Digital technologies and the protest paradigm: The discursive construction of the #WomanLifeFreedom protests in Time and Wired magazine

Abstract

In today’s hybrid media landscape, scholars have questioned the “protest paradigm” as the leading interpretation of news coverage of protest action. While the press tends to cover protests in rather antagonistic terms, it is simultaneously highly celebratory of the digital, rehearsing long standing techno-utopian and techno-deterministic discourses. This study zooms in on the Iranian #WomanLifeFreedom movement, investigating how the political power of digital technologies is articulated in Time and Wired magazine. The findings highlight an overarching discourse of technology as a double-edged sword intersecting with discourses of tactical creativity, horizontalism, and digital “witnessing”; as well as two marginal but interlinked discourses: technology as last resort and human right. Findings show that while the protest paradigm persists in the contemporary coverage of the #WomanLifeFreedom movement, legitimizing and delegitimizing frames coexist to produce a more nuanced view of the movement, highlighting activist goals and grievances alongside elements of conflict and spectacle. Considering the transnational dimension of the protests, and the U.S. – Iran political context, the paper concludes that both the geography of protest and the integration of digital technologies in activism shape the coverage of contemporary movements.