Activism, communication and social change in the digital age

The public sphere has recently undergone a deep transformation due to the consolidation of the so called "hybrid media systems" (Chadwick, 2013), where old and new media logics coexist in shaping social actors' and audiences' communication practices. In this sense, digital platforms have opened up a new arena and provided activists with a wide repertoire of tools to self-organize and reach their preferred targets, especially through social media like Facebook or Twitter. However, the symbolic efforts of activist groups to construct narratives that can have a wider impact on society still need the support of the traditional news media to gain public visibility and, ultimately, produce social or political change. In this volume, we present twelve contributions that try to gauge this complex relationship between activism, communication and social change in different geographic and political contexts, including case-studies form four different countries (Spain, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico), and one that focuses on the European Union institutional arena. The mobilizations under study include a variety of movements related to gender equality, environmental issues, European trade policy, urban space design and student protests.