Beyond Digital Visibility : Collaborative Media and the Infrastructures of Endurance in Georgian Protest Movements

Sammanfattning

In the wake of the contested 2024 Georgian parliamentary election and the subsequent suspension of European Union integration, the Georgian public sphere has undergone a radical disruption. As digital platforms are increasingly saturated with state-led Clouds of Confusion and strategic repression, this thesis explores how protesters use collaborative media practices to maintain their political existence. Moving beyond the technical focus in Media and Communication Studies (MCS), the research employs a qualitative case study design analyzing the Black Dot symbol, the Voices of Freedom from Prison newspaper, and the 1km Supra ritual. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe´s theory of agonistic pluralism and Merlyna Lim's framework of Human Routers, the study argues that in times of political turmoil, togetherness is not constructed through consensus but through material and embodied practices that protect a radical democratic identity and build alternative human networks of trust. This study contributes to MCS by reconceptualizing protest communication as a process of endurance rather than moments of mobilization. It demonstrates how communication functions as an infrastructural and affective form of labor that supports the maintenance of political identity under conditions of conflict and repression. The findings of this study can inform future research in other conflict-affected contexts by highlighting how communication as an infrastructure of endurance sustains political identity and collective presence under repressive conditions.