Digital Media Technologies and Political Mobilization in Bangladesh: A Structural Analysis of Social Media-Driven Collective Action

Md Rashedul Islam

doi:10.63956/jitar.v1i2.52

Authors

Md Rashedul Islam The University of Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63956/jitar.v1i2.52

Keywords:

Digital technologies of the media; political mobilization; social media; collective action; digital mobilization; youth movements; Bangladesh, politics communication.

Abstract

Digital media’s rapid diffusion has fundamentally reshaped political communication and mobilization in the Global South, and Bangladesh is a timely case of digitally mediated collective action. Over the past decade, platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and encrypted messaging apps have shifted from informal communication tools to critical infrastructures for political processes, protest organization, and identity formation. This transformation unfolds within a contested socio-political environment marked by disputed democratic practices, youth-led activism, state surveillance, and regulatory restrictions. While existing scholarship has documented the visibility of online activism in Bangladesh, it has paid less attention to the structural mechanisms through which digital technologies enable, constrain, and reconfigure political mobilization.

This paper offers a structural examination of social media–based collective action in Bangladesh, focusing on how technological affordances, networked social relations, and political opportunity structures interact to produce contemporary forms of mobilization. Drawing on collective action theory, networked social movement perspectives, and digital public sphere models, it situates Bangladeshi digital activism within broader regional and global dynamics while foregrounding its specific contextual conditions. The study synthesizes empirical insights from prior research on quota reform movements, youth activism, diaspora mobilization, and episodic protest cycles to show how social media facilitates collective identity formation, accelerates information diffusion, and lowers participation thresholds for protest.

The analysis argues that digital technologies do not merely expand participation; they reshape mobilization through decentralized leadership, symbolic participation, and hybrid online–offline repertoires. At the same time, vulnerabilities—including misinformation, surveillance, and unequal access—shape the durability and outcomes of collective action. By using Bangladesh as a case, the paper contributes to debates on digital activism in developing democracies and offers theoretical and policy-relevant insights into the shifting relationship among technology, power, and political mobilization.

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