National and Transnational Social Movements and New Information and Communication Technologies

With the increasing usage of Internet-based communication technologies by local, national and transnational social movements and the resultant changes in the communication, mobilization and protest dynamics of these movements, new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become the focus of much academic research in social movement studies. In order to publicize their demands, attract potential participants and realize their aims, social movements such as the Global Justice Movement, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy Wall Street have employed new communications technologies. Drawing on the conceptual and theoretical tools developed by social movement researchers, this study focuses on the relationship between new ICTs and social movements in terms of the opportunities they open up and their advantages and disadvantages, referring to different social movements from around the world. This study aims to make a contribution to the existing literature by uncovering the changing dynamics of mobilization, communication and protest of social movements as a result of the usage of new ICTs.