Artyom Gyeorganov – The Internet as a Mechanism of the Political Mobilization

Abstract: This article analyses the role of the Internet as a factor and a channel for political mobilization. In doing so, it makes a distinction between the instrumental and the transformative function of the Internet. The key thesis of the author is that this difference occurs mainly in the line of pluralist democratic societies and those that do not relate to them. In the focus, a specific content of internet communication is found, concerning recent political events, which are, according to many observers, in direct link with the phenomenon of the Internet. In conclusion, the Internet does not change the fundamental principles of any political actions, but in fact, it contributes to new and important opportunities for political mobilization in de-institutionalized society with authoritarian or quasi-authoritarian political regime, especially in a crisis situation.

Key words: internet, internet-communication, de-institutionalized society, political mobilization.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 1, September 2014,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464

 

Read the original of the article (in Bulgarian)