[ecrea] Special issue on 'Social Media and Protest Identities' of the journal Information, Communication and Society

We are delighted to announce the publication of the special issue on 
'Social Media and Protest Identities' of the journal Information, 
Communication and Society.

The special issue examines the continuing relevance and transformation 
of the process of collective identity in contemporary activism with 
particular reference to the use of social media platforms such as 
Facebook and Twitter across movements as Occupy, the indignados and 
Anonymous.

Please find below a summary of the special issue and a list of all the 
articles which can be accessed here: 
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/18/8#.Ve3KmHvSiKx

Best,

Paolo Gerbaudo and Emiliano Treré
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SOCIAL MEDIA AND PROTEST IDENTITIES
Special Issue of Information, Communication & Society  - Volume 18, 
Issue 8, 2015
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/18/8#.Ve3KmHvSiKx

edited by Paolo Gerbaudo and Emiliano Treré

How does collective identity operate in social media activism across 
protest movements as Occupy Wall Street, the indignados and Anonymous? 
What are the different social media practices involved in the 
construction of collective identity? And how do forms of collective 
identity produced via social media reflect the affordances of these 
communication technologies and the dilemmas of digital society? 
Examining these and similar questions, this special issue sets out to 
explore the changing nature of collective identity in a digital era and 
to establish what opportunities and threats the new media ecology brings 
to processes of identity construction in contemporary protest movements. 
The contributions to the special issue recognize and problematize 
collective identity as a central object of concern for digital activists 
and conceive social media as platforms in which new identities are 
forged and channelled. The authors demonstrate that social media has 
become the key site where protest identities are created, channelled, 
and contested. Far from having disappeared from the horizon of 
contemporary activism, collective identity still constitutes a pivotal 
question for activists and scholars alike; one which is decisive to 
understand the emergence, persistence, and decline of protest movements, 
and to discern their meaning and worldview.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

In search of the 'we' of social media activism: introduction to the 
special issue on social media and protest identities
Paolo Gerbaudo, Emiliano Treré

ARTICLES

Creating the Collective: Social Media, the Occupy Movement and its 
Constitution as a Collective Actor
Anastasia Kavada

> From Social Movements to Cloud Protesting: the evolution of collective identity
Stefania Milan

Reclaiming, proclaiming, and maintaining collective identity in the 
#YoSoy132 movement in Mexico: an examination of digital frontstage and 
backstage activism through social media and instant messaging platforms
Emiliano Treré

Protest avatars as memetic signifiers: political profile pictures and 
the construction of collective identity on social media in the 2011 
protest wave
Paolo Gerbaudo

Multitudinous identities: a qualitative and network analysis of the 15M 
collective identity
Arnau Monterde, Miguel Aguilera, Xabier E. Barandiaran, Antonio Calleja, 
John Postill

The Rise and Fall of Collective Identity in Networked Movements: 
Communication Protocols, Facebook, and the Anti-Berlusconi Protest
Lorenzo Coretti, Daniele Pica

> From Indymedia to Anonymous: rethinking action, identity and digital communications Kevin McDonald

FINAL COMMENTARY

Do clouds have politics? Tracing the Meanders of Collective Identity 
Amid Social Media
Maria Bakardjieva

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/18/8#.VeiHi7fSiKw

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