Connective action mechanisms in a time of political turmoil: virtual disability rights protest at Donald Trump’s inauguration

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the connective action mechanisms that underpin the rapid formation of online counter-publics in the wake of disruptive political events through a case study of crowd-sourced disability protest launched in response to Donald Trump’s election as U.S. President. Coverage of this protest in U.S. news media is reviewed also as a first step towards assessing the ability of this initiative to influence public discourse. Findings suggest that controversial election results can spur mobilisation, but by themselves do not appear to be sufficient for connective action to really flourish and succeed. Personal action frames that typically are central to connective action struggled to emerge in crowd-sourced contributions that focused on Trump and his politics. The reasons behind these outcomes and their implications for the potential effectiveness of crowd-sourced protest are discussed.

本文以残疾人在线抗议特朗普当选总统个案，探讨了突发性政治事件之后快速形成的在线反对派公众其背后的联动机制。笔者研究了美国新闻媒体对此次示威的报道，将其视为评估此类行动影响公众话语能力的第一步。有争议的选举结果固然可以煽风点火，但其本身并不足以让关联性行动真的兴旺并成功。一般说来对于关联性行动至关重要的个人行动，会在针对特朗普及其政治的群体性活动中尽力显山露水。作者讨论了其背后的原因以及对于群体性示威潜在效果的启示。

KEYWORDS:

• Connective action
• grassroots advocacy
• protest
• disability
• organising
• crowd-sourcing
• Donald Trump

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Filippo Trevisan is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Deputy Director of the Institute on Disability and Public Policy at American University in Washington, DC. His research focuses primarily on online advocacy, activism, and political communication. He is the author of Disability Rights Advocacy Online: Voice, Empowerment and Global Connectivity (Routledge, 2017). He blogs at www.filippotrevisan.net and you can follow him on Twitter @filippotrevisan.

ORCID

Filippo Trevisan http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2463-4596

Notes

1 The Disability March blog listed some additional articles from digital native outlets such as i-D (Vice) and The DailyDot. However, the analysis in this study was limited to the articles retrieved from databases. For a full list, see: https://disabilitymarch.com/about/media-coverage/.