Another Brick in the Wall: Public Space, Visual Hegemonic Resistance, and the Physical/Digital Continuum

• Main Author: Gilmore, Daniel
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Archive @ GSU 2012
• Subjects: Socio-political protest; Public space; Banksy; Egyptian Revolution; Social media; Nestlé; Facebook; Twitter; Carnivalesque; Graffiti; Visual hegemonic resistance
• Online Access: http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/communication_theses/91; http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1089&context=communication_theses

In this thesis I will demonstrate that there is a similarity between the use of physical walls and digital walls as means of ideological dissemination by power structures as well as socio-political protesters. Also, I will show that their use in this manner not only changes the way that both function ideologically, but also changes the environment that these walls are created/exist in as well. The first case study will analyze Banksy’s employment of carnivalesque graffiti as a means of protest. The second case study will analyze the use of digital public space and “walls” created within social media as tools of protest, paralleling the earlier examples pertaining to the physical walls of public space. The third case study will look at the employment of the digital “walls” of Facebook and Twitter in conjunction with the use of public space in Cairo and its role in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.