Asking (new) media questions: Thinking beyond the Twitter revolution

This article argues for a turn to more post-structuralist approaches to new media studies. By reviewing the existing literature on the role of new media in social movements, I contend that binaristic frames are still constraining new media studies. After elaborating upon the scholarship dealing with the use of Twitter in social movements like the Arab Spring, I examine how a turn to more post-structuralist approaches can aid in understanding new media within a complex system. Although the post-structuralist turn in communication is largely responsible for opening up the space that new media studies now inhabit, post-structuralism is largely abandoned upon entering this terrain. This piece calls for a return to post-structuralist methods to trace the role of new media across platforms using scholars such as Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Bruno Latour.