The most effective electoral campaigns are those that capture the collective imagination, those that are overwhelmed by the activists and sympathizers themselves, those that generate autonomous and creative mobilization outside the centralized structures of parties and candidates.
Days ago, in the middle of the Argentine election campaign, a Twitter thread by a journalist (@ceciazul) who has compiled small actions and content entirely developed by militants or activists. Some kites made from recycled posters of a candidate, homemade posters warning of public health cuts, designs and illustrations (some with artificial intelligence), interference with election advertising, and many other examples added by other users.
These “micromilitancy” are creative expressions with persuasive power that emanate independently and autonomously from the bases or even from the citizens. This “micro-activism,” as I prefer to call it, occurs on the fringes, without control from those who decide or decide on the strategies in an election campaign. They are a different creative and political energy with a very high penetration of the conversation, as they are carriers of an authenticity and spontaneity that legitimize them in a special way. These crafts of political communication are real and therein lies their effectiveness. Their unprofessional simplicity makes them fall back into an amateur atmosphere, but that doesn’t stop them from becoming widely shared and viral. People are more likely to share a standalone piece than political propaganda, no matter how well done.
This is not the first time that microactivism has gone beyond anonymity. We found something similar in the campaigns of Gabriel Boric (Chile, 2021), Bernie Sanders (USA, 2016) and Manuela Carmena (Madrid, 2015), the latter was also analyzed by researchers María López-Trigo Reig, María Puchalt López and Victoria Cuesta Diaz. For Sebastián Kraljevich, who was an adviser to the current Chilean president, abundance is always good news: “When that happens, you don’t want to and can’t control it.” There’s no way to stop the memes or the people knocking on doors. “This particular case was, as Júlia Alsina describes, unique because “self-convened and self-governing commandos emerged.”
There are several reasons that explain the success of microactivism, which, like any campaign action, can be online, offline or hybrid, as Xavier Peytibi highlights in his book Connected Campaigns: disintermediation, expressiveness and creativity, intelligence of the masses, the connection with the territory or the community in which the initiative originates and the contagion effect that sometimes takes the form of a very stimulating activist challenge. Finally, the expansion and popularization of generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney or others represents a great opportunity for microactivism to become faster and more productive, although perhaps more predictable and less creative.
Added to this is the micro-activism that can arise within some communities of interest or fandoms, as is currently happening in Argentina among Swifties, Otakus and K-Popers. The political positions within these networks, as we have already seen in the US when K-pop fans boycotted a Donald Trump rally, are very fast and have enormous persuasive power.
There is a special beauty in simplicity and amateurism. It is an unadulterated or domesticated commodity through the logic of advertising or political marketing. A creative energy that connects directly and authentically and turns campaigns into conversations. This is the key: from convincing to sharing, from spectator and consumer of political propaganda to protagonist of the same campaign.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_