Quando la protesta diventa “pop”. Il caso dell’Isola dei Cassintegrati tra web e mass media

Iannelli, Laura

2012-01-01

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Abstract

This article describes a research path about the relationship between popularization of politics, participation, and network technologies. It does so by investigating the case study Redundancy Island, a “real-reality” which, starting from Facebook and a blog to then reach the mainstream media, has narrated the protest of workers on redundancy payment at Vynils, Porto Torres (north Sardinia). Those workers self-restrained for more than a year in the former prison of Asinara. The interviews to these “famed” blue-collar workers were realized when they were at the height of popularity. The analysis initially focused on their perceptions of media success, aiming to understand the meaning assigned by the workers to both the “novelty” of their protest and the different forms of support they received from fan-like citizens. Moreover, by monitoring the Facebook group seven months after the occupation of Asinara, we could measure the workers’ capacity to upkeep the citizens’ attention in this “reality 2.0”. The analysis suggests the interpretation of Redundancy Island as an emblematic (and well performed) attempt to reshape the account of both a specific dispute and the general crisis. It also shows evidence of a more general trend toward the popularization of protest, in a media eco-system “complicated” by the participative web typical of Facebook and blogs.