Social Mobilization in the Net Space:Re-Constructed Communication, Identity and Power

Social Mobilization in the Net Space: Re-Constructed Communication, Identity and Power

CECILIA FE L STA MARIA-ABALOS
College of Arts and Communication, University of the Philippines Baguio, Philippines

Abstract
The internet as a communication platform for netizens has become the hybrid space for social mobilization to forward political agenda. A take-off from Manuel Castells’ hypotheses on power and counter-power in the network society, this paper is a reading of “Boycott SM Baguio” Facebook Group Page as a space and site for social mobilization. Using textual analysis as a method, reading of the selected posts revealed that the spatial conditions present in the net space effected the reconstruction of identity, group and public and re-shaped the communication process. Elaborating on these two main points elicited a different kind of social mobilization located in the online space that emerged discourses on power, counter-power, political legitimacyand exacerbated questions on sustainability.

Keywords: Online social mobilization, communication, net space, reconstruction, power

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Prof. Cecilia Fe L Sta Maria-Abalos is an associate professor of Communication in the College of Arts and Communication at University of the Philippines Baguio. Her research interests are on space and spatiality, women’s studies, social mobilization and activism, child poverty, and communication studies.