Ocupação Lanceiros Negros at Facebook: Online presence of social movements as an exercise of communication rights

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the contents published during six months on the Facebook page Ocupação Lanceiros Negros MLB – RS, created and maintained by Movimento de Luta nos Bairros, Vilas e Favelas (MLB). The research is based on the concept of alternative communication and discusses its pertinence for the affirmation of constitutional communication rights and the creation of a “place of speech” for historically criminalized social groups. The compilation of all posts published during the time interval accompanied for the research, followed by a quantitative and qualitative analysis of its contents, allowed us to notice that the page was created as a space for the disclosure of the occupation coherently with the proposal of alternative medias, as an strategic action for visibility and for the construction of a “self-discourse” by the movement.

Keywords: alternative communication, place of speech, social network sites, Ocupação Lanceiros Negros.