Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> CMC <s> can be found at: New Media & Society Additional services and information for http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Email Alerts: http://nms.sagepub.com/subscriptions Subscriptions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Permissions: http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/6/1/26 SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms): (this article cites 5 articles hosted on the Citations <s> BIB001 </s> Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research <s> CMC <s> This article reviews the main findings of a three-year empirical study that examined the possible contribution of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to participation in offline social movement protest events. Participation was examined as manifest in mobilization, identity building and organizational transformation. Digital prefigurative participation is a tentative construct that attempts to capture the CMC aspect of engagement in the three processes. The participatory processes were probed in the contrasting circumstances of high- and low-risk protest events. This distinction has revealed some important differences in the structural factors that foster participation, primary among which has been organizational affiliation. Yet, it has remained largely unexplored in studies of internet use in protest politics. Findings from two case studies of environmental protests in Romania and the UK suggest that digital prefigurative participation may be extensive among unaffiliated participants at a low-risk event and the affiliated at a high-risk one. <s> BIB002
We define CMC as human communication via electronic devices that encompasses all digital technologies (e.g. email, websites, social networking sites and text messaging) that channel and shape communication and social behaviours BIB001 . In this review, we consider CMC in its broader definition to address the variety of means used during collective action (see, for example,  BIB002 .