Abstract

ARTEAGA BOTELLO, Nelson  and  VYOLETA ROMERO, Michelle. Sub(Surveillance) in the construction of narratives of social protest in México. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2018, vol.41, n.1, pp.203-220. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v41n1.56965.

This article analyzes the way video recordings of protest clashes are used as constitutive elements in the narratives constructed by actors with opposing interests. As an empirical reference, the article looks at the December 1, 2012 protests in Mexico during the possession of President Enrique Comoros Peña Nieto, a flashpoint of the performatization of roles during political and social protests. The text discusses the regimes of surveillance and sub-surveillance at these protests using panoptic and synoptic categories. These panoptic and synoptic viewpoints work jointly, particularly in light of the communication media's ability to show the actions of some individuals to millions of viewers. In this way, the media provides an observation framework for society to do surveillance, understand and produce it, with this activity becoming part of the social sources for narrative development. The article shows how the narratives on the meaning of December 1 are integrated following a shared logic of distinction between the socially desirable and undesirable. It concludes that both the narrative about the truth of sub-surveillance and that of surveillance are linked to the same set of characteristics identified as positive. Under these dynamics, none of the parties in conflict question the validity of the binary code in use, so those days of violence are critical events for their narrative processing but not as an exercise to tear down the social order. These elements contribute to the sociological analysis of witness technologies and their use in social and political narratives about truth.

Keywords : narrative; panoptic; political protest; sub-surveillance; surveillance; synoptic.

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