Social Media, Digital Campaigns and Social Change: A Critical Approach to Discourse and Responses to Two Awareness Campaigns on Discrimination and Violence

The study qualitatively explores how two digital awareness campaigns on discrimination and violence are articulated, taking into account the discursive content of the message disseminated on Facebook and the responses of users of this platform. The campaigns analyzed were “Micro Actions for Great Rights”, launched by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in 2019 with the collaboration of international agencies and CONACOD; and #EducacionConIgualdad, promoted by PROMSEX and other civil society organizations in 2017. Both sought to raise awareness about discrimination and violence based on gender, gender identity and race / ethnicity in Peruvian society. We found that there is a silence on racism and sexism in the comments, which could be related to a simplification of these issues in the campaigns. Campaign messages and comments used a similar discursive framework that conceives solutions to discrimination as individualized processes. There were homo-transphobic discourses (hate speech) that discourage cross-cutting discussions and reaffirm instances of discrimination. These results show that the campaigns have limitations in the way they represent certain problems, which is reflected in responses that question or contravene the messages.