Informationsspridning och protester : Hur påverkas protester av ICTs och pressfrihet?

Sammanfattning: The research on the mobilizing role of ICTs and freedom of the press has been abundant and has specifically focused on how they affect individuals’ participation in protests and the number of protests in different countries. However, research is lacking in how these determinants affect the size of protests. This study aims to contribute to this lack of research as it combines these determinants and investigates how they affect the number and size of protests in 138 countries during the time period 1993 to 2016. The theoretical framework is based on Chenoweth and Stephans theory of informational difficulties combined with contemporary research on the role of ICTs as mobilizing tools and the role of the traditional media as the fourth estate. Furthermore, the method that has been used is ordinary least squares regression where the study expects that the number and size of protests grows along with the availability of ICTs and a higher degree of press freedom. The study then concluded that these expectations were partly correct, it concluded that two out of the three chosen ICTs had no affect at all and the last one had a positive effect on the amount and size of protest. Moreover, a more limited press resulted in higher amount and larger sizes of protests. Finally, this study contributes to the literature as it contradicts earlier findings on this subject and creates new information regarding the effect of these determinants on protest sizes.