This article analyses the ways in which the Internet has been used by social activists fighting for animal rights departing from a case study of the Animal Rights News Agency (in Portuguese: AgĂŞncia de NotĂcias de Direitos Animais, also known as ANDA) in order to unveil the communication strategies employed. From the analyses and observations herein performed, it is noted that the media have a fundamental role in the process of social mobilisation inasmuch as they sustain debate, reflection, and visibility as well as the organisation of collective actions.
The construction of a space for social mobilisation on the Internet and the struggle for animal rights: a study of the Animal Rights News Agency
Dandara Flores Aranguiz
Original text available: http://cascavel.ufsm.br/revistas/ojs2.2.2/index.php/ccomunicacao/articl e/view/11245/8185
The construction of a space for social mobilisation on the Internet and the struggle for animal rights: a study of the Animal Rights News Agency Abstract: This article analyses the ways in which the Internet has been used by social activists fighting for animal rights departing from a case study of the Animal Rights News Agency (in Portuguese: AgĂŞncia de NotĂcias de Direitos Animais, also known as ANDA) in order to unveil the communication strategies employed. From the analyses and observations herein performed, it is noted that the media have a fundamental role in the process of social mobilisation inasmuch as they sustain debate, reflection, and visibility as well as the organisation of collective actions. Keywords: Social Activism on the Internet; Animal Rights; Contemporary Social Movements.
1. OPENING STATEMENT
The study proposal presented in this article aims at elucidating the role of the Internet in raising awareness regarding animal rights and at analysing how the appropriation of the new information and communications technologies provides the formation of new social movements and of new forms of activism. Matters approached here are those of social activism on the web and the relation of the online media with the manifestations and the movements which have a communicative character of being in favour of life and of animal protection. In the past decades, the field of communications has undergone several changes not only in its social and cultural nature but also in its technological one. Much has been said about the transformations occurring in our society since the coming of computational technologies and electronic media. The emergence of new media has allowed for a larger circulation of information. These media transformations, both in content and in support, are the outcomes of a new society in which, for instance, it is possible to visualise the new social relations arising from contemporaneity by means of mobilizations and claims in the virtual environment. In face of the possibilities for expression that the Internet grants to voices which had so far been unknown and in face of the feasibility of argumentation, contestation, and discussion of matters of public interest, this new technological atmosphere has been set as a way of resistance, which allows subjects to create new types of communication. Inasmuch as the Internet works as public space favouring discussions of collective interest and of political, social, cultural, and ideological character, it allows for the decentralisation of information itself and of the power of the largest traditional communication corporations. It thus contributes to the compensation of information and in the expression of the voice of minorities, as it happens with animal rights activists. They have found in Web 2.0 the opportunity of both amplifying the space of discussion and the dialogue amongst the supporters of the cause as well as attracting new followers.
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The Internet has been used a complementary channel and, to a certain extent, as a
compensatory one regarding the divulgation of the coverage of certain events connected to the sphere of animal life. Websites and specialised channels which focus exclusively on the topic slowly stick their bases in the cyberspace. From that scenario which has been impacted by society’s new demands, emerge activists in defence of animal rights, who use the web as an extension of their offline mobilisation. The virtual world is part and complement of the real, therefore becoming indispensable to broadening the visibility of the struggle for animal rights. The following question arises from those perspectives: how do social activists use the Internet to expand the space for debating the process of raising awareness about animal rights?
2. SOCIAL ACTIVISM AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Act as a group. That is one of the premisses of social activism. Thinking of activism is thinking of grouping, contestation, and fighting for the transformation of a given socio-political context. Those subjects involved in the activist movement may act either in a tactical or in a strategic manner and they are linked by a common cause. “The idea of the social movement is, thus, in its common sense, associated to a set of ways of protest, and it is connected to a vocabulary of events and ways of action” (Nasi, 2011, p.30). Social activism reshapes itself as it is faced by a new historical context arising from
globalisation and society’s informatisation. It grounds its motivations and values on solidarity and cooperativeness. The new forms of organisation of social movements take into account the incorporation of new information and communications technologies in the planning, articulation, and action of a certain social collective. Today’s activism is not organised hierarchically but heterogeneously, in which the pursuit of alternative solutions is encouraged by group action, assuming a collective protagonism. Social movements are born as a response to the historical and social contexts in which they are embedded. They are, therefore, the ways in which social activists organise themselves collectively in order to express their demands by various means: manifestations, parades, marches,
petitions, denunciation, disobedience acts, campaigns, etc. The new contemporary activism refuses impositions by the global market, which is driven by unbridled profit. “What the antiglobalisation movement has been showing is that social struggles have returned to the international mise-en-scène as a source of pressure for changes that lead to the transformation of this current model of civilisation” (Gohn, 2010, p.47). The new types of social movements combine forms already institutionalised of interlocution with new communication tools. The strategic appropriation of information technologies allowed for
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and bolstered the formation of new social movements and new forms of activism. The capacity of
wide and fast communication provides the exchange of experiences amongst organisations, associations, and movements. “In short, this new model of association is more purposeful, less operating and vindicating — it produces less large demonstrations or protests; it is more strategic” (Gohn, 2010, p.18). Technological resources have been the main instruments used in the actions of contemporary social movements. It is they which give a larger visibility and emphasis to propositions and manifestations. This new form of organisation, inasmuch as it puts its goals into practice, ends up projecting onto its participants the feeling of social belonging: those who have, in any way, been excluded now feel as if they belonged to some sort of action.
It is rather undeniable that the current scenario imprints strong tendencies of transformation in the way in which new social activism is set. What is remarkable, however, is that the elements and characteristics which already existed before take on huge proportions after the use of new information and communications technologies by certain groups and collectives. The network is no longer a strategy, but rather a tool of collective action in contemporary society. Those transformations, especially in the use of information and communication, changed the time-space relations for the social actors involved in social movements. The arena of debates becomes a “transnational virtual community” (Scherer-Warren, 1999, p.71). Information is now broadcast live, benefiting from the new potential for interaction. Such characteristics legitimise the
changes in the ways of action and articulation of social movements, which have information as their prime matter. Furthermore, the distribution of that information has been used as a weapon by the social actor, who tries to make a difference through their actions. Social relations arising from the core of contemporary social movements take a pluralist shape and boost cultural diversity as they combine different types of manifestation. Therefore, the interlocution amongst civil society’s new actors tends to be articulated in networks according to the new organisational model, which is decentralised and whose power is non-hierarchical, making the Internet the main public space of strengthening social demands to widen the range of its actions and its strategic planning.
3. COMMUNICATION AND NETWORK SOCIETY
From what has been mentioned before, it is possible to state that the insertion of new technologies in society’s everyday has been transforming social relations. The Internet allows for a new way of social expression and for the composition of new groups. Cyberspace emerges as the place where exchanges of information take place, where new types of communication are
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established along the formation/modification of social relations through digital networks
interconnected to computers. Even if there are still doubts concerning the obscurity of network relations, what is unarguable is the real reconstruction of the patterns of social interaction supported by the new technological resources, establishing what may be called network society. Manuel Castells popularised the usage of the concept in the late 1990s in order to characterise the historical times in which we live, when a new social structure emerges associated to the development of the information process.
The information era is our era. It is a historical time characterised by a technological revolution centred on digital information and communications technologies simultaneous to, but not the cause of, the emergence of social network structure in every sphere of human activity, and to the global interdependence of such an activity (Castells, 2006, p.225).
Other scholars, such as Pedro Gilberto Gomes, point to the change into a new media environment which deeply affects contemporary society. According to him, “more than interaction via technique, there has been emerging a new way of being in the world, represented by the mediatisation of society. Mediatisation is the reconfiguration of a communicational environment” (Gomes, 2011, p.1). Society only becomes aware of what surrounds it, of its discourses, and the social actors involved via the phenomenon of the media. This mediatisation is the key for understanding facts and reality, and the Internet works as a counterpoint to extreme views constructed by traditional means of mass communication. Amidst the information era, characterised
by changes in the ways of communicating, impacted by the appropriation of new technologies, sociability is reconfigured from the demands of the globalised individual. “In this context, people manifest a tendency in gathering into social groups that aim at sharing common interests” (Corrêa, 2004, p.2). The Internet rises, thus, not simply as technology, but as the heart of a new society, breaking social, geographical, and spacial barriers, potentiating and widening the capacity for communication and for mobilisation.
3.1 Uses and communication strategies of online social movements
The social relations of this modern and contemporary society, where subjects involved in social mobilisation seek to transform a certain reality through actions and activities of an activist nature, demand new ways in which to convene and mobilise. Those new demands are the result of the social and political transformations upon which modern society is moulded and, besides reconfiguring the activist mise-en-scène, they lead the movement itself to demand new interlocution strategies between social actors and civil society.
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Both communication and information conveyed by social movements directly interfere in
social relations. The new network setting of mobilising projects already presupposes “an intense information exchange, which allows for a continual and joint production of knowledge on the cause to which it refers and to correlate causes” (Henriques, 2005a, p.9). Departing from that perspective, we can identify that social struggles acquire too a characteristic of fighting for visibility as they use communication tools as strategies for institutional legitimisation and as they make their causes, actions, and positions public. In face of the challenges of mobilisation in the network society, there is a clear need for communication to be treated in a tactical and strategic way, holding a larger goal that social struggles have a large scope and be better understood without the mediation of traditional means of
mass communication, besides promoting collective action and building, in the very core of the communicational exercise, an identity for the movement. The role of communication in social movements is to strengthen the connection amongst actors involved, allowing for individuals to go from beneficiaries (receivers of information) to active agents of mobilisation through participation and collaboration. Visibility therefore has a fundamental role in social mobilisation so that the movements can gain the desired notoriety. Rafaela Caetano Pinto (2012) argues that, for social movements to reach their goals, they must disseminate information so as to always be present in the media, considered then as mediating instance of society and of public debate. “They develop, thus, strategies which
put them under the media spotlight in order to influence public opinion and, consequently, the political agenda” (Pinto, 2012, p.49). Based on the premisse of co-responsibility, participation remains the key element for mobilisation to be fruitful. Those acting in the process feel as if they belonged and, thus, help to reach those established goals. The web is at the disposal of contemporary social movements since it proposes the collectivisation of action, making it more democratic. The media not only share discourses and information, but also generate relational links between citizens and mobilisation. In that sense, we can think of communication as a social actor, which disseminates that information and acts on the interlocution of partaking subjects, boosting the
capacity for mobilisation. The challenge in the usage of communication by social movements is in the fact that it tries to highlight, by means of reflection on the functions and characteristics of the media and approaches used, a differential so that the process of mobilisation does not end in itself. “The goal is to show that communication, planned from an ethical horizon, becomes one of the main instruments to help the movement in its process of transforming reality” (Henriques, 2005b, p.20).
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Communication has become indispensable to social movements and it has also become a
primary factor in the coordination of actions and of mobilisation. The existing communication process in the movements is a reflection of new demands by globalisation, fostered by the use of new information and communications technologies and by the intensification of the need to keep in permanent contact.
4. NOTES ON THE RESEARCH OBJECT
The Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais (ANDA) disseminates in the media the values of a new culture, which is preoccupied with the defence and the guarantee of animal rights. Its main
goal is to inform and lead individuals to participate in great social an political changes. ANDA intends to promote debate on issues that would not usually gain space in the traditional media, always focusing on the question of animals. The news agency was created on the 28th of February, 2008 by Silvana Andrade, a journalist who noticed, at the time of ANDA’s creation, a certain disinterest from journalists in general as they would not explore the side of animals in the stories they wrote. ANDA is today the world’s first and largest news agency exclusively dedicated to issues concerning animal rights. ANDA’s major role is to assist in disseminating information in order to present to the audience the other side of news, that of animals. Communications has been a current part of the
debate on the animal cause and much of that is due to the creation of ANDA, which has been working as an alternative channel. Animal rights used to be treated only in areas such as law and philosophy. Its web portal gets a daily average of 20,000 hits, coming from more than 80 countries every week — Brazil at the top, followed by Portugal. The journalism agency relies on a team of more than 45 professionals (journalists, writers, biologists, nutritionists, geographers, historians, amongst others). Eleven of those professionals are responsible for updating the website (publishing, editing, and reviewing). It is important to highlight that ANDA does not have a permanent staff writing team in spite of its continual updating. The work is produced remotely, with news from Brazil and
from all over the world. According to ANDA’s president-founder, Silvana Andrade, in an exclusive interview, the agency works at an almost full-time basis — uninterruptedly from 6am to 10pm all week long. The flow of stories is ever continual, experiencing a slight decrease at weekends, and it varies from 15 to 20 minutes, generating a daily publication of approximately 40 stories. ANDA is financed by its own resources as well as by contributions from some columnists. As it is an NGO, it also accepts
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donations which contribute to social projects and activities developed, namely: seminars,
exhibitions, debates, concerts, book launches and bicycle tours.
Image 1 — ANDAS’s homepage. (Available at: anda.ior.br).
5. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
The methodological construction in this research takes a qualitative approach. Methodology used is a field study, based on the observation of websites on top of in-depth interviews. For that,
this work is based on authors who use an approximation to the ethnographic eye in the virtual context of the Internet. From a brief initial observation of the Internet, we noticed a growth in the number of web portals of groups in defence of the animal cause. These are informative sites, guides for fighting the exploitation of animals by humans, websites of NGOs involved in the cause, blogs, profiles on social networks, and study groups. ANDA was thus elected for this study amongst all those people and groups previously collected. The criterion established here was the
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characterisation of the research object as a professional journalistic means of communication with a
team working on the production of news intend for a segmented audience. The ethnographic stages of this research were established including interview, analysis (based on observations and descriptions of the website), and reflection upon data collected. Data collection (observation and analysis) was performed during the month of September. In order to initiate the research work, the initial monitoring was performed during two weeks (14 days in a row, from the the 3rd to the 17th of September), for four hours a day at alternate times so as to highlight what criteria were to be henceforth focused on the most. It was then elected, during observation, that data would be collected in reference to all of the month of August. Analyses and descriptions to follow were based on the observation performed during that
period and on the interview with the founder of the Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais (ANDA), Silvana Andrade, on the 28th of September, 2012. A priori, we chose a face-to-face interview in order not to lose the main characteristics of ethnography, namely: the encounter with the unknown and the interaction with social actors directly involved in the actions. Nonetheless, from our email and phone conversations prior to the interview itself, it became clear that it would be impossible to follow ANDA’s routine due to the fact that it does not have a fixed newsroom — all the work is done remotely. Alternatively, we used the same approach but on Skype interviews. During data collection, information was distributed into a table (Table 1) in accordance with categories previously established. Observation was of paramount importance to understand how the
Internet is used by animal protection groups. Information collected was systematised as follows: Date (day of the month); Main topics covered (a synthesis of the the day’s top stories); Number of posts on the day (how many stories were published under the News tab); Text titles and links (titles and web links for the stories); Number of comments on news (amount of comments directly from readers per news story); Number of shares on social networks (number of people who shared the story on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus from the page); Multimedia resources (photos, videos, infographics, or other kind of medium); Signature (whether the story is signed by the team or clipped); and Observations (information and perceptions on content published).
Date:
Main topics covered:
Number of posts on the day:
Text titles and links:
Number of comments on news:
Number of shares on social networks:
Multimedia resources:
Table 1 — Header of the data collection table
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Signature:
Observations :
5.1 Building the space for social mobilisation: corpus analysis
Analyses were performed in accordance with axes systematised below, which were thought of according to the new demandas arising from recent social transformations. Social mobilisation sustained by the use of communication strategies and tools allows for the evaluation of, for example, the frequency at which information content is published in order to keep a certain visibility; the link established between the participants in collaboration groups and movements; what resources and tools are used to widen the channel of dissemination of knowledge on the cause; the capacity for mobilising and communicating as information is broadcast; and the existing type of cooperation and collaboration allowing for the collectivisation of the contemporary movement.
For that, the news stories which have been studied were randomly chosen as they would fit in these established axes, namely: a) Updating/instantaneity — evaluate the frequency at which information is posted on the website; b) Interaction/repercussion — the interconnection established between the audience to which the website refers and those producers of information, and the repercussion that there is of such (comments, emails, the sending of photos, sharing and divulgation on social network); c) Multimediality — analyse what multimedia resources (videos, photos, advertising campaigns, podcast, infographics, etc.) are used and how they are used;
d) Communication flow — understand how the information flow is sustained so that dialogue is always kept on; e) Potential for organisation and mobilisation — observe what kinds of manifestations arise from information disclosed by ANDA; f) Participation and empowerment — analyse the possible social transformations caused by the use of the medium to disseminate the animal cause.
5.1.1 Updating and instantaneity
Publications were monitored in order to evaluate the frequency at which information was posted on ANDAS’s website. After the evaluation of data collected, we processed content according to criteria previously established. The month observed (August 2012) had a total of 741 posts under ‘News’ (this counting ignored the posts of columns, sections ‘Features’ (Artigos) and ‘iReporter’ (Vc é o repórter), summing up to an average of 23.9 daily posts. The amount of stories published during weekdays is much higher than those at weekends. The average of news published during weekdays (during the
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observation period at least) was of 26.8 daily posts; yet the average of stories published at weekends
decreased to 15.4 daily posts. Consequently, the day with the lowest number of posts was a Sunday, 5th of August, when only 12 stories were published. The 10th of August, a Friday, was the day with the highest number of posts: 32 in total. Even though the flow of information decreases during the weekends, ANDA is able to maintain a certain frequency of information published, bearing in mind that all the work is done by voluntary collaborators (journalists and correspondents). Posts have an average 20-minute gap between them.
5.1.2 Interaction and repercussion
In order to evaluate the ways in which the interconnection between the audience and the producers of information is held and how that information resonates in the virtual environment, some news stories were observed so as to point their possibilities for interaction. One of the resources found is sharing and dissemination of content on online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, and Google Plus, as well as recommending the story via email. Another existing aspect which amplifies dialogue amongst readers is the possibility of commenting. Once the comment is published, it becomes possible to evaluate the message (if it is positive or negative), as a way to approve of or disagree with what was written, besides the possibility of replying to the comment.
It is rather noticeable that, gathered, both tools of communication and interaction amplify the channel of conversation between internet users and news producers, besides spreading information onto other people (who do not forcibly know ANDA’s website), acting then as a dissemination channel. Users occasionally talk amongst themselves via comments — sometimes to agree with each other, other times to disagree with has been said. By means of their comments, readers leave their impressions about the website and about the news story, making observations on ANDA’s producers and editors’ viewpoint. They state their mind, add information (by sending petitions, videos, links to other stories and articles, etc.); they correct eventual mistakes and criticise certain positions. The possibility for dialogue is important
inasmuch as it allows for a true participation and interaction between sender and receiver, on top of amplifying the space for debating the animal cause.
5.1.3 Multimediality
ANDA’s usage of multimedia resources makes it easier for stories to be understood, providing internet users with the possibility to perform a more thorough, deeper reading of the
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topic. Main media formats used in stories observed during the period of data collection were videos,
photos, hyperlinks, and text. There is a still-subtle presence of infographics aimed at explaining the topic. ANDA’s usage of multimediality is intended at illustrating informational content as well as impacting the audience. Multimedia formats are indeed needed to support content exposed so as to allow for the same information to be disclosed in different ways, complementing the textual information. In analysing what multimedia resources are more commonly used by ANDA, it becomes clear that such tools are part of the inventory of communication strategies helping to disseminate and promote information, thus collaborating to the strengthening of the project of social mobilisation and struggle for animal rights.
When there is nothing else but the text, both repercussion and interaction are rather low, confirming that multimedia content has an important role in disseminating ANDA’s information. In those cases, the use of hyperlinks is complementary so that the story does not weaken.
5.1.4 Communication flow
The content published by the media channel was the support for observation in order to understand in what ways the information flow is sustained so that dialogue is kept active and permanent. The content of ANDA’s news stories follows a strand of advocacy for animal rights
inasmuch as it aspires to social transformations by means of information dissemination, bringing into discussion news that would either not usually gain space in the traditional media or would be generally approached by the press with indifference. Such a positioning is noticeable in the nature of stories published, directed towards the struggle for the guarantee of animal rights, which often ends up encouraging positive actions on behalf of the cause. News stories of animal interest are published only when there is a deepening in the exposure of the content throughout the text. Silvana Andrade argues that ANDA will never publish a story entitled ‘Pitbull dog attacks and kills child’, for example, without there being a further reflection on the reasons why it happened so as to show the other side of the fact, that which is not shown in the traditional press.
Furthermore, ANDA uses its own expressions, which characterise the alternative media as a ‘sector agency’ (in Ms. Andrade’s own words), by employing words such as ‘murdered’ instead of ‘killed’, ‘exterminated’ instead of ‘euthanised’ to report crimes agains animal life. It is also possible to see a clear preference for using words like ‘prisoner’ instead of ‘inhabitant’ or ‘zoo attraction’, as well as ‘prison’ instead of ‘cage’ in order to show the conditions under which a chimpanzee is found at a certain zoo mentioned in one of the stories analysed. Those expressions are deliberately used as critiques so as to highlight the movement’s defence of animal rights.
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Yet another relevant aspect to be touched on is ANDA’s treatment of its sections (which, in
traditional press, are formal sections). The approach of already-institutionalised sections in other media are directed towards animal rights at ANDA. The Economy section, for example, has information such as: ‘Crisis in Europe worsens animal abandonment’ and so on. The systematisation itself (the comprehensive list of the several sections) is not presented on ANDA’s website. The categorisation of sections is, nonetheless, visible in the information content of stories. Regarding the production of content published, 531 of the 741 stories observed in the sample throughout the month of August, i.e around 70% of them, were clipped — they had not been written by ANDA. The number of different information sources came up to 145. Most of the unsigned stories, which either are clipped or hold information from other means of communication,
are accompanied by an Editorial Note. This is included to stories to clear ANDA’s position on events, to explain doubtful information retrieved from mentioned sources, or yet to complement the event (additional information, note of clarification from involved parties, suggestions towards possible solutions, contextualisations, etc.). The Editorial Note expresses ANDA’s opinion, recognising that all information thereby disclosed is thus its responsibility. Therefore, the continuous communication flow of information is sustained by interpersonal and collective connections created by the multiplicity of meanings and feelings involved in the movement of defence of animal rights. Communicational interfaces have become more dynamic and particularised, thus allowing for a simultaneous collectivisation of thought (by means of signed
stories and Editorial Notes, for example) which was before isolated. That generates confidence in readers inasmuch as they feel closer and more involved with the movement in question.
5.1.5 Potential for organisation and mobilisation
The power that solidarity networks created online have over the mobilisation of people in defence of the movement was observed in order to point what types of manifestation arise from the information disclosed by ANDA. The Internet has a central role in social mobilisation seeking to end animal cruelty as it originates major manifestation phenomena. ANDA openly stands by that
point of view and positions itself as one of the representatives (social actor) of the social group involved in the discussion. As ANDA uses communication strategies and communications itself as a whole as well, it contributes to the formation of opinions, working as an instrument of social mobilisation. One of the most used resources for that is the online petition, which has grown in the scenario of digital technologies inasmuch as it works as an organisational instrument for the participation of social movements in which citizens have the opportunity to build actions in favour of a certain cause.
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Online petitions disseminated by the News Agency allow for a quick adhesion of internet
users around a common cause, projecting onto the rest of society several other issues. Those cases of collective action allow for readers themselves to post, by means of comments, their petitions as responses to the event at stake. Petitions thus complement the news story itself as it acts on behalf of a common interest: contribute to social change via the participation and manifestation of the group. Yet another example of mobilisation arising from ANDA’s editorial stand are campaigns which call people online for actions offline. That is a clear evidence that committed participants in the cause do not only manifest themselves on the Internet but also on the streets. A habitual practice also found in the period of data analysis is the appeal to authorities by means of sending emails or
contacting them on social networks. It can be argued hitherto that there is a reformulation of individuals organising themselves around mobilisations of common interest propelled mainly by collective action allowed by technological interfaces. The Internet is a support for the diversity of alternative communication channels for claims and manifestations (such as ANDA), characterised as an alternative and revolutionary space inasmuch as it provides the individual with the experience of revealing their feelings and ideals towards the world.
5.1.6 Participation and empowerment
By analysing the possible social transformations arising from the use of the media for disseminating the animal cause, it is understood that, for a community or social group to be the protagonist of the movement, practices for boosting and promoting it are of paramount importance. It is, after all, by means of participation and empowerment that ANDA establishes its capacity of development and autonomy as it revives the spirit of cooperation and commitment to changes resulting from social activism on the Internet. Besides informing about events and facts from the animal world, ANDA is a motivating and transforming agent of society inasmuch as it proposes social actions of change which are important
for the movement in defence of animal rights. Silvana Andrade argues that, for example, one of the Editorial Notes written by the News Agency has already worked as basis for the sentence in a trial. It is by means of that and other cases of animal cruelty that collective commotion was promoted, propelling one of the largest street protests in favour of animal rights, at the beginning of 2012. More than 170 cities, including state capitals, gathered in a historic movement in Brazil, demanding that violence against animals be extinguished and calling authorities’ attention to the
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fact that laws should be changed. The call for those movements was organised and planned on the
Internet and its major leitmotif were cases of legal impunity in crimes against animal life. It all leads us to realising that there has been emerging a new society, grounded on the participation of individuals and on the organisation of social groups which seek for change and transformation of reality by means of actions arising mainly from strategies used by communications. The empowerment process becomes a fundamental element in the comprehension of limits and possibilities of social activism. Such a structure allows us to see individual engagement, creating bonds of belonging and collective identity.
6. FINAL REMARKS
One of the main aspects which were observed during the production period of this work was the expression of this collective feeling characterised by mobilisations and processes capable of transforming society. We are living a new moment in the journey of contemporary social movements, one in which net associative networks amplify voices, contributing to a more democratic social construction. The Internet has become the main stage for actions of participation and social empowerment, facilitating group actions and activities. The exercise of power of new social movements is a set of collectively organised and structured actions centred on the groups’s goals and representativity. From these analyses and
observations performed, it can be stated that it is participatory structures, based on a set of communication strategies, which promote the acknowledgment of the movement in defence of the animal cause. The media currently have a fundamental role in the process of social mobilisation, sustaining debate, reflection, visibility, and organisation of collective actions. There emerge new forms of relationship and new types of links creating an alternative channel of knowledge dissemination. By means of the development of new information and communications technologies (ICTs), activist groups have started to appropriate the Internet and all its potential in order to boost their struggles and causes in favour of social justice.
The construction of this wider net of activists has made intercommunication amongst those individuals involved easier, breaking geographical, social, and political barriers. This new type of social activism must then be recognised as it emerges in the public and civil sphere fighting for animal rights. Contemporary social movements’ cyberactivism has become the main weapon against the movement’s earlier invisibility, against the lack of specific technical knowledge, and against the neglect with which news of crimes against animal life have still been approached in the traditional media.
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Available
at:
Scherer-Warren, I. (1999). Cidadania sem fronteiras: ações coletivas na era da globalização. São Paulo: Hucitec.
Dandara Flores Aranguiz holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Franciscan University Centre of Santa Maria (2012). Email: dandara.flores@gmail.com
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