The role of feminist alternatif media in women's movement: Turkey and Tunisia cases

The globalization movements that are capable of affecting different regions of the world by means of rapid technological changes are causing the emergence of new organizational structures and concepts. So far, women have played active role in social movements that occurred in different parts of the world in recent years such as Arab Spring, Gezi Park Protests, Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) Movement, and they have also created new digital communication platforms during the process. The alternative and social media where they can freely express their ideas and have their voices heard is now recognised as virtual public spaces on the Internet. This is the reason why the new media and the concept of virtual public space are of utmost importance for women's movements in Islamic countries culturally and politically dominated by patriarchal authority. Today, the new media is the only platform where women in these countries can have their voices heard at national and global scale. Accordingly, the fact that women in Turkey and Tunisia weren't able to make their voices heard through conventional means of communication or wanted to find more effective communication platforms has rendered the alternative/social media more important than ever. As for the cases of Turkey and Tunisia, in both cases, alternative media and social media have been slowly transforming into public spaces where women can make their voices heard by the government authorities. In this study, the alternative feminist media websites, blogs, e-journals, and social media sites used by women's organizations or to promote women's organizations have been thoroughly examined, and in-depth interviews have been conducted with social/alternative media content producers as well as with the study participants in their natural environment according to the purposes of a qualitative study so as to reveal both groups' experience and perceptions. The alternative feminist media is seen today as a digital platform where women from Tunisia and Turkey can freely and easily interact with each other. Keywords: Feminism, globalization, feminist alternative media, virtual public sphere