MEDIA COVERAGE OF PROTESTS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF REVOLT, MEDIA PHANTASIES, AND THE COLLECTIVE IMAGINARY OF PROTESTS
MEDIA COVERAGE OF PROTESTS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF REVOLT, MEDIA PHANTASIES, AND THE COLLECTIVE IMAGINARY OF PROTESTS

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the phenomenological dimension of revolt and protest as symbolic expressions of collective consciousness, understood not merely as social reactions to crisis, but as mechanisms for reconstructing social meaning and collective identity. Building on Serge Moscovici’s theory of social representations, the analysis shows how revolt becomes an “object of representation” through the dual processes of objectification (the transformation of abstract concepts into recognizable images) and anchoring (the integration of new meanings into familiar cultural frameworks). Through these mechanisms, protest is rendered visible, narrativized, and cognitively accessible to the media audience. The phenomenology of revolt thus unfolds as a social dramaturgy of legitimacy, where the media acts as stage, and the public as both actor and spectator. As event and representation, protest operates as a modern myth of participatory democracy, within which the collective imaginary is continuously reactivated, negotiated, and transmitted through symbols, emotions, and media narratives.

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