Communication for the social transformation of feminism

In recent years the feminist movement has starred in the most massive mobilizations in Spain since the events around 15M. They include the “Freedom Train”, in 2014, in defense of the sexual and reproductive rights of women; the State March against Male Violence, in 2015, and the various calls for demonstrations on key dates such as March 8^th, International Women’s Day.

Part of the success of these and other actions lies in the use of digital space as stage for action, not only at a glocal level, but also at a transnational level. This is demonstrated by campaigns carried out through social networks, such as the hashtag #MeToo, which emerged in the United States or the #NiUnaMenos in Argentina.

Feminist theory and practice, as a process of deconstruction of patriarchal hetero-designation (^{Valcárcel, 1994}), has achieved international diffusion as a collective protest, with solid precedents in Anglo-American suffragism (^{Keck & Sikkink, 1998}). The transnational dimension of feminism is far from being a strictly contemporary phenomenon, which allows us to affirm that as a social movement “it was already global before globalization” (^{Arias, 2008, p. 14}).

Having established the epistemology of alternative communication or development (^{Gumucio & Tufte, 2006}) it is possible to move towards a conceptual inclusion of feminism as a transnational social movement. Its communication is oriented to social change, both by its contents and by its organizational structures, in such a way that there is coherence between its discourse and its practice (^{Barranquero & Sáez, 2010}).

In the classification carried out by ^{Ortiz (2016)} on social movements, the feminist movement is inserted in the tradition of European studies of the construction of collective identity (^{Melucci, 1994}), as the paradigm of the new social movements. On the other hand, “collective action within a social movement constitutes a form of expression of their collective identity” (^{Arias, 2008, p. 18}).

The identity of “being a woman” or “being a man” continues existing today, independently of other claimed identities (^{Butler, 1990}; ^{Haraway, 1991}), and they are “discursive constructions that arise in societies structured on the basis of asymmetric relations between the sexes” (^{Vega, 2005, p. 133}). If to the fact of being a woman is added other variables such as age, sexual orientation or guild membership, there is a specific political awareness, “and when significant human collectives acquire critical political awareness about the dominations they are subjected to, they are giving themselves the possibility of destroying them” (^{Cobo, 2005, p. 256}).

Feminism has taken communicative action as one of its fundamental axes within its demands (^{Boix, Fraga & Sedón, 2001}). However, the study on LPP cyber-activism cannot be considered within the investigations developed from different cyberfeminist currents, which investigate the deconstruction of identities from the interrelationships between women and machines (^{Núñez, 2011}). Not even from the conceptualization of social cyberfeminism, in terms of digital literacy of women with the aim of contesting the virtual space to the patriarchy (^{De Miguel & Boix, 2002}).

However, the articulation of a communicative strategy in a network, which uses public space to combat heteropatriarchal hegemony and call for political intervention in the streets, in order to promote a change in society, demonstrates the emergence of new forms of social cyberfeminism that are inescapable in the current paradigm of digital communication.

Argumentary developed in the manifesto

One of the essential components of LPP’s collective action is the manifesto in which “the keys to the pending challenges for gender equality in information and in the sector” were expressed (A. Larrañeta, personal communication, July 29^th, 2018).

From the first lines of text the collective actor representing the protest is established: “Women journalists from dozens of media and communication agencies, press offices, and, in general, media workers and journalistic companies” (^{Las Periodistas Paramos, 2018, paragraph 1}); as well as the central objective of the action: to support the feminist strike called for March 8^th, 2018.

The manifesto evidences the construction of a collective actor based on a gender and union identity, being women and communicators, that is not declared explicitly feminist, to achieve a consolidation of the repertoires of action at the moment of adhesion to the strike, by signing the document.

Supported by more than 8 000 women and translated into 11 official and co-official languages, the text echoes a social problem that affects all women and that the feminist movement itself has denounced for decades: structural inequality. This conflict is expressed in the manifesto through the complaints made by the collective about the existence in their labor ecosystem of sexism, precariousness, insecurity, wage gap, glass ceiling, sexual harassment, partial vision of the media, reification and stereotyping of the image of women (^{Las periodistas paramos, 2018}).

Hence, the demands contained in the document are addressed to the media and journalistic companies, and claim the right to salary transparency, to occupy positions of power and responsibility, to the freelance and autonomous labor stability, to a real conciliation that allows the sharing of tasks in terms of equality, to a professional practice free of sexual and labor harassment, to balance the presence of women in public spaces of opinion, and to a fair and objective approach in the story that the media build, in which the multiple forms of sexist violence are not reproduced (^{Las periodistas paramos, 2018}).

In the text, the content of the manifesto shows a strong component of vindication of the rights of the professionals of the journalistic sector (^{Las periodistas paramos, 2018, paragraph 11}). The text also pursues conscious and mobilizing ends, which go beyond the union limits when it urges “the audience and readers to be accomplices” of their demands (^{Las periodistas paramos, 2018, paragraph 11}).

In the manifesto, the act of reading the text of the 8M in Madrid and Barcelona is summoned and its replica is encouraged in other cities. In this way, the initiative moves the activism from the digital sphere to the physical space, with the purpose of materializing the main objective of the collective action: to support the feminist strike.

Therefore, there is an identification with the demands of the feminist movement, through a transversal, inclusive and guild-oriented rhetoric. The argument is clear of partisan and union constraints and abandons the individual professional ideologies to build a joint programmatic document that served “to raise your voice and say ‘enough’” (M. Doménech, personal communication, August 9^th, 2018).

Cyber-activism strategy

The basis of LPP’s cyber-activism strategy can be found on the web, a flat architecture site with 31 entries, updated on March 7^th, 2018. The web presents a blog structure and textual basis, functional, but without great aesthetic boasts: “I wish I had time to do something more beautiful and clearer” (E. Belmonte, personal communication, August 20^th, 2017).

The home page includes favicon, own name and brand and bedline, in addition to the section “Who are we?”. The brand is the feminist symbol with a fist holding a microphone/pen and the hashtag #lasperiodistasparamos. The body of the page is the manifesto, the adhesion form and the list of signatories after verification by the data group (M. Gonzalo, personal communication, July 26^th, 2018). The “FAQ” (frequently asked questions) section defines the LPP identity and makes explicit its positioning, thus trying to reduce distrust towards the action. Other sections are also included: “The woman journalists stop and we are not the only ones”, “Friendly initiatives”, “The manifesto in other languages” and “Contact”.

Another fundamental pillar of LPP’s cyber-activism strategy was the use of social networks. In a participatory manner, it was agreed that the strategy would be developed differently on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Only one LPP account was created on Facebook, given its flexibility to publish audiovisual material, since on Twitter and Instagram the feed is dynamic, and locating specific publications is more difficult.

On Twitter they operated through the personal profiles of the signatory journalists, and took advantage of their status as privileged broadcasters, their popularity and the networks they had. In this way, the centralization of communication in a single profile was avoided, and the hashtag #LasPeriodistasParamos was used as a conversation catalyst.

Between the 2^nd and the 7^th of March, they used several hashtags in a supplementary way in reference to the points of the manifesto: #BrechaSalarial, #TechodeCristal, #precariedad, #acoso, #ninguneo, #corresponsabilidad and #MiradaParcial. On Instagram some users followed the same scheme and used the hashtags used on Twitter.

In the fanpage, created on March 6^th, 2018, LPP are presented as a group of journalists united to defend their rights on 8M. The page has 1 605 likes, 1 690 followers, and a volume of 103 photos, 94 of them from the strike. The publications show the use of hashtags referring to feminism and the strike (#8m, #HuelgaFeminista, #PrimaveraFeminista ...), and information on adherence to the manifesto of collectives such as correspondents, or journalists of Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Mediaset, Huffington Post, among others. It includes publications on gender perspective or initiatives of women communication professionals. The only event is the reading of the manifesto in Callao.

On Twitter, between March 1^st and 9^th, they became Trending Topic #LasPeriodistasParamos and other derived labels, such as the name of journalists Ana Rosa Quintana, who cancelled her program on the same 8M (Table 3). Also, on March 8^th #LasPeriodistasParamos was also a trend in several points of the United States.

The main contributor to the hashtag by countries was Spain, although its use was transnational with presence in countries such as Italy or Mexico. The related hashtags are linked to the strike and feminism (#Huelga8deMarzo, #8MHuelgaFeminista, #8M). Part of the success on Twitter is derived from the influencers that used the hashtag.²

On Instagram the use of #LasPeriodistasParamos was reduced to 2 296 posts until August 2018 and the hash tags were also linked to 8M (#Huelgafeminista8M, #8M).

From a qualitative perspective, it can be seen that the digital strategy of the LPP was articulated in two axes. First, the construction of the discourse focused on: a clear identification of the issuer in the messages, either through the leaders themselves or communicators who joined the initiative; the maintenance of the LPP brand through the use of the main hashtag and links to the manifesto to promote its signature; the elaboration of inclusive and transversal messages to generate professional identification and claim from the perspective of being women; and the construction of an argument that could be replicated without generating noise about the message of adhesion to the strike.

Second, the dissemination of collective action that includes: the use of generalist digital media in which the group of women communicators has a large presence; the permanent emission of contents, fostered by the multiple participants in the action; the continuous update on the increase of signatures of the manifesto and the incorporation of different collectives to the strike. This allowed a permanence of the topic in the social network feed, which translated into great visibility, expansion of the initiative and an increase in its mobilizing capacity.

Immediate and consecutive results of LLP

The collective action built by Spanish women journalists had an impact that exceeded their initial objectives. The data obtained from the tools analyzed corroborate the success of the initiative in the short and medium term.

The website accumulates 100 218 visits, 95% corresponding to March, which make the homepage the most viewed page (89.9%). The visits come mainly from Spain, but there are transnational contributions. Traffic sources include Twitter (34%), Facebook (7.6%), search engines and digital newspapers. The 8M fanpage had 1 038 followers, which increased to 1 424 on June 6th. The highest reach and visit figures coincide with the strike and the assembly. The followers are mainly women (86%) who disseminate content, which compensates for the reach by sex (49% of men).

In order to determine the interest that LPP generated in the digital space, the Google searches of “las periodistas paramos”, were monitored, which monopolizes more results and its variation “lasperiodistasparamos”. The searches were located in Spain and its greatest popularity took place on the eve of the strike and the day of the assembly (Figure 1).

Source: The authors with data from Google Trends.

Figure 1 Searches For “Las Periodistas Paramos” And “Lasperiodistasparamos” 

Another of the most relevant results is the adherence to the manifesto: 8 200 signatures in eight days (E. Belmonte, personal communication, August 20^th, 2017) (Figure 2).

Source: The authors with data from LPP and Twitter.

Figure 2 LPP manifesto sign evolution timeline 

The Federation of Journalists’ Unions (FeSP for its acronym in Spanish) issued two public statements in support of the 8M Feminist Strike. In the second, they join the LPP and make the claims their own (L. Fernández, personal communication, August 27t^th, 2018).

At a national level, top-rated programs such as those of Ana Rosa Quintana and María Casado were canceled, and in others, presenters were replaced, such as Susanna Griso, Pepa Bueno or Ángels Barceló. Mara Torres, of the program La 2 Noticias, was obliged to do minimal services, communicated it at the beginning of the broadcast and made a monographic and feminist program (“Mara Torres: La 2 Noticias”, 2018). In media such as Público or La Sexta, where for the first time a man presented La Sexta Noticias, all the editors supported the strike; in Cadena Ser no female voice came on the air. Women from media such as El Confidencial, El Diario, La Marea, journalists from Congress or foreign correspondents also joined LPP.

In spaces such as El Intermedio, La Marea or Playground, posts were not replaced so that the absence of women was noticed (Figure 3). In the regional media the follow-up was important, for example, in RTVA Canal Sur went black for a few hours (L. Fernández, personal communication, August 27^th, 2018). The reading of the manifesto in Callao was massive, as well as in the other cities where it was held.

Source: The authors with data from Twitter.

Figure 3 Repercussion on Twitter of the absence of women in the media 

Among the most recognized LPP’s results by its leaders are the creation of women’s networks by regions, as is the case of the Spanish correspondents in Brussels and the assembly, which was also Trending Topic in Spain and worldwide.