Abstract

This article explores the interesting connection between social movements and new social media also referred to as web 2.0. It is argued that the public as well as parts of the scientific debate about the impact of new media on social change is to a large degree dominated by two rigid camps, namely Internet-utopians on the one side and Internet-sceptics on the other side. Both positions tend to degenerate into technological determinism. Furthermore, they ignore the long tradition for the critical study of alternative media and their role as critical and oppositional communication tools for social movements. In order to analyse how social movements challenge dominant and hegemonic worldviews, the article calls for a socially oriented media theory with a sensibility for analytical concepts and frameworks. Such a theoretical and contextual framework can be used in order to produce empirically based insights into the relation between protest movements, social media use and actual political change.