An Activist Triangle? Youth, Protest and Social Media in Romania

As public spending cuts are having ever-deeper impacts on society, contentious political action is engulfing polities aided by a communication infrastructure that fuses mediated and embodied participation (Castells, 2012). The utilization of social media for protest has been depicted as a threat to collective action because they contribute to diluting the links that previously underpinned solidarity, i.e. the bonds based in class and culture; and organizational affiliation that is conducive to activist socialization and participation priming. Conversely, social media are a gateway into loosely-coordinated connective action (Bennett and Segerberg, 2012) that hinges on expressive individual participation in the co-construction of shared identities and the building of interpersonal trust through the pooling of personal resources such as images, ideas and comments. As evidence on the bearing of new and social media on protest participation remains conflicting, suggesting either a positive contribution (Margetts et al., 2012) or one that is limited to existing activists (van Laer, 2010), we consider anew whether social media might constitute an important avenue into protest participation for young people with little or no participatory experience. Furthermore, we explore the scope for the (co-) construction of shared identities and interpersonal trust through social media. Comparative research points to newcomers into protest as being principally made up of young people (Verhulst and Walgrave, 2009). Thus, the present papers takes into focus newcomers at a prominent protest festival in Romania, a country with comparatively very modest levels of activism. The analysis draws on primary survey and interview data gathered during the 5 day festival. Initial findings point to experience-poor participants being particularly inclined to utilize Facebook to prime their participation.