Political protest and mobile communication

This chapter explores the role of mobile phones and smartphones for activists in political protest. Activist practices and modalities of organizing and coordination, identity formation and representation of political protest, and production of visibility and maintenance of security may have changed as a result of the presence of these technologies. The entry engages with this issue as a socio-technical process at the intersection of social movement studies and (mobile) media studies. It explores the evolution of mobile media technologies and political activism and illustrates the tensions that have emerged in this interrelationship. It emphasizes the extent to which political protest has become dependent upon and constrained by mobile phones. The chapter concludes by arguing that political activism and mobile technologies are interdependent and that it is at this socio-technical intersection that we must ask critical questions concerning the roles mobile phones play in political protest today.