Social Media as a Tool for Mass Mobilization in the “Velvet Revolution” in the Republic of Armenia

The beginning of the XXI century a new phenomenon in political transformation is appeared- so-called “color revolutions”. This term is used to describe non-violent movements, protests which are succeeded in some authoritarian regimes (Polese, 2010). The advent of color revolutions has brought a new perspective to traditional forms of political demonstrations. This perspective is the use of modern information technologies - mobile phones, the internet, social networks and support from local and foreign media. This research intends to study public protests in Armenia in spring 2018 and the capacity of Armenian social media to function as an instrument for mass mobilization. Mass protests of spring were actively covered and discussed in traditional media and virtual social networks, particularly on Facebook. During the spring-summer of 2018 the consumption of social networks and especially Facebook increased significantly (88.69% of all users). This demonstrates the impossibility of mass protests without the use of mobile phones and participation (or even intervention) of social networks and their moderators. Analysis of social media and online publications of Armenian politicians demonstrates the connection with the mass protests. Our major arguments will be built around the following question: how does social media mobilize the public? It is important to note that our study relies on a mixed method. Also, web survey, interviews were conducted. Moreover, in our research we analyze the Facebook posts of the Armenian opposition leader Nicol Pashinyan as well as people's reactions to them. We found that growth in protest activity followed the peaks of the views. We study various theories of interaction between media and mass movements and draw parallels between theory and practice. Thus, theory of the “connective action” (Bennett, Segerberg, 2012) explains how online networking can provide solutions for collective action dilemmas and construct strategies of social and political mobilization. Thereby we may expect that social networks can serve as a meaningful instrument of the mobilization during the Velvet Revolution in RA. Keywords: Revolution phenomena, color revolution, social movements, Velvet Revolution, Republic of Armenia (RA), social mobilization, social media, Facebook, protests, connective action, political participation, livestreams