Activist discourse and its influence on social change

Abstract

The study aimed to determine how discursive formulas, visual codes, and networked practices structured protest movements and contributed to social change across three national contexts: the United States, Brazil, and Turkey. The research was conducted on the basis of open sources, archival media materials, images and videos, as well as corpora of social media publications. Sequential stages included a historical-comparative review of the concept of activism, discursive analysis of slogans, content analysis of visual objects, and a comparison of media representations, followed by an assessment of social outcomes. The principal findings indicated that short, rhythmic formulas in the United States and Brazil functioned as markers of collective identity and as interpretive frames, consolidating meanings around demands for justice, bodily autonomy, and institutional accountability. Visual elements – such as the raised fist and contrasting black, white, and yellow compositions in American cities, as well as pink-violet palettes and memes in the Brazilian social media segment – served as low-threshold carriers of meaning and enabled rapid replication in both offline and online environments. In Turkey, the combination of slogans, ironic cartoons, and graffiti created an alternative informational ecosystem. Analysis of news formats demonstrated a systematic divergence between fast-paced television reporting and analytical newspaper coverage: the former tended to emphasise conflictual episodes, whereas the latter concentrated on structural causes and legal consequences. The social effects included the intensification of political debates on lawenforcement practices in the United States, the activation of women’s networks and the incorporation of equality issues into party platforms in Brazil, as well as the emergence of new civic initiatives and a rise in political awareness among young people in Turkey. The practical value of the study lies in the applicability of the proposed analytical framework for planning communications of civic initiatives, assessing media strategies, and developing an evidence base for public policy