ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a practice-based ecological exploration of the #YoSoy132 movement. It shows the tensions within the Mexican media scenario between the Mexican Telecracy and the new emerging digital sphere. The chapter describes the context of the 2012 Mexican elections, focusing in particular on the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Pena Nieto and his media construction by the Mexican telecracy. It also shows that the movement engaged with an intricate multiplicity of communication technologies to perform multiple actions, many of which were ignored by the literature on the movement. The chapter considers the internal communicative dynamics of the movement, performed within ‘backstage spaces’, such as Facebook chats and WhatsApp messages, that afforded comfort and ludic zones for Mexican students. A special role was played by the WhatsApp software that allowed activists to coordinate in real time during the demonstrations and acted as a platform for organising among small groups and student collectives.
