Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, Vol 8, No 2 (2018)

Abstract

This article aims at achieving a theoretical incursion into the specialized concepts underlying spontaneous protests and collective mass behaviour. The article proposes an interdisciplinary approach of the specialized concepts, operating from an abstract perspective and assuming its general feature. The general objective is to provide the prospect of concrete cases that help to understand how social networks can be used in public protests, thus contributing to the existing studies in the field. As a prerequisite, the article starts from the idea that social networks can change course or help organize spontaneous protests in a state. Mobilizing the crowd into protests is done using several techniques and tactics of influence that we have identified as social media indicators of the phenomenon. Starting from the findings of some authors, the objectives proposed in this study are: to determine the basic concepts with which to work in the study of collective mass behaviour; which are the indicators by which the effectiveness of social networks can be analysed as a mobilizing tool