WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Gold, power, protest: Digital and social media and protests against large-scale mining projects in Colombia Specht, D. and Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. This is a copy of the accepted author manuscript of the following article: Specht, D. and Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. (2017) Gold, power, protest: Digital and social media and protests against large-scale mining projects in Colombia, New Media & Society, 19 (12), pp. 1907-1926. The final definitive version is available from the publisher, Sage at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444816644567 © The Author(s) 2017 The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail
[email protected] Gold, power, protest: Digital and social media and protests against large- scale mining projects in Colombia Doug Specht University of Westminster, UK Mirjam AF Ros-Tonen University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract Colombia’s Internet connectivity has increased immensely. Colombia has also ‘opened for business’, leading to an influx of extractive projects to which social movements object heavily. Studies on the role of digital media in political mobilisation in developing countries are still scarce. Using surveys, interviews, and reviews of literature, policy papers, website and social media content, this study examines the role of digital and social media in social movement organisations and asks how increased digital connectivity can help spread knowledge and mobilise mining protests.