Twitter and video activism as tools for counter-surveillance: the case of social protests in Spain

ABSTRACT

From a communication perspective, social movements of international significance such as the Arab Spring, Toronto G20, Spanish 15M or Occupy Wall Street have been characterized by the use of mobile communication and social media as tools for video activism and counter-surveillance against the abuse of power committed by the state forces. A representative case of this reality, which reached a high coverage and support in social media environment, can be found in the riots that took place in the Gamonal neighbourhood (Burgos, Spain) in January 2014. In this regard, this article focuses on the denunciation of police violence through video activism by Twitter users during the demonstrations across the country, applying a quantitative–qualitative mixed methodology. First, by means of a content analysis, a sample of 784 tweets linked to videos is analysed in order to identify the main topics and functions of the shared content. Second, a textual analysis of those linked videos of a violent nature recorded by witnesses in order to document police interventions is carried out. The prominent use of Twitter for distributing videos to denounce police violence stands out among the main findings, underlining the audiovisual exposure and ‘secondary visibility’ of the police officers. The results obtained also reinforce the idea of citizen empowerment through the development of an alternative form of journalism, as a practice to criticize the mainstream media coverage of the protests. Additionally, this article sheds light on the open debate about the relevance of social media to encourage citizen involvement in a face-to-face interaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Counter-surveillance
• citizen journalism
• catopticon
• witness video
• police violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Alberto Hermida holds a PhD in Communication Studies. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Seville. His research interests focus on analysis of the audiovisual discourse, visual digital culture, history and theory of media, and new communication technologies [email: [email protected]].

Víctor Hernández-Santaolalla holds a PhD in Communication Studies. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Seville. His research interests focus on the effects of mass communication, political communication, propaganda, and the analysis of advertising discourse [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1 Videos on the attack on the police station in Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, on 17 January, 2014 (https://goo.gl/OKH04S, https://goo.gl/6OBCG4) (28/09/2015).

2 Videos on the police charge in Génova Street in the demonstration supporting Gamonal, in Madrid, on 15 January, 2014 (https://goo.gl/9fwq8p, https://goo.gl/cKaM5A, https://goo.gl/2YvFaS) (28.09.2015).

3 Videos on the arrest of a fire-fighter and a camera aggression committed by the police, in Madrid, on 15 January, 2014 (https://goo.gl/kywD0B, https://goo.gl/Lom3v0) (9/28/2015).

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.