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Bart Cammaerts

Title of the presentation:
Having a Laugh? Activism, Mediation and Protest Tactics

Short abstract of the presentation:
In this lecture, protest and its relationship with media and communication is theorized and contextualized. Using social movement theory protest tactics will be differentiated according to the logic activists ascribe to an action; of numbers, of damage or of bearing witness. Besides this, from the culturalist tradition of social movement theory the distinction between social performances and artifact-based performances will serve to acknowledge the increased importance of the images and discourses direct actions produce. In analysing trends, it becomes apparent that in recent decades the logic of numbers is becoming more difficult to mobilize, hence the transnational focus on high profile elite-organized media events, the logic of damage has little or no support in Western democracies and the logic of bearing witness has considerably increased in importance. It will be concluded that current protest movements have partially reverted to a Feudal repertoire of contentious action focusing on elite-events and mockery, violence is primarily symbolic collapsing the logic of damage with bearing witness and performance. Mediation and the spectacular have relevance to both the logic for as well as the type of action. Besides this, it is aimed to to encompass all forms of media and communication usages and formats that are relevant to protest and social movements. While it is becoming increasingly clear what activists do with media, it is being argued here that we know too little about what mediation and an ultra-saturated media and communication environment does to activist's identities and their perceptions of the possible repertoires of contentious actions, both in terms of opportunities and constraints.

Short biography:
Bart Cammaerts is lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research interests include multi-stakeholder policy processes; media strategies of activists; alternative/community media and the emergence of new tools such as blogs. His most recent and forthcoming books include; Internet-Mediated Participation beyond the Nation State (Manchester University Press, in press), Understanding Alternative Media (with Olga Bailey and Nico Carpentier, Open University Press, 2008), and Reclaiming the Media: communication rights and democratic media roles (Edited with Nico Carpentier, Intellect, 2007). He chairs the Communication and Democracy section of ECREA and he is deputy-chair of the Communication Technology Policy section of IAMCR.