ABSTRACT
A new materialist approach to studying activism is gaining pertinence with the rapid growth of digital media technologies. The study of any social phenomenon, especially social change, is no longer possible with a sole focus on humans, their agency, and agenda. We are constantly surrounded by materialities that involve nonhuman and more-than-human elements that demand our attention. These are technologies and objects intended to satisfy our needs, yet seem to possess agency to change the way we think, act, and desire. Ranging from technological devices, garments, spaces, and statues to social media posts and images, nonhuman elements play crucial roles in the networks of activism. The chapter proposes media-activism assemblage, a framework based on Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's concept of assemblages. To help you better understand the co-constitutive nature of human and nonhuman elements in assemblages of media activism, the chapter contributes the concept of image-affects.
