The Internet, New Social Movements and Staging Protests: A Review of Some Social Movements in Theory and Practice

Modern communication technologies in 1990s gave rise to new social movements and shaped and directed world public opinions, protests and created serious challenges for governments. So much so that it could be said through these technologies new social movements have played a key role in the civil developments across the world. The present article, first, looks into the important functions of the internet in social movements in terms of theory, and then, to substantiate the relevant theories, it examines Zapatista social movements, protests against World Trade Organization (WTO) and G-8 as well as peaceful movements. The findings show that from the mid-1990s onwards, the internet, through a range of capabilities including e-mail, websites, networking and shaping identity, has had remarkable effects on these movements’ success in mobilizing and encouraging rallies across the world.