Regimes of Time: Media Practices of the Dispossessed

• In Event: Marginality, Vulnerability, and Protest in Journalism and Media Practices

Abstract

Media technologies are structuring time and space in crucial ways. Especially the temporal aspect has been of interest lately, which is expressed in a growing commentary on media-related temporality in terms of speed, acceleration and the end of time. The article asks for the consequences of temporal structuring by media technologies for civic participation and more specifically protest movements. Using two case studies – the unemployed workers movements of the 1930s and the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011/2012 – it explores the changing regimes of time that are related to dominant media technologies. The main aim is to disentangle the relationship between temporal regimes suggested by dominant media technologies and their appropriation by protest movements that emerged in major economic crises. Combing archival materials with in-depth interviews the paper discusses the role of media practices for the two movements and uncovers a shift from mechanical speed to digital immediacy having crucial implications for democracy and civic participation.

Author

• Anne Kaun, Sodertorn U