Jiujitsu Moves, Radio Bemba, and Other Transmedia Practices: Social Movement Strategies Counter Statist Media Power

Abstract

How can a social movement do battle on a mediated playing field with a government that holds vast amounts of media power? In a fight over the future of the Ecuadorian Amazon, Yasunidos, a contemporary social movement, confronted the government’s neo-extractivist discourses and practices with innovative transmedia strategies, including digital, broadcast, and performative tactics. This chapter argues that a mediated lens is a necessary element in examining state-social movement relations in the twenty-first century and offers a conceptual framework to comprehend its dynamic tensions. It analyzes how Yasunidos confronted the government on an uneven, mediated playing field, and was able to boost its own national visibility and attract allies. This chapter contributes to scholarship on social movements and their mediated practices. It is based on a multi-year ethnography that included extensive media and visual analysis and in-depth interviews with social movement actors.