Information and communication in social movements after the COVID-19 pandemic: perspectives and challenges for activism in Brazil

• Grant number: 21/04774-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: February 01, 2022 - January 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Caroline Kraus Luvizotto
• Grantee: Caroline Kraus Luvizotto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes, Comunicação e Design (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic imposed a new reality on social movements and citizen participation, prohibiting or restricting protests and demonstrations on the streets, typical forms of social movement activism. In this scenario, cyberactivism, or digital activism, whose main input is information disseminated in a digital environment, has gained strength. The studies developed by this researcher from 2014 onwards with the Postgraduate Program in Communication at Unesp and with the Research Group on Media Communication and Social Movements - ComMov, which mostly deal with the relationship between communication, citizenship and social movements in the Brazilian context, and also the conclusion of the recent post-doctoral research carried out at Universidade Nova de Lisboa with funding from Fapesp, which deals with the relationship between communication, citizenship and social movements in the Portuguese context, provide elements to propose this research that intends to analyze the contemporary dynamics of social movements and estimate the potential of digital communication for citizen participation, based on the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil. Specifically, we hope to: identify strategies for mobilizing social movements based on the Covid-19 pandemic; characterize the digital communication strategies used by social movements after the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, estimating its potential and limits based on the reality imposed by the pandemic; analyze the informational content that drive digital activism of social movements from the Covid-19 pandemic; and define perspectives and challenges for digital communication and activism in Brazil from the pandemic. This proposal has a quali-quantitative approach, anchored in the review of the specialized literature on the concepts and phenomena that involve the research topic, and in Content Analysis according to Bardin (2011). At the end of this study, it is expected to contribute to overcoming the challenges and limitations imposed on the field of Communication and the performance of social movements from the pandemic. (AU)