Mediated resistance in post-Soviet communicative ecologies: the case of ‘Chinese industrial park’ in Belarus

Abstract

The paper adopts a 'communicative ecologies' framework and problematizes it further by exploring a collective protest campaign in post-Soviet Belarus. This study explains how mediated civic protest communication is embedded in the socioeconomic , political and cultural structures of a society. It focuses on a recent case involving civic resistance towards the construction of a so-called 'Chinese industrial park' near the capital of Belarus. The 5-year timespan (2012-2017) from the conception of this controversial project to its actual implementation is particularly suitable for exploring the complex interdependencies between traditional and new media in the framing of grassroots protest within semi-authoritarian post-Soviet settings.

Digital Communication in the Age of Immediacy

“…We are currently experiencing an unparalleled transformation in the communication ecosystem: the previous mass models, with their depleted ability to amass and keep audiences, are unable to endure the attack from these systems, created through sophisticated technological intricacy that identifies individual or accumulated preferences to define patterns and generate communities centred on related demands [85]. They have created a novel form of engagement that prioritises users while yielding a higher 'attention rate', a coveted goal in the digital economy [86].…”