New information and communications technologies (ICTs) are changing how activists communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. How can we understand these changes? This paper focuses on three factors: mobilising structures, opportunity structures and framing processes. Activists have devised numerous ways to use new technologies for mobilising, realising new political opportunities, and shaping the language in which movements are discussed. Situating existing studies within a unifying framework will provide a more coherent overview of the field.
Scholars from a range of disciplines, including sociology, political science, and communication, are working to understand how ICTs are changing social activism. This diversity of perspectives enriches the literature, but it is also an obstacle to understanding. The absence of a common set of theoretical principles makes it difficult to find connections between different works.
McAdam, McCarthy and Zald’s 1996 framework aims to explain social movements’ emergence, development and outcomes by addressing three interrelated factors: mobilising structures, opportunity structures and framing processes. Mobilising structures refer to mechanisms that enable individuals to organise and engage in collective action. Opportunity structures refer to conditions in the environment that favour social movement activity. Framing processes are strategic attempts to craft and disseminate narratives to describe a movement. In considering this framework, the following points emerge:
- Three mechanisms potentially link technology and participation: reduction of participation costs, promotion of collective identity, and creation of community.
- New ICTs present new recruitment opportunities and facilitate collaboration between social movement organisations. They can also accelerate and geographically extend the diffusion of information and protest.
- The low cost of maintaining ties online could mean that fewer supporters are needed to keep a movement active, leading to more sustained activity. The ability to coordinate globally means that people around the world can function as part of a larger collective movement.
- New ICTs facilitate the adoption of decentralised, non-hierarchical organisational forms, and make entrepreneur-led activism more feasible.
- New ICTs have transformed the role of communication media in politics. The ability to bypass mass media is one of the most discussed changes.
Activists have devised numerous ways to use new technologies for mobilising, realising new political opportunities, and shaping the language in which movements are discussed. But the impact of ICTs on social movements is not straightforward:
- Predictions of radicalisation emphasise the internet’s technical capacities while downplaying the importance of people’s behaviour. Though the internet could allow inaccurate information to travel further and faster, the shift from protest to riot is dependent on people’s actions.
- Though the increasing feasibility of networked forms of organisation creates opportunities, it is also a significant threat. Activists are not the only group capable of using technology to become more fluid and flexible; many elite organisations have done the same.
- Though some new ICTs make regulation more difficult, there are mechanisms that preserve the state’s ability to regulate. Perhaps more important than the idea of unchallenged regulatory freedom is the opportunity to temporarily evade efforts to control the flow of information.
- The mechanisms by which new ICTs diminish the importance of traditional organisations are thought provoking. But these should be weighed against factors that contribute to the continued importance of social movement organisations.
