Analysis of the concept and pattern of power in virtual space; Studying the formation of social movements

Momeni, Seyyede Hanieh; Ranjbar Khachak, Maghsood; Khajesarvi, Gholamreza

Analysis of the concept and pattern of power in virtual space; Studying the formation of social movements

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Azad University of Qom. Faculty of Humanities. Department of Political Science

² Department of Political Science, Faculty of Humanities, Azad University of Qom

³ Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Allameh Tabatabai University

Abstract

The nature of power and how it is formed in the context of new structures of information production, processing and transmission (including in the context of social networks) is different from the real space, which means that the space of social networks has created a new system of social activism for people. which can ultimately lead to the formation of new poles of power. The current research was conducted with the aim of answering these questions: Has the nature of power in social networks changed? How is the process of power formation in social networks? In response to this question, the formation of social movements under the influence of virtual space was also investigated.
The findings of this research show that by accepting the conventional definitions of power, its formation in the network space in a cascade framework and based on the hierarchical levels of actors, from the owners of the Internet infrastructure, to the owners of the platforms and in the next stage to the users (respectively Influence includes: celebrities, influencers, bloggers, official media and finally general users). Also, in the process of forming network power, ownership or the possibility of controlling social networking platforms plays a very important role.

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