What: Social Media and Social Movements: Facebook in the interactions of Social Movement Organizations

When: Tuesday, November 12th at 12 noon

Where: The Allen Center, CSE 203

Please join us next Tuesday for the Change Seminar.  Luis Fernando will be presenting on his current research into social media and social movement organizations around immigration issues in Washington.

Abstract

Use of Social Media is transforming communication practices within and among organizations, with important consequences for social movement organizations seeking to benefit undeserved communities such as immigrants in the US. This work seeks to illuminate how Facebook has been entangled in the practices of Social Movement Organizations (SMO) that work on immigration issues in Washington State.

I focus on three complementary areas of inquiry: (a) the SMO information and communication practices; (b) their processes for expressing and forging collective identities, and (c) their performativity, defined as an understanding of the SMO’s multiple and fluid interactions with individuals and collectives. Results of this research will expand understanding of the intersection of technology and society, and of social media and social movements in particular, and help social and grassroots organizations improve their actions and services on behalf of immigrants in the US and other parts of the world.

About the Speaker

Luis Fernando is a Ph.D. Candidate of Information Sciences at the University of Washington (UW). He has been leader in the study of relations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and social movements, particularly, in the field of human rights and peacebuilding in Colombia. His research spans such diverse areas as memories, public opinion and audiences studies on violence and peace processes in Colombia, uses of media for social change, immigration and information, and alternative processes of organization for development. He is defending his dissertation this coming December: Social Media and Social Movements: Facebook in the interactions of Social Movement Organizations.  His last book on public access to computers, coauthored by Ricardo Gomez, is going to be presented in Colombia next December as well.