The recent political protests around the globe since the uprising in the Arab World, the Indignados movement in Spain, and the Occupy Movement in United States, were broadcast to the world through both the global mainstream and alternative media using many images and reports produced by people on the ground using internet, mobile phones, and social media. These events have triggered a discussion not only about the political changes taking place in the region but have also opened up an academic debate about what changes and transformations may have occurred in the nature of citizens' political actions and the use of social media to communicate with people around the world. In turn, these political events have also reignited the discussion on social media as transnational public spheres beyond government control and opened to question the ethos of existing attempts at Internet governance by western nation-states. The aim of this thesis is to engage in a theoretical discussion of this political phenomenon through a case study of New Social Movements and social networking sites' Uses: Mexicans' mobilization for peace in Mexico, an important element in the development of citizen participation on the Internet focused on in the thesis. In this process, this thesis examines how theoretically social movements have been transformed with the goal of contributing to the debate on the role of new communication technologies in redefining social movements and their potential to transform traditional political practices, such as opening up space to develop temporary alliances with the government, widening political participation in government structures, and/or exercising more influence on the policy-making process
