The Role of Political Communication in Protest Mobilization: A Case Study on the 1989 Anti-Communist Revolution in Timişoara

Introduction

This exploratory research investigates the role of political communication in mobilizing political protests within a dictatorial society. Focus is set on the Eastern European anti-communist revolutions at the end of the 1980s, particularly on the social movement against the authoritarian Romanian regime lead by Nicolae Ceaușescu, from the city of Timișoara. Our intention is to explore motivations behind the decision to protest under oppressive conditions—related to the available information on the West and to previous experiences of social movements, as well as the triggering factors sparking the protests. To this extent, the research relates to the phenomenon of priming—studied mostly in an experimental manner by scientists, to test the way in which people’s decisions are influenced by passive images stored in their memories. In relation to politics, priming has received attention with regard to electoral campaigns and the capacity of media to determine voters’ attitudes. Scientists focused on experimental research and demonstrated that passive concepts (words, images), a certain mindset, emotions, events, or experiences can be retrieved from people’s memories with the help of particular stimuli (e.g., Shanks et al. 2013; Doyen et al. 2012; Bargh and Chartrand 2000). These mental representations—part of the individual’s past and deposited on an unconscious level of the memory—are able to be primed, or to influence subsequent ways of thinking and actions. The process mostly takes place in a subliminal manner, with the person being unaware of the triggering factor.

There is less research for priming in relation to political activism: scholars have studied the manner in which political campaigns—with mass media having a determinant role—shape public evaluation and influence voters’ decisions (e.g., Tesler 2015; Kuehne et al. 2011). With respect to priming and protests, there are arguments revealing direct connections between demonstrators’ reasons to go out on the street, and mass communication (e.g., Ketelaars 2017). An approach on priming and protests was performed by Snow and Moss in 2014, as part of their search for conditions able to trigger spontaneous collective movements; it was based on a “grounded analysis of ethnographic and historical observations” (Snow and Moss 2014, 1123). A close look at several demonstrations showed the importance of previous experiences and predispositions for the way participants were about to behave. Snow and Moss (2014, 1134) note...