COMM 380 Module 3 Report - New Social Movement Theory

hi my name is AO and today I'm going to report about new social movement Theory and this is still part of module 3 of our class com 380 so let's have a context and uh quick overview or background first so basically it's in uh conglomerate of different movements of the 60s or the new social movements of the 1970s and 80s uh primarily in America and Western Europe so it's moving beyond single movement and it's about the dynamic interaction among multitude of contenders including their allies including you know their their adversaries and it's no longer just

related to class struggle and later on I'm going to expound on that why it's actually a critique of the the classical Marxist you know um theoretical underpinning when it comes to uh Revolution social movement and whatnot so there's a lot of claims making I like what uh kopman mentioned here claims making from most conventional and institutionalized to the most provocative and disruptive so recently we well it depends on again your political views some people would call for example a movement a riot or you know um other Camp would say it's a peaceful protest so it's

it's really a matter of the degree of you know the intensity and disruptiveness based on uh what we can observe and what's covered uh or we part of the coverage of uh traditional Media or even our new media so um later on how as a particular movement for example will be viewed differently it could be as again Ally or adversary uh the the lens would probably highlight particular you know inconsistencies and whatnot so this is not um this is not just about the material or materialist perspective but again it's gearing towards something which is going

to be part of uh the cultural turn Okay so the cultural turn or the cultural context of collective action is you know about Scholars from North America uh drawing from the Western European scholars such as habas mili and off and uh for harmas it's really about public spheres and communic ative action so the communicative action deals with how communication again can steer social cohesion or can make people um do something for positive social change and public sphere is this basically this uh a place for discourse to happen and now it's been extended to also include

the the neens right the digital uh spheres or the spaces that we have where we exchange our opinions and all the you know the different uh formations of disc scores that are eventually happening everywhere like in a in a romatic kind of view okay Collective identity and symbolic action uh this is about again the the cultural turn and it's more about identity as this um par concept or you know issues uh revolving around identity and I want to highlight that this is again um related to how communication as a discipline views identity as an ongoing

process of negotiation so it's more of the symbolic it's more of the social Dimension rather than the material SL physical and so it's more cultural right especially now that there's you know we have rather a globalization we have you know gloal uh issues that are you know regardless if you are um within that geographical location where issues are happening or problems are happening you know people can have direct or indirect uh participation and in turn there will be direct and indirect effects so um Williams in his article mentioned that the the new social movement or

NSM is actually others would call moral Crusades again it's about identity it's about culture and morality so it's a flash of different you know ideologies so I want to I I want to have a very good uh you know grounding for us when it comes to the uh core assumptions because as you noticed earlier the there's a lot of borrowings from different um you know thinkers from different uh locations so um what I what I have uh noted here um the core assumptions of the new social movement Theory uh again taking consideration you know the

different facets the interdisciplinarity of certain Concepts uh they view or the theory rather views new social movements as you know identity base I mentioned this a while ago so it's driven by individual self-expression and personal authenticity you know the process of becoming uh you know your your your true self right so we have now the idea of uh transitioning um proper use of pronouns again this is the symbolic Dimension we're talking about um and it's all about uh being proud of who you are your background your ethnicity your race your religion so on and so

forth so again if you notice so far it's really about the social cultural SL symbolic dimensions of our day-to-day interactions so that's why uh later on I'll um share to you why this particular theory in uh you know social mobilization and social movement in general is very much related to my substantive area which is rhetoric again we we're dealing with the symbolic dimension of reality as well as as the social dimension of reality another thing that I noted here is that it's driven by quality of life concerns rather than just economic survival right so it's

not just about you know um surviving uh the Contemporary period for example it's all about are we breathing clean air drinking clean water sustainability you know climate crisis and um gender discrimination uh sexuality uh studies and education so on and so forth so it's about the quality of life rather than just mere survival um and again this is a critique of the classical Marxist Paradigm so it's not the the the new social movement uh Theory or the new social movements in general is about going beyond the you know the materialist class struggle kind of view

when it comes to um uh social movement they're not saying these things are no longer important what they're saying is that you know social movement will not just going to be within those particular uh stand points all right another thing is that they're concerned with meanings again symbolic discourse cultural representation with focus on shaping public Consciousness through symbolic action so this could be post posting on social media it could be you know the the the um Instagram photos or the uh visual rhetoric that we encounter almost every day as we explore as we you know

log log in online media representation and uh protest art so rather than just policy changes are seizing political power so regime change for example it's not just you know um par Bound by that particular um Viewpoint and finally uh new social movements tend to be decentralized uh Grassroots driven and participatory so in other words uh digital activism and social media enable leaderless movement so personality based I need to see someone you know Steer this and and uh again they're not saying that this is no longer important it's just that the technologies that we have now

allow for a leaderless uh movement to happen and you know make uh change or drive change in our society so having said the common assumptions social mobilization is viewed here uh nsmt uh based definition would be a collective action aimed at reshaping all right reshaping cultural meanings extending meanings so uh for example same sex or gay marriage it's not uh you know it doesn't mean that we are no longer we are invalidating you know previous ideas of marriage but we're extending the the meaning of what it means to be married all right it's no longer

just between man and woman and even the the word man or woman they're very you know they're stat they're not static they're slippage and then there's social norms uh perceptions changing perceptions um allowing people to understand certain group identities emphasizing of course symbolic Expressions so nonverbally so colors the LGBT flag for example you know being um nonbinary going beyond the bin systems so man woman left right um oscillating we have now um you know people who are more androgenous when it comes to how they conduct you know impression management for example and uh of course

identity politics it's part of that and discourse formation and knowledge production so it's no longer just you know production in a sense of you know um um the means of production or like in a economic sense so social mobilization um in this definition is based on a process just like communication itself it's a process so it involves three uh three key elements and the first one is ideological content of the movement so if we're going to use this particular Theory when it comes to mobilizing people for Collective action we have to understand what is the

content what is this symbolic you know um content uh that we want because uh if we go back to how communication would uh understand content it's not just the content as the denotative sense you know it could also be part of the relational dimension of meaning so the beliefs values narratives that Define movements cost so uh we have the MEO movement okay black lives matter and all of these particular movements that again it's not it's not about the personality and people may start but eventually the personalities who started the movement they may no longer be

visible in uh throughout the course of the movement so so it's more of the content of the movement the second element of the process is the motivation behind the activism right so police brutality so par this again people would say systemic you know oppression uh discrimination irrational beliefs or ma phobia homophobia or transphobia G so what's the motivation and then the third thing is that social cultural context of mobilization so platform so going back to public sphere right so what are the platforms that we can use and again right now we have a lot of

platforms we're no longer just you know uh limited to the physical like rallying physically marching but we can also have you know trending voices online so since uh what I mentioned a while ago this is very much related to my substantive area which is rhetoric or speech communication and uh the one concept that I would like to highlight in my report is about social truth now in r IAL perspective um social truth is the construction and negotiation of meaning all right so meaning is not just there objectively discovered so to speak but it's constructed it's

negotiated and we go back again it's very much aligned with how communication views identity for example as an ongoing process of negotiation right my own idea of who I am your idea of who I am and so we negotiate that such as you know um when it comes to pronouns for example so it's a matter of negotiation so at the end of the day it's all about avoiding being misgendered and being able to at least inform but using ethical communication and the way you you know inform other that this is your pronoun for example but

this social truth is based on social facts right so it's the collective beliefs values cultural norms social structures and shared perceptions understanding so if you have new social movement Theory as your theoretical Foundation when you want Collective action beliefs now we are challenging right now values cultural norms that we're challenging right now and this social truth emerges through public discourse right the public spheres the spaces online or offline and through persuasion so my own uh you know field or or uh let's say concentration it's all about allowing you know my students since I am teaching

allowing them to understand their agency as consumers of media as the receiver at the end of the communication model right so uh so it's not about because we value free speech for example so yeah you can say whatever you want to say I see uh you know um um fake news whatever or deep fakes but at the end of the day because others would say what well you're suppressing my freedom of speech but at the end of the day if you really know your agency as the receiver as you know the audience for example if

you have very strong media literacy for example you can self-correct you can evaluate reflect so on and so forth and you have your agency to protect you from all of these you know negativities uh when it comes to social movement and not just social movement but in communication or general interaction that we have online or offline okay so at the end of the day um we use language argumentation narratives influencers online right we have the vloggers so they don't have the degrees you know credentialist as we are sometimes in the academ you know and we

we are democratizing again the the negotiation and construction of meanings therefore all they have would be their common sensical ways of understanding things and argumentation um their narratives you know the inter seual intersectionality of uh the things that we're experiencing the the life world they no longer need need to understand these technical terms what they do is that they just base it in their own perception and they join the conversation so you gatekeeping mechanism media for example is again being blurred right now at the end of the day uh what social truth is all about

is you know having this accepted quote unquote reality and this reality is not the objective reality that scientists and philosophers would uh you know explore and um you know study but it's about the social the symbolic dimensions of uh what we can consider as reality within a given Society to summarize uh the key aspects of social truth and rhetoric um it is context dependent so we will always have you know different context so it's difficult for you to overgeneralize for example so just like for example racism we have you know um African Americans who are

saying you know more left leaning and we have African-Americans who are uh where they they tend to Echo right-wing media for example when it comes to LGBT issues some conservative um gay men would would say you know I don't need marriage I don't need this and that and other who are more Progressive um you know so what I'm trying to say is that there will always be context so it's again it's a clash of different you know uh players uh historical cultural and political influences and it's formed through persuasion and discourse and the symbolic communication

rather than mere fact checking right so um maybe we can reflect right with the recent election um you know let me educate you but again we have all the facts but why you know the social truth um it is often uh contested by different groups again people will challenge it ideologies and movements and sometimes it can be very subtle and we have the mechanisms right now uh Tik Tok or other social uh messaging sites social networking sites um messaging applications so you know gr chats now they the ongoing conversation and some people will just be

surprised perspective generation there's a lot of you know channels ongoing happening right now uh discussions have debates online and trending topics and you know besides like Reddit for example on Twitter okay uh so that's how we create ideologies and um they're always contested may not be abrupt maybe subtle but you know contesting certain system or belief or grand narrative or the lack of better word is always happening right so for my references uh I have here uh just three main references because uh the two references that I listed here there's a lot of um articles

CU it's a handbook so again it's a collection of different articles um and of course the rhetorical app like uh the the go-to uh rhetoric one of the textbooks that right when it comes to teaching rhetoric so um this is the report uh I hope that you learned something and I hope that you will participate in our discussion points now uh for our discussion points uh I would like you first to share what are what do you think or in your own personal you know understanding what could be the potential criticisms or what are the

um General criticisms of new social movement Theory so you could include of course but not limited to concerns about tokenism virtal signaling um wokeness performative activism extremism or even you know um issues the the concern or issue right now in uh the US which is about um conspiracy theories and uh the the the debate about uh affirmative action right so all of these related terms and Concepts so maybe you can share and the second discussion point I want to um would us I would like us to have would be how can we apply I mentioned

to you that you know I can relate uh particularly when it comes to social truth because you know argumentation debate public speaking we are trying to again be part of the reshaping process right so how can your own field or your own advocacy uh benefit from you know understanding Now new social movement Theory and finally what social movement in the Philippines can be can best exemplify the critical role of new social movement theory in relation to social truth so if you like you can answer all of the three discussion points or if you want just

one and expound on it uh it would also be helpful or beneficial for our overall discussion when it comes to uh my topic uh which is new social uh social movement Theory thank you so much for listening