Twitter and Public Reasoning Around Social Contention: The Case of #15ott in Italy

This paper addresses the use of Twitter for public reasoning and opinion making around issues related to social contention. It specifically focuses on the Italian chapter of the 15 October 2011 polycentric protest for Global Change. By exploring Twitter streams, the study follows four specific lines of investigation: the positioning of the Italian #15ott hashtagged Twitter stream among other Twitter streams relevant to the protest, conversational dynamics over time, networking and news media dynamics, and processes of meaning construction. The findings show that Twitter usage related to social contention is not only functional to generate alternative information flows with organizational and logistic purposes. It also bolsters processes of public reasoning and opinion making activated not only by collective advocacy actors and media channels but also by individuals not necessarily involved in offline protest action.