, Emiliano (2019). Hybrid Media Activism: Ecologies, Imaginaries, Algorithms. Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Tucker, Joshua A.; Theocharis, Yannis; Ro-berts, Margaret E., and Barberá, Pablo (2018). “From Liberation to Turmoil: Social Media and Democracy”. Journal of Democracy, 28(4), pp. 46-59.
  • Wajcman, Judy (2010). “Feminist Theories of Technology”. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34(1), pp. 143-152. <https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/ben057>.
  • Weber, Millicent and Davis, Mark (2019). “Feminism in the Troll Space: Clementine Ford’s Fight Like a Girl, Social Media, and the Networked Book”. Feminist Media Studies, 20(7), pp. 944-965. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1652667>.
  • Woolley, Samuel C. and Howard, Philip N. (2016). “Political Communication, Computational Propaganda, and Autonomous Agents: Introduction”. International Journal of Communication, 10, pp. 4882-4890. <https://doi.org/1932–8036/20160005>.
  • Wrenn, Corey (2019). “Pussy Grabs Back: Bestialized Sexual Politics and Intersectional Failure in Protest Posters for the 2017 Women’s March”. Feminist Media Studies, 19(6), pp. 803-821. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1465107>.
  • Wrye, Harriet K. (2009). “The Fourth Wave of Feminism: Psychoanalytic Perspectives Introductory Remarks”. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 10(4), pp. 185-189.
  • Yan, Harry Yaojun; Yang, Kai-Cheng; Menczer, Filippo, and Shanahan, James (2020). “Asymmetrical Perceptions of Partisan Political Bots”. New Media & Society, July. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820942744>.
  • Youmans, William L. and York, Jillian C. (2012). “Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements”. Journal of Communication, 62(2), pp. 315-329. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01636.x>.
  • Zuboff, Shoshana (2015). “Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization”. Journal of Information Technology, 30(1), pp. 75-89. <https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.5>.