The Internet in the social mobilization: the conquest of the public sphere. The role of the Internet in the planning and development of the 15-M Movement

The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement The Internet in the social mobilization: the conquest of the public sphere The role of the Internet in the planning and development of the 15-M Movement1 José Candón Mena PHD in Complutense University. Awarded by Complutense University in 2010 by the research: “Internet in movement: new social movements and new mass media in the information society”. Researcher in the group “Compoliticas” at Sevilla University Diana Redondo Escobar PHD Student in Complutense University. Currently at IESA/CSIC (Institute for Advanced Social Studies/Spanish Board for Scientific Research) Abstract The 15-M Movement in Spain arose from a protest organized via the Internet for the 15th of May 2011. The initial protest arose as a result, on one hand, of the impacts of the economic crisis, and on the other, as a show of the disenchantment felt by large segments of the population towards the political classes. The 15-M Movement can be framed in an increasing cycle of protest which has been augmented by this movement itself. The importance of the Internet in the 15-M Movement is apparent from the first announcement of the demonstration which began the movement and lent it its name. The call to action caused a large echo en the Internet-based Social Media. The movement starts a battle to conquer its space on the public agenda. Trough a combined strategy of street demonstrations and online diffusion of the protests the movement forcefully burst onto the political and media agendas which had proven impervious to the first demonstration. The informative and counter-informative uses of the Internet are crucial to this achievement. The Internet served far more than other media as a space for debate, confrontation of ideas and opinions, and interpretation of a reality perceived to be unjust. A space in which individual outrage would be, little by little, shared until it generated a climate of support for demonstration and protest. 1A more extensive analysis can be found in the book “Orígenes y retos del the 15-M Movement” (Origins and challenges of the 15-M Movement) which will soon be published through Icaria press. The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement 1. Introduction The 15-M Movement in Spain arose from a protest organized via the Internet for the 15th of May 2011. In the wake of the success of this call to protest a space for the mobilization of various activist struggles was consolidated. Out of the first demonstration there arose protest-camps, assemblies, rallies, occupations, marches, workshops, blockades, the halting of evictions, and new local, national and global demonstrations (19J, 15O) which had the 15-M Movement as a point of reference. The initial protest arose as a result, on one hand, of the impacts of the economic crisis, and on the other, as a show of the disenchantment felt by large segments of the population towards the political classes. The protest's slogan “We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers” points to both of these sentiments. Within the sphere of economics two factors stand out: the increased rate of unemployment2, especially amongst the youth; and the increased cost of living, which in 2006 was already the motivation for a wave of protests which can be identified as one of the precedents for the 15-M Movement3. To this must be added the precariousness of the employment situation, with pay cuts and increased hours; and measures adopted by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party) government such as increasing the retirement age, tax increases and labour reforms. In the political sphere the main impacts were the corruption scandals affecting the major parties; but also revelations made by Wikileaks and the Sinde law4, which undermined the credibility of, and trust in, the major public institutions so that the political class became identified by the citizenry as one of the principal problems 5. This disenchantment was also manifest towards the major unions, with the result that, in the perceived absence of guidance from the traditional political organisations and the limited means of political participation, people resorted to demonstration. In addition to their local dissatisfactions, the Spanish youth were inspired and influenced by earlier protests such as those in France, Greece, Portugal and the UK, the Icelandic uprising and, especially, the Arab Spring. Within Spain the right-to-housing protests (Movimiento Vivienda) mentioned earlier and the student protests against the Bologna Plan6, as well others more recent such as the virtual actions against the Sinde law, the Estado de Malestar (State of Discomfort/Unease)7 protests, and Juventud sin Futuro (Youth without Future)8 can be considered precedents of the 15-M Movement. In this context the call to action caused a large echo en the Internet-based Social Media. Using Facebook the conveners of the original protest created an initial event9 to which 430,878 people 2 Unemployement rate in the first semester of 2011, just before the protest: 21,3%, acording to EPA (Working People's Survey) 3 In 2006 the right-to-housing protests uprise when the number of evictions increased. In 2008 there were 250 evictions per day. 4 Sinde is the family name of the former Culture Minister who wanted to protect the authors' copy rights in the Internet. This law-project was the beginning of a big protest in the social networks. 5 Since February 2010, politic class is perceived as the third main problems for the citizenship, according to CIS barometer. In 2011 politic class is set as main problem by 24,7% of Spanish population. 6 University mobilizations from 2008 to 2009. 7 Citizen movement compound of “people of any age and ideologically diverse, but with something in common: we feel outraged at the political and finance system by which we have been betrayed and which are no longer working properly”. See: https://malestarmadrid.wordpress.com/sobre-nosotros/ 8 It begins in 2011 by Madrid university groups initiative' which were aware of job insecurity. This insecurity had increase, according to this platform, after Government's economic measures. 9 http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=170278529687744 The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement were invited, of which 73,382 indicated they would attend the march and 26,104 approved (clicked “like”) on the Facebook page, as did 31,979 users of the popular Spanish Social Networking site Tuenti10. A video uploaded to web channel YouTube was watched 13,557 times and the website of the campaign was visited 27,410 times on the day before the protest; all of which give an indication of the online reach of the movement. On Twitter, tags related to the call to action (#15m, #15mpasalo, #alacalle15m, #15mani; translated respectively as: #the 15-M Movement, #the 15-M Movement pass it, #take the street 15-M, #the 15-M demonstration...) were amongst the most popular in Spain during the preceding week, rising to the number one position on the day of the protest, and becoming the most popular tags in the world on the day after the protest, using the variations #acampadasol y #spanishrevolution. According to the organizers, more than 25,000 people in Madrid and some 15,000 in Barcelona (according to police sources the figures were 20,000 and 6,000 respectively), as well as thousands of people in other cities, took to the streets in response to the call-out, exceeding expectations. According to DRY (Democracia Real Ya11) some 130,000 people demonstrated across the country on the 15th of May12. According to the estimates of the polling group IPSOS13, between 6 and 8.5 million people have (will have) taken part in the protests. Another study by Havas Media gave figures showing 32.97% of people had participated in or visited the protest-camps, and a survey by Metroscopia cited 20% of people as having participated in at least one event, and 8% as having participated in assemblies. The CIS14 confirmed a considerable increase en the level of demonstrations after the 15-M protests, due specifically to the attendance at these protests. En April 2011, just before the 15th of May, 11.1% of those interviewed had participated in a demonstration in the past year. This figure reached 15.8% (an increase of 4.7%) in October 2011, and climbed another 5.4% in April 2012, reaching 21.2%. This represents a doubling of the number of people attending demonstrations after the 15-M protests15. It must be noted that government reports had already noted an increase in public actions since the beginning of the crisis. The final figures of 2010 recorded 19,336 protests, 36% more than the report of 2007, before the outbreak of the economic crisis. Therefore the 15-M Movement can be framed in an increasing cycle of protest which has been augmented by this movement itself. Several newspapers and national television channels covered the initial protest. The main national paper, El Pais, ran the news and a photograph on the front page of its online edition beneath the headline, “The demonstration of 'los indignados' musters thousands of people across Spain” (“La manifestación de 'indignados' reúne a varios miles de personas en toda España”). Despite this, the lack of media coverage of the demonstrations of the 15th of May was widely criticised by activists across the online Social Media. The demonstrations that followed, and especially the protest camps, considerably increased the mass-media coverage of the protests, which came to have a bearing on the political agenda and the local Madrid elections on the 22nd of May. The level of interest taken by the Spanish population in this phenomenon is evident. Between June 10 Social network in the Internet, very popular among teenagers. 11 In English: Real Democracy Now, calling organization of the 15th May demonstration 12 DRY press comunication: 17-05- 2011 http://www.democraciarealya.es/prensa/ 13 http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2011/08/03/actualidad/1312388649_737959.html 14 Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Sociological Research Center, in English), it depends on the Goverment 15 http://www.ciencia-explicada.com/2011/10/analisis-estadistico-del-movimiento-15m.html The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement and July 78% of Spaniards, some 30 million, were aware of the 15-M Movement, according to a survey taken by IPSOS. 21% considered themselves quite informed about the events, 26% slightly informed, and 22% were unaware of the movement. According to the June public opinion poll by CIS16, 50.2% of Spaniards had followed the news about the movement, while a study by Havas Media cited 72.41% as following the 15-M Movement across the same dates. When it comes to sympathising with the 15-M Movement, according to CIS figures 70.3% of the population who had followed the movement with great or significant interest had a positive opinion of it. Of these 26.3% had a very positive opinion, and 44% a significantly positive opinion. Support for the movement increases to 83.37% in the study by Havas Media, in which 81.97% of people considered the movement to be positive for Spain. In a survey by Metroscopia, 54% indicated support for the movement, compared with 27% who were critical. In regards to the proposals and claims of the movement, the same survey reported that 73% of people thought the demonstrators were right. Quoting similar figures, a survey by IPSOS found 76% considered their claims reasonable, while 7% were opposed and 17% took no position. The available information confirms significant participation in the protests (which increased during the protest-camps and in the large gatherings such as the 19J and 15O, in which attendances surpassed those of the demonstrations on the 15th May), a high level of awareness, substantial following of the news, sympathy for the protests and support for its claims. Participation Havas Have you participated in or seen any of the protest-camps? 32,97% Metroscopia Participation in assemblies or rallies. 28% (20% in rallies and 8% in assemblies) IPSOS Participation visiting protest-camps, attending assemblies or turning up to demonstrations. 6-8.5 million (of which 0.8-1.5 million participated intensively) Awareness IPSOS 78% (30 million) Monitoring the news CIS 50,2% Havas Are you following the development of this movement and of the protest-camps? 72,41% Sympathy CIS 70,3% Havas 81,37% 16 http://imagenes.publico-estaticos.es/resources/archivos/2011/7/6/1309953070828Barometro%20junio%202011.pdf The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement Do you support, or are you in general agreement with this protest movement? Metroscopia Sympathy compared to rejection 54% Support for proposals Metroscopia “they're basically right” 73% IPSOS “Their claims are more than reasonable” 76% Table 1. Table comparing the studies by CIS, Metroscopia, IPSOS and Havas Media. By the authors. The 15-M Movement arises from a critique, and from an exploration, of alternative forms of democracy. From these arise other critiques, centered on ideas of participation and social justice, and based around a solution to the financial crisis. Democratic issues will be the main concern of the movement (as indicated by the name of the convening platform: Real Democracy Now!) from which will emerge not only concrete proposals for political reform (such as electoral law reform, anti-corruption and transparency measures, etc.) and social justice (rejection of the bank bailout, a freeze on evictions, redistribution measures...) but also discourses and practices of radical democracy (direct, deliberative/discursive). Its impact, beyond the concrete achievements in the short-term, aims at (points towards?) the consolidation of new actors, practices and political discourses in the frame of the new global movements, within which the 15-M movement is inscribed. 2. Theoretical framework and Methodology: The theoretical framework of this text assumes the interconnectedness of social movement theories and media theories. From the perspective of social movements, the integration of the theories of Resource Mobilisation (RMT) and the approach of the New Social Movements (NSM) contributes a complex analytical framework which emphasises the relevance, for the NSMs, of the study of these movements in the context of the Information Society. With respect to the theoretical traditions of communication, we take as a reference point the critical perspectives of such groups as the Frankfurt School and the Political Economy of Communication, which establish the movements as critical subjects. In the same critical vein, we base ourselves in those theories that underline the active role of the recipient, such as Cultural Studies and Peoples' Communication. These theories are relevant for an analysis of the adaptation of the movements to the new media, in which the user acquires a renewed relevance. Despite this theoretical base, this text intends to be an empirical work. To this end, theoretical references will be used primarily to frame the declarations of the movement's protagonists, which form the basis of this analysis. The empirical methodology of this study is based on the testimony collected through interviews undertaken in Seville during a conference on Free Culture and Technopolitics17, and in three discussion groups which took place in Seville, Madrid and Barcelona at the beginning of 2012. The groups were based on several general themes, and this text focuses on one of these: that of the role 17 http://www.hackandalus.net/ The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement of virtual networks in the demonstrations. A more extensive analysis of the information obtained from these discussion groups can be found in the book “Orígenes y retos del the 15-M Movement” (Origins and challenges of the 15-M Movement) which will soon be published through Icaria press. We would like to thank Julia Cañero, Jordi Bonet, Alessandra Caporale and Ángel Calle for the field work which they performed with us. An special mention to Pedro Ibarra and Marta Cruells for coordinating the book. We also want to thank the Betiko Foundation for its support, and to Icaria publishing house for editing this book. 3. The role of the Internet in the 15-M Movement. The importance of the Internet in the 15-M Movement is apparent from the first announcement of the demonstration which began the movement and lent it its name. Developing the techniques of preceding movements in Spain (such as the 13-M protests organized through mobile phone textmessages (SMS) and the housing movement managed by email), on May 15th thousands of people responded to a call spread, this time, through online social networks (OSNs). The success of this method (which would later unleash a considerable round of protests) shaped a true movement or, at the very least, a space of protest beyond that of the isolated demonstration, and consolidated this practice as part of the basic repertoire of protest of a youth that has incorporated ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) into their way of performing politics. However, the role of the Internet and new technologies goes far beyond the evidently usefulness of these networks for the organization of the demonstrations which began the 15-M Movement. Social networks and the Internet also form part of the network of communication which has affirmed the perceived injustice of a crisis that is not only economic, but also political and cultural. Information about the social context that would become the motivation for the outrage expressed by the movement was spread through all media, as well as the Internet, but the Internet served far more than other media as a space for debate, confrontation of ideas and opinions, and interpretation of a reality perceived to be unjust. A space in which individual outrage would be, little by little, shared until it generated a climate of support for demonstration and protest. The OSNs (along with other forms of social interaction such as informal conversations with friends, families, workmates and neighbors) wove a prior consensus which was necessary for the very idea of protest which these networks would later assist in organizing. From this first latent phase of the movement the organizers moved into a phase of activity, albeit one still publicly invisible. The creation on the social network Facebook of the Plataforma de Coordinación de Grupos Pro-movilización Ciudadana (Platform for the Coordination of Prodemonstration Citizens' Groups), precedent of Democracia Real Ya! (Real Democracy Now!), indicates the presence of activist action in which the seed of the movement was already planted. This activity would develop almost entirely on the Internet before leaping into the public sphere en the visible stage that commenced on the 15th May. However this eruption into the physical world did not mean the abandonment of the virtual world. Even though the physical appearance in the streets of thousands of demonstrators greatly empowered the participants, the Internet continued to be essential for the coverage and spread of the protest, underlining its meaning and relevance. Through a combined strategy of street demonstrations and online diffusion of the protests the movement forcefully burst onto the political The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement and media agendas which had proven impervious to the first demonstration. This was reflected in the first attempted protest-camp in Sol18, the removal by police forces which followed, and the diffusion of these events through social networks which increased feelings of outrage and increased the call for new protest-camps (this time on a massive scale) in the plaza, giving rise to the spectacular images which, in a similar manner to those from Tahir Square in Cairo, inevitably attracted the attention of the media. The Internet served to complement to the organisation firstly of the protest-camps and, later, of the neighborhood assemblies, as well as to aid the spread of new protests. But beyond this practical use we can also emphasize the way in which the culture, the language and the symbols of the Internet suffused the actions and the discourse of the movement. 'Anonymous' masks, banners which copied the language of computers (“Error 404: Democracy not found”...), “open source” demonstrations, slogans in the form of Twitter hash tags... The open possibilities of the Internet influenced not only the culture, but also the proposals of the movement, such as those of Democracy 4.019 which intends to improve the representative system by facilitating the direct participation of voters through online voting. the Internet and new technologies are not, therefore, a simple tool of the 15-M Movement, but are rather at the very heart of the movement. They explain in part its existence, they made its blossoming possible, they constitute one of its principle organising structures, they are embedded in its culture, its language and its discourse, and they embody some of its proposals. In no uncertain terms the Internet symbolizes the “other possible world” to which the demonstrating youth contrast the establishment. Against an authoritative and scarcely representative democracy they contrast the direct and participative democracy of the plazas. To the hierarchical, bureaucratic and ultra conservative political parties and unions the present the casual freshness and horizontal hierarchy of the assemblies. Against the monopoly of corporate and unidirectional media they hold up the multiplicity of voices and conversations on the Internet. “The Internet is Democracy” declared some of the activists. The 15-M Movement, in its demand for a “real democracy”, identifies its values of horizontality, participation and liberty with the Internet, with its construction based on these same principles (Castells, 2001). Although the idea of a public that is passive and defenseless in the face of the omnipresent power of the media (the theory of the hypodermic needle, the Frankfurt school, etc.) has been slowly ousted by communications theories which increasingly signal the active role of the audience and the limits of the influence of the media (limited effects, theory of the two stages, uses and gratifications, Cultural Studies...), the classical theory of communication has not managed even to analyse the transcendence of the change from the traditional media model to the interactive model of the new media. The reinterpretation by the public of media messages as proposed by Cultural Studies, the limitation of effects due to the filter of social structure in which recipients are embedded conceived by the theories of double flow, and the figure of the leader of opinion, and even the proposals of peoples-, or alternative-, communication which, superseding mere active-reception, are already proposing the interchangeability of the roles of receiver and transmitter, are all insufficient for tackling the magnitude of the change. It seems that, despite serving as a fundamental base for thinking about new media such as the Internet, these theoretical traditions are children of the traditional mass media defined by their unidirectionality and a more and more diluted, but still existent, general passivity of the recipient public. 18 Madrid main square, where the protest camp started 19 http://demo4punto0.net/ The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement 3.1. The online communication of the 15-M Movement The majority acceptance of the 15-M Movement by the general populace, including those who least use the new media (generally older generations) indicates the pertinence of those theories cited which postulate a silent and passive, but concurrently critical reception of the dominant discourse. A critical attitude viewed with surprise by the elite, but felt individually by thousands of people. This is the point in which the Internet plays a fundamental role. In contrast to the fragmented audiences of traditional media, the Internet connects this dispersed outrage, breaking the isolation of the recipients, who begin to feel that they are not alone; that they are many and that the might do something together, according to those who were interviewed. One activist emphasised “how a consciousness had awoken in many people” now that... … suddenly through social networks and everything we have all seen that we are supported, no? They've become much more widespread and so logically the more we act, clearly the more powerful we feel ourselves to be. The Internet let people share the frustration expressed by the information spread on it, and, moreover, by the information comunicated by mass media which are still the main characters of the public agenda. Above all, the Web is the space that made possible the encounter for the individual anger to become collective outrage, and the outrage become into action. So an activist from the discussion groups spot it out, for him was really important to discover that he “was not alone”: (…) It came a time when the remarks about the news that you make at home to your wife,and the outrage that produce you to wath the news and so on, you can take it to the street and share it with other people. You see that you are not alone, that you are not fool, or crazy. There are more people who agree with you, so then maybe the fools and the crazies are the ones that do no have your point of view. That..that really encourage me, so to say (…). This quote also express this feeling: This movement take place because many not connected people are thinking at home that they are mad because they disagree with everything. Out of the blue, thanks to Internet, they realize they are not alone. Melucci (1999) theorized about the latent and the active movement’s phases. Klandermans (1988) focus on the consensus formation and mobilization. In both cases there is an evolution from the perception of injustice to the formation of the group identity. In 15-M Movement we can observe the transition from latent face to consensus formation trough a definition of a share situation. Trough deliberation and social interaction, it builds an injustice frame in the on-line as well as in the off-line space. Subsequently the movement gets into action. First, on the Internet, where it organizes and do the call-for-action for the 15th demonstration. Later, it develops itself on the street, before and after the demonstration. From 15th May the movement starts a battle to conquer its space on the public agenda, not only media but also the political and electoral ones. Initially, all were very restrictive to include 15-M The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement Movement's claims20, but the movements wins the battle as long as it manage to take the electoral agenda by including in it many topics to debate. The informative and counter-informative uses of the Internet are crucial in this phase. Despite the remarkable succeed of the 15th May demonstrations, “it could have come to nothing”, as an activist says. Nevertheless the participants empowerment, plus the outrage due to the lack of media coverage, give an impulse to new direct actions in the public space (protest camps, blockades, etc) that were reinforce by the Internet mobilization. Face-to-face and on-line actions were coping together until the undoubtedly become prominent in the public sphere. So explains it an activist: We fully exploit all the media that we have at our disposal, those that we didn't have before, like Twitter or Facebook, and so on. We have the chance to call people. Indeed, the outrage burst even more when the video of the second night eviction was spread like a virus on the Internet. It generates an “Streisand effect”21 that fulled the square of people, with thousand and thousand of protesters. From this time, neither media nor politics could ignore the movement and the images of Sol square crowded with people were spread all around the world as a copy of Tahir or Syntagma Square. The 15-M Movement have achieved to be the main topic of the mass media agenda during several days. In that way it overcome the media news filter and obtain relevance. According to agendasetting theory (McCombs, 2006), media do not influence on “how” people think, but on “what” they should think about it. The movement successfully included into the public and media sphere topics as: housing, bank's rescue, electoral law, corruption, etc. Nevertheless, as the agenda-setting theory develops it establish that the power of media also focus on “how” the public opinion thinks about the issues that are part of the political agenda. Framing concept pays attention to the media treatment about public topics and social actors. Regarding to 15-M Movement, it manage to have media relevance, but it did have to face the criminalization and discredit to obtain favorable reports from the media as well as from the politics. Most of the activist have a critic point of view about the news coverage that the social movements have: In the square they record the hippie (perroflauta22 in Spanish) rolling a cigarrette, because it was a cigarrette, and you know it, so do you, but not everybody does, so it looks like a drug smoker; they also record some punkies... The use of these kind of language in the media, like “perroflauta”, exemplifies the pejorative media discourse that many activists criticized and try to turn this concepts upside down by creating new ones as “porraflauta”23 or “papaflauta”24 (respectively, police and catholics). It is difficult to know to what extend participants' live experience communicated via social networks could have counteracted the mass media critics, or even how the audience develop a critical point of 20 See Candón Mena, J. (2011) 21 “Streisand effect” is the name for an Internet response to a censorship behaviour or information hiding. When the censor is caught, the Internet users react over-spreading the information. 22 Perroflauta: literary means “dog” and “flute”. It is a negative word for hippies and people with alternative outfit (Mohawk haircut, earings, tatoos...) 23 Porraflauta means “stick” and “flute”.It alludes to police. 24 Papaflauta: “The Pope” and “flute”.It alludes to catholics that joined the Pope's visit to Spain. The Internet in the social mobilization: 15-M Movement −MCCARTHY, J. y ZALD, M. (1973). The Trend of Social Movements in America. Professionalization and Resource Mobilization. Morristwon, Nj, General Learning Press. −MCCOMBS, M. (2006) Setting the Agenda: The Mass Media and Public Opinion. Barcelona, Paidós. −MELUCCI, A. (1999). Acción Colectiva, Vida Cotidiana y Democracia. México, El Colegio de México. −PERRY BARLOW, John. (1996). "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" −PRENSKY, M. (2001) “Digital natives, digital immigrants”, On the Horizon 9 (5): 1-6.