THE AFFORDANCES OF ICTS FOR CITIZEN PROTEST

374 Pages·2016·3.41 MB·English

ABSTRACT

Title of Dissertation: AUGMENTED DISSENT: THE
AFFORDANCES OF ICTS FOR CITIZEN
PROTEST (A CASE STUDY OF THE
UKRAINE EUROMAIDAN PROTEST OF
2013-2014)

Tetyana Lokot, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016

Dissertation directed by: Professor Sarah Oates, Philip Merrill College of
Journalism

This dissertation research project uses the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine to inform
and shape a theory of augmented dissent to help explain the complex ways in which
protest participants guided by the political, social, and cultural contexts engage in
dissent augmented by ICTs in a reality where both the physical and the digital are
used in concert. The purpose of this research is to conceptualize the use and
perception of ICTs in protest activity using the communicative affordances
framework.
Through a mixed-method research approach involving interviews with protest
participants, as well as qualitative and thematic analysis of online content from social
media pages of several key Euromaidan protest communities, the research project
examines the role ICTs played in the information and media landscape during the
Euromaidan protest. The findings of the online content analysis were used to inform
the questions for the 59 semi-structured, open-ended interviews with Euromaidan
protest participants in Ukraine and abroad.
The research findings provide in-depth insights about how ICTs were used
and perceived by protest participants, and their role as vehicles for information and
civic media content. The study employs the theoretical framework of social media
affordances to interpret the data gathered during the interviews and content analysis
to better understand how digital media augmented citizens’ protest activity through
affording them new possibilities for dissent, and how they made meaning of said
protest activity as augmented by ICTs. The findings contribute towards shaping a
theory of digitally augmented dissent that conceptualizes the complex relationship
between citizens and ICTs during protest activity as an affordance-driven one, where
online and offline tools and activity merge into a unified dissent space and extend or
augment the possibilities for action in interesting, and sometimes unexpected ways.
Such a conceptual model could inform broader theories about civic participation and
digital activism in the post-Soviet world and beyond, as ICTs become an inseparable
part of civic life.
AUGMENTED DISSENT: THE AFFORDANCES OF ICTS FOR CITIZEN
PROTEST
(A CASE STUDY OF THE UKRAINE EUROMAIDAN PROTEST OF 2013-2014)

by

Tetyana Lokot

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2016

Advisory Committee:
Professor Sarah Oates, Chair
Professor Linda Steiner
Assistant Professor Kalyani Chadha
Associate Professor Sahar Khamis
Assistant Professor Nicholas Diakopoulos
© Copyright by
Tetyana Lokot
2016
Foreword

“...but one person is not just one person. In each of us, there is a world...
webbing out, reaching others. Creating reactions. Sometimes equal...
sometimes opposite.” — Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 4 - Penny and Dime

“‘It's already happening,’ she says. ‘There are all these things you can do, and
it's like you're in more than one place at one time, and it's totally normal. I
mean, look around.’ I swivel my head, and I see what she wants me to see:
dozens of people sitting at tiny tables, all learning into phones showing them
places that don't exist and yet are somehow more interesting...” — Robin
Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

“Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure
what does not please me occurs no more.” — Ulrike Meinhof, Vom Protest
zum Widerstand

“There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and
freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being
given freedom from. Don't underrate it.” — Margaret Atwood, The
Handmaid’s Tale

ii
Dedication
To all those who gave their time, their strength, and their lives for the revolution of
dignity in my country because they believed change was possible, and to all those
who came before them.
iii
Acknowledgements
This dissertation would not have been possible without a great many people.
My mentor, adviser, and friend Sarah Oates has been a source of inspiration,
knowledge, wisdom and enthusiasm about academic work and research for many
years, and her support and guidance have made me the scholar I am today. In large
part it is thanks to her that my academic adventures led me to relocate to the United
States and to embark upon doctoral studies, of which this dissertation is the
culmination. Sarah continues to inspire me to ask difficult, but interesting questions
and to push me to make the most of my abilities. For that, I am always grateful.
I wish to thank also the members of my committee, who have all challenged
my thinking about media, technology, people, and dissent in different ways: Linda
Steiner and Kalyani Chadha, for offering unwavering support, giving great advice,
and being exacting, but kind; Dana Fisher, for teaching me to love fieldwork; Nick
Diakopoulos, for great insights and provocative questions; and Sahar Khamis, for
sharing her invaluable research experience and expertise.
I would not be where I am in academia today were it not for my Ukrainian
alma mater, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. My deepest thanks go to Serhiy Kvit, who was
my dean and who first believed in me as a teacher and a scholar. He taught me that
anything is possible, and that our dreams are never out of reach.
I want to thank my fellow doctoral students at the Philip Merrill College of
Journalism, who have been the best of friends, and have offered me love, support,
shoulders to cry on, ears to listen, and so much more. Micha, Joanna, Klive, Yacong,
Saranaz, Boya, Rob—thank you so much.
iv
I want to thank one of my best friends and co-conspirators, Kevin, who has
unfailingly reminded me that I am good at this and that I can get this done. Look, it
worked!
My Mom and Dad have given me so much, and to them I am forever grateful.
They brought me up to love books and reading, to be passionate about what I do, and
to be curious about the world. They have made many sacrifices to give me my
education, and yet, have given me complete freedom to choose my own way. They
are amazing.
I want to thank my husband and partner in life, Pasha, who has supported me
through this wild ride. His constant presence has been an anchor in turbulent times,
and his love of life has kept me sane—as has our shared passion for journalism and
his excellent taste in music. He always has the right words—or the right song—to
make me feel better.
I want to thank all of my research participants and the multitudes of other
people in Ukraine who helped me make this research possible. They are all part of an
amazing force that is changing civil society and redefining what is possible to achieve
with self-organizing, volunteer efforts, and digital technology.
Finally, I want to thank the people of Ukraine, a country I am very, very proud
to have been born in. We have gone through so much to get where we are today, and
we are going through hard times even now. And yet, despite all odds, we remain
resilient and carry on.
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Table of Contents

Foreword ....................................................................................................................... ii
Dedication .................................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables ............................................................................................................... ix
List of Figures ............................................................................................................... x
Chapter 1: Setting the Scene ......................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction and Research Problem .................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Questions ............................................................................................. 5
1.3 The Post-Soviet Context ..................................................................................... 9
1.4 Early Research on Euromaidan Protests in Ukraine ......................................... 13
1.5 Some Operational Definitions ........................................................................... 14
1.6 Timeliness of Research Problem ...................................................................... 15
Chapter 2: Situating the Research in Literature .......................................................... 17
2.1 Existing Debates About ICTs and Dissent ........................................................ 17
2.2 Evidence in Favor of ICTs Facilitating Protest ................................................. 21
2.2.1 The Internet as a Digital Commons ........................................................... 22
2.2.2 The Networked Nature of ICTs ................................................................. 23
2.2.3 ICTs and Mobilization ............................................................................... 25
2.2.4 ICTs and Tactics of Civic Action .............................................................. 27
2.2.5 ICT Use by Journalists and Citizens .......................................................... 28
2.2.6 ICTs, Space and Presence .......................................................................... 29
2.3 ICTs, Protest, and the Skeptics ......................................................................... 31
2.3.1 ICTs and Movement Sustainability ........................................................... 31
2.3.2 Control and Cooptation of ICTs ................................................................ 32
2.4 Emerging Concepts of ICTs’ Role in Protest Activity ..................................... 34
2.4.1 Contextualizing ICT Use ........................................................................... 35
Chapter 3: Building the Theoretical Foundation ........................................................ 39
3.1 Epistemological Roots: Social Construction of Technology ............................ 39
3.1.1 The Emergence of the SCOT Theory ........................................................ 39
3.1.2 Key Ideas of the SCOT Theory ................................................................. 40
3.1.3 Central Constructs of the SCOT Research Approach ................................ 42
3.1.4 Applying SCOT to Research on ICTs and Civic Activity ......................... 44
3.2 Communicative Affordances Framework for Understanding ICTs and Protest45
3.2.1 Concept of Affordances in Social Science and Communication ............... 45
3.2.2 Perceived Affordances as a Means to Understanding the ‘In-Between’ ... 48
3.2.3 Applying the Affordances Framework to Social Media and Activism ...... 49
3.3 Applying the Hybrid Media Theory to ICTs and Citizen Protest ..................... 55
Chapter 4: Research Methods and Design .................................................................. 59
4.1 The Considerations of Field Research Around Protests ................................... 59
4.2 Methods and Research Strategy ........................................................................ 62
4.2.1 Choosing Methods ..................................................................................... 62
vi
4.2.2 Method of Data Collection ......................................................................... 63
4.2.3 Methods of Data Analysis .......................................................................... 66
4.3 Ethical Dilemmas and Considerations .............................................................. 67
4.3.1 Sampling for Qualitative Interviews .......................................................... 68
4.3.2 Interviewing Respondents During or After Dramatic Events .................... 70
4.3.3 Anonymity and Confidentiality: Interview Results and Online Content ... 72
4.3.4 The Researcher’s Persona and Its Influence on Data Collection and
Analysis............................................................................................................... 75
4.3.5 Framing Research Results from Political Movement Study ...................... 79
4.4 Research Design and Data Collection ............................................................... 81
4.4.1 Online Content Analysis ............................................................................ 82
4.4.2 Interviews ................................................................................................... 86
4.5 Challenges and Limitations ............................................................................... 88
Chapter 5: The Euromaidan Context .......................................................................... 91
5.1 Recent History of Civic and Political Activity in Ukraine ............................... 93
5.1.1 From Independence to the Orange Revolution (1991-2004) ..................... 94
5.1.2 From the Orange Revolution to Euromaidan (2004-2013) ........................ 99
5.1.3 Personal Political Histories ...................................................................... 104
5.2 Who were the Euromaidan protesters? ........................................................... 112
5.2.1 General Information About Interview Subjects ....................................... 112
5.2.2 Media and ICT Use .................................................................................. 117
5.3.3 Protest Experience: The ‘Old’ and the ‘New’ .......................................... 120
5.3 Everyday and Extraordinary ICT Use ............................................................. 125
5.3.1 Everyday ICT Use and Civic Life ........................................................... 125
5.3.2 Shifts in Mode of Use .............................................................................. 130
5.3.3 From Daily ICT Use to Political Engagement ......................................... 132
5.3.4 ICT Use in ‘Extraordinary’ Contexts: the Euromaidan Protest ............... 136
5.4 Distance from the Center of Protest ................................................................ 143
5.4.1 Place, Space, and Distance ....................................................................... 143
5.4.2 Kyiv: the Maidan and Nearby Locations ................................................. 146
5.4.3 Outside Kyiv: Kharkiv and Odesa ........................................................... 155
5.4.4 Outside Ukraine: Washington, DC, United States ................................... 161
Chapter 6: Discovering Affordances of ICTs for Protest ......................................... 170
6.1 Information Sharing, Protest Frames, and Narratives ..................................... 170
6.1.1 Affordances of ICTs for Information Sharing ......................................... 172
6.1.2 Contesting Mainstream Media Frames .................................................... 191
6.1.3 Affordances of ICTs for Shaping Protest Frames and Narratives ........... 194
6.2 Building Protest Communities and Networks ................................................. 200
6.2.1 Affordances of ICTs for Organizing ........................................................ 202
6.2.2 Affordances of ICTs for Building Social Capital .................................... 217
6.2.3 Affordances of ICTs for Networked Protest Communities ..................... 223
6.2.4 Affordances of ICTs for Networked Individuals ..................................... 225
6.3 Co-Presence and Witnessing ........................................................................... 229
6.3.1 Affordances of ICTs for Augmented Co-Presence .................................. 230
6.3.2 Affordances of ICTs for Augmented Witnessing .................................... 246
Chapter 7: Online Content Analysis Findings .......................................................... 258
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