The difficulties in spreading housing rights discourse in the face of ‘right now’ pragmatism on Twitter
Main Article Content
Abstract
Social movements work in various overlapping dynamics: in the short term, trying to mobilize the largest number of sympathizers in their actions and in the long term, in a battle to change meanings and cognitive frameworks in a society. This article investigates how the Platform for Those Affected by Mortgages (PAH) uses Twitter in the two spheres above mentioned. The literature referring to collective mobilization explains activism in two complementary logics. A first one, rational, where participants only think about a concrete benefit, and a second, focusing on challenging established beliefs. As complex societies, the media and, more recently, social networks have gained in importance as a space where the legitimacy of these claims are discussed. In this analysis, frame theory has been applied to tweets referring to evictions published at the official account @LA_PAH. Twitter, unlike other social networks, allows quick mobilization to gather activists and stop evictions, a valuable and positive asset. However, it ends up giving a limited image, focused on avoiding evictions, instead of a message to establish housing access as a good that must be guaranteed, outside the market. The extreme cases, those about families including children and elderly, predominate in the posts. This visibility certainly generates empathy but leads to the false feeling that only the most vulnerable citizens are affected.
Keywords
References
Alemany, A. & Colau, A. (2012). Vidas hipotecadas. Romanyà Valls: Angle.
Andrejevic, M. (2007). iSpy: Surveillance and power in the interactive era. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Belotti, F., Comunello, F. & Corradi, C. (2021). Feminicidio and# NiUna Menos: An analysis of Twitter conversations during the first 3 years of the Argentinean movement. Violence against women, 27(8), 1035-1063. https://www.doi.org/10.1177/1077801220921947
Bernárdez-Rodal, A., López-Priego, N. & Padilla-Castillo, G. (2021). Cultura y movilización social contra la violencia sexual a través de Twitter: el caso del fallo judicial ‘#LaManada’ en España. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 79, 237-262. https://www.doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2021-1502
Della Porta, D. & Diani, M. (2011). Los movimientos sociales. Madrid: Complutense/CIS.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media: A critical introduction. London: Sage.
Fuchs, C. & Mosco, V. (2012). Introduction: Marx is back–the importance of Marxist theory and research for critical communication studies today. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 10(2), 127-140. https://www.doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v10i2.421
Gamson, W. A. (1992). Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gamson, W. & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Construccionist Approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95, 1-38.
Gerbaudo, P. (2017). From cyber-autonomism to cyber-populism: An ideological history of digital activism. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 15(2), 477-489. https://www.doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v15i2.773
INE (2015). Estadísticas sobre ejecuciones hipotecarias (EH). Desde primer trimestre 2014 a primer trimestre 2015 inclusive. Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Estadística.
Mayer-Schönberger, V. & Cukier, K. (2013). Big data: A revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. Canada: Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
McAdam, D., McCarthy, J. & Zald, M. (2008). Comparative perspectives on social movements: Political opportunities, mobilizing structures, and cultural framings. New York: Cambridge University.
Melucci, A. (1989). Nomads of the present: Social Movements and individual needs in contemporany society. London: Hutchinson Radius.
Milan, S. & Treré, E. (2019). Big data from the South(s): Beyond data universalism. Television & New Media, 20(4), 319-335.
Núñez Puente, S., D’Antonio Maceiras, S. & Fernández Romero, D. (2021). Twitter activism and ethical witnessing: Possibilities and challenges of feminist politics against gender-based violence. Social Science Computer Review, 39(2), 295-311. https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0894439319864898
Observatori del conflicte social (2013). Anuari del conflicte social 2012. Barcelona: Aguilar.
Olsson, T. (2014). The architecture of participation. For citizens or consumers. Critique, Social Media and the Information Society. London: Routledge.
Pariser, E. (2017). El filtro burbuja. Cómo la red decide lo que leemos y lo que pensamos. Barcelona: Taurus.
Pérez Díaz, P. L., Berná Sicilia, C. & Arroyas Langa, E. (2016). The conversation on political issues on Twitter: an analysis of the participation and frames in the debate on the ‘Wert Law’ and evictions in Spain. OBETS Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 11(1), 311-330. https://www.doi.org/10.14198/OBETS2016.11.1.12
Ramon Pinat, E. (2019). La batalla de los escraches de la PAH llevada a la pantalla: YouTube vs. RTVE. Miguel Hernández Communication Journal, 10(1), 19-37.
Rivas, A. (1988). El análisis de marcos: una metodología para el estudio de los movimientos sociales. In P. Ibarra & B. Tejerina (Eds.), Los movimientos sociales. Transformaciones políticas y cambio cultural (pp. 181-215). Madrid: Trotta.
Sala, E. (2018). Crisis de la vivienda, movimientos sociales y empoderamiento: una revisión sistemática de la literatura. Documents d’anàlisi geogràfica, 64(1), 99-126.
Tilly, C. (1978). From Mobilization to Revolution. New York: Random House.
Toret, J. et al. (2015). Tecnopolítica y 15M: la potencia de las multitudes conectadas: un estudio sobre la gestación y explosión del 15M. Barcelona: UOC.
Details
Article Details
RIGHTS TRANSFER
By submitting the article for evaluation and subsequent publication in Communication & Society, the AUTHOR exclusively assigns the rights of public communication, reproduction, distribution and sale for commercial exploitation to the University of Navarra through its Publications Service, for the maximum legal term in force -the entire life of the author and seventy years after his death or declaration of death-, in any country, and in any of the current and future edition modalities, both in print and electronic versions.
In the event that the article is not accepted for publication , this transfer of rights lapses with the communication of the refusal to the AUTHOR.
The AUTHOR affirms that the article is unpublished, that it has not been sent simultaneously to another publication medium and that the rights have not been transferred exclusively previously. He is responsible to the University of Navarra through its Publications Service for the authorship and originality of his work, as well as for all pecuniary charges that may arise for the University of Navarra through its Publications Service, in favor of third parties due to actions, claims or conflicts arising from the breach of obligations by the AUTHOR.