Social Movements And The Role Of Media In Collaborative Knowledge Construction

Abstract

Since 1980s the sociology of social movements has been witness of a constructivist perspective which turned to a disputable method in the study of social movements. Further discussions of some of the key elements in this approach pave the way to recognize distinctly how social movements and movement organizations are constructed. The main elements of constructivism procedure in analysis of a social movement is the “social power” of the movement organizations to construct a strong identity and effective strategies; however, the given opportunities in society to defend or advance the ideology of the movement has a special place in this analysis. Since we have to define social power in terms of influence on attitudes, values, opinion and behavior, it makes the role of media in social power more prominent. Therefore, media could have an effective role in construction of social realities and knowledge that in turn influences in social identity and norms. To shed light on this issue, in current research, the discussion centers on the role of the BBC Persian TV (BBCPTV) in 2009 Iranian Green movement to portray how media outcomes could impact on social identity and norms in order to support a social movement framing. To that end, considering the constructivism approach, discourse analysis of the BBCPTV’s news appears to validate such a view. The results provide confirmatory evidence that the BBCPTV attempted to reinforce collaborating knowledge of the Green movement to construct powerful identity and effective strategy.