Armed groups of civilians known as "self-defense forces" have ousted the powerful Knights Templar drug cartel from several towns in Michoacan. This militia uprising has unfolded on social media, particularly in the "VXM" ("Valor por Michoacan," Spanish for "Courage for Michoacan") Facebook page, gathering more than 170,000 fans. Previous work on the Drug War has documented the use of social media for real-time reports of violent clashes. However, VXM goes one step further by taking on a pro-militia propagandist role, engaging in two-way communication with its audience. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of VXM and its audience. We examined nine months of posts, from VXM's inception until May 2014, totaling 6,000 posts by VXM administrators and more than 108,000 comments from its audience. We describe the main conversation themes, post frequency and relationships with offline events and public figures. We also characterize the behavior of VXM's most active audience members. Our work illustrates VXM's online mobilization strategies, and how its audience takes part in defining the narrative of this armed conflict. We conclude by discussing possible applications of our findings for the design of future communication technologies.
We position our work within the area of social computing and collective action, particularly focusing on social movements. Social movements are defined as organized collective activities which take place outside political structures, but that attempt to transform existing political, economic, or societ al structures @cite_43 . Militias are considered a type of social movement @cite_12 .
@cite_43 @cite_12
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New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are changing the ways in which activists communicate, collaborate and demonstrate. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines, among them sociology, political science and communication, are working to understand these changes. The diversity of perspectives represented enriches the literature, providing an abundant repertoire of tools for examining these phenomena, but it is also an obstacle to understanding. Few works are commonly cited across the field, and most are known only within the confines of their discipline. The absence of a common set of organizing theoretical principles can make it difficult to find connections between these disparate works beyond their common subject matter. This paper responds by locating existing scholarship within a common framework for explaining the emergence, development and outcomes of social movement activity. This provides a logical structure that facilitates conversations across the field around common issues of c... Chapter 1 Introduction: Approaching the Miltia Movement Chapter 2 Fuel: The Cultural Foundations of the Militia Movement Chapter 3 Heat: The Myth of the Militia in the American Revolution Chapter 4 Friction: Militia Ideology and the Rationalization of Rage Chapter 5 The Spark: Randy Weaver and the Standoff at Ruby Ridge Chapter 6 The Fire: David Koresh, The Branch Davidians, and the Fire at Waco, TX Chapter 7 The Inferno: Timothy McVeigh and the Bombing in Oklahoma City Chapter 8 Embers: The Decline of the Militia Movement Chapter 9 Epilogue: The Movement and Homeland Security