Communication guerrilla

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Communication guerrilla (also information guerrilla , media guerrilla ) is a form of activism (or a group or movement that uses this form), in which information or disinformation is used in a targeted manner in order to achieve goals. Here, the classic guerrilla - tactics that are possible effective effort punctual operations to the range of information and communication transfer. The communication guerrilla can also be described as an artistic strategy for the subversion of communication structures or a cultural re- occupation . Related terms are also adbusting and culture jamming .

concept

Communication guerrilla theorists refer to Umberto Eco (“ semiotic guerrilla warfare”) and Noam Chomsky (“consensus without consensus”). Robert Anton Wilson speaks of guerrilla ontology ("Operation Mindfuck") in this context . The ideas of the communication guerrilla are closely intertwined with anarchism and situationism , hacker culture and Discordianism , and the spontaneous people in the 1970s were also communication guerrillas . The creed of this movement sums up the following quote:

"Isn't the best Subversion to distort codes instead of destroying them?"

- Roland Barthes

Traditionally, the communication guerrilla method is used to try to break through established symbolic, communication and social structures and to get people in the target group to rethink who they believe what and why . Another form (also called information guerrilla) is the endeavor to undermine ( self ) censorship and conformity by offering a medium that is accessible to all, as for example indymedia and Wikipedia do (see counter- public ). In part, the method is guerrilla communication but also as a means of agitprop used political or ideological distribute content or to expose.

A typical example of a communications guerrilla is the Barbie Liberation Organization , which in 1993 exchanged computer chips in talking Barbie dolls for those in the talking war toy doll GI Joe and then brought the dolls back on the market, so that Barbie now has military commands and GI Joe I want with you go shopping . The group Adbusters is also worth mentioning here, which is also dedicated to the fight against consumer society , but in more conventional, legal ways.

In Italy , five activists from Bologna managed to launch a whole series of fabricated and false stories in the media under and around the pseudonym Luther Blissett from 1994–1999.

In the German-speaking countries, the Hedonist International , the Peng Collective and the Center for Political Beauty are particularly worth mentioning. In the 1980s, the Berlin office for unusual measures was active in the area and its predecessor, FDGÖ, which works with many means of the communication guerrilla.

Further examples are hidden theater , sound effects or slide , film or video projections in public space , forms of video activism , pirate channels or the distortion and alienation of logos and advertising messages . Artistic and parodic means are often used.

In addition to openly expressed criticism, one often finds apparent affirmation as a strategy, which can go as far as over-identification : what is actually criticized is instead represented (exaggerated) itself ( irony ); Aesthetics, choice of words or appearance of criticized organizations adopted and alienated. Also Dadaist editing of keywords, text or images and characters occurs. Expectations and practiced obedience to authorities are used in the same way as classic methods of marketing - only for an opposite purpose.

Methods and Techniques

The methods of the communication guerrilla want to instrumentalise the cultural grammar or turn it around and fill it with different content. Their actors use multiple names, imaginary people or collective myths .

The camouflage is used to disguise the goals and practices of the communication guerrilla with a disguise that imitates the prevailing means of expression and language in order to convey subversive content.

With collage and montage , the attempt is made to confuse natural perception patterns of reality and thus create uncertainty (example: Dadaism).

The purpose of the theft and reinterpretation method is to tear familiar terms and images out of their usual context and to place them in a new context that mostly criticizes the previous term and thus to reinterpret them.

The invention of false facts to create true events serves to expose and criticize the mechanisms used by the media and politics to create reality. The imitation and falsification (English: Fake ) is a method which obtains its effect by the association of the invention, alienation, and imitation exaggeration. In this way, foreign power can be appropriated undetected for a while and exercised in their name.

Subversive affirmation creates distance from the presented statements by exaggerating them and transforming them into their opposite through superficial, exaggerated confirmation.

Over-identification means to face the logic of the ruling order and to attack it at the most vulnerable place, the center.

Intervening in a communication process with alienation means disrupting and confusing the normal, expected process. This is intended to create a distance between the actors and viewers and the familiar relationships in order to question their normality.

agitation

The methods of the communication guerrilla are often used by groups from the anarchist and autonomous areas. Among other things, one makes use of the fact that information is evaluated completely differently as soon as it is placed in a different context. In this sense, the attempt is made not to “destroy” the prevailing codes, but to use them according to one's own goals:

Whether an article, leaflet or letter is sent by a private person or an important politician , party or organization often changes the overall effect of a document (see also ethos ). One of the tactics of the communications guerrilla is the illegitimate occupation of effective speaker positions. Misinformation is deliberately circulated under a false name. The credibility or recognition of an institution or person can be used to make one's own information published under their name heard, or at the same time an attempt is made to discredit this speaker-person and weaken their status, to drive them on the defensive .

Another aspect is the creation of irritation and confusion. For example, people over-identify themselves with the political goals of the other side, and their goals are satirically presented in an exaggerated version under their names (for example through “jubilation demos” for (more) war, censorship or capitalism and consumption). The recipient is deliberately presented with a distorted picture of the goals.

Many such activities by the communications guerrilla are to be classified as illegal, as the fact that documents have been forged is often assumed. In most cases, the distributors can be prosecuted for using false letterheads or forged signatures to fake the authenticity of the document so that they can be caught and assigned personally.

Other examples are direct actions with the aim of calling into question the established procedures of the political opponent - be it a politician at an event, an institution such as the judiciary or a company. For example, constant loud clapping or cheering during a speech can disrupt the process more persistently than with obvious disruptive calls, the originators of which are usually quickly removed by the hall security. During the student protests in Berlin in the winter of 2003/2004 , for example, police forces were sometimes accompanied by a suit-clad group who cheered on the police officers, called on them to “crack down” and chanted slogans such as “ nuclear first strike ” .

Communication guerrilla techniques can be easily applied on the Internet in particular. Sometimes, when, for example, a member of a minority overemphasizes culture-specific peculiarities and publicly approaches conflict issues in an unlikely aggressive manner, so that this member would at best do his “faction” a disservice, skepticism is appropriate. In many cases, an over-emotional, propagandistic or simply wrong / distorting presentation cannot be comprehended with rational means and an excessive need for communication and the search for conflict are insufficient explanations. Such behavior is common on social networks like “youtube” and some forums, especially when looking for contentious topics that are open to ideological tinting.

Media guerrilla

The term media guerrilla is often used synonymously with communication guerrilla , whereby media guerrilla rather refers to a form of this tactic that uses modern mass media . The “classic” communication guerrilla, on the other hand, relies primarily on direct personal contact. On the Internet , however, this line becomes blurred again because the difference between public and private communication is no longer clear.

The approach of the media guerrilla is to hijack media and terms in order to spread subversive thoughts or to cause confusion. Usually this does not mean a literal takeover of a medium, such as webpage defacement or pirate stations, but rather the creative abuse of established communication structures of all kinds. In the meantime, the methods and aesthetics of the communication guerrilla are also used in advertising to market products ( guerrilla marketing ) ( Recuperation ).

The catchwords associated with the guerrilla word, an asymmetrical or decentralized “warfare” (propaganda), are partially dissolved on the Internet. An example of this is the communication guerrilla software `` Megaphone Desktop Tool '' distributed by Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) , which coordinates the voices of the individual centrally, leads to media events such as votes or political articles and suggests a course of action in the interests of the operator or in part performs independently. Thus, the media-political action becomes a mass action, although the random voting weight of the individual individuals is retained and the illusion of an objective picture of opinion is preserved.

literature

  • Autonomous Africa Group, Luther Blissett , Sonja Brünzels: Handbook of the Communication Guerilla - How do I help myself . 4th edition. Association A, Hamburg and Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-935936-04-4 . The first edition appeared in 1997, the preface to the fourth edition .
  • autonomous africa group: media riots . Racism and anti-racism. The power of the media and the powerlessness of the left? Nevertheless-Verlag, Grafenau 1994, ISBN 3-922209-48-3 .
  • Jean Baudrillard : Kool Killer or the Revolt of the Signs , trans. v. Hans-Joachim Metzger, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3920986989 .
  • Noam Chomsky : Media Control . Europa-Verlag, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-203-76015-0 .
  • Direct Action Issue: Communication subversive - PDF
  • Umberto Eco : For a Semiological Guerrilla (1967). In: Umberto Eco: About God and the World . 4th edition. Hanser, Munich a. a. 1986, ISBN 3-446-13933-8 .
  • Marcus S. Kleiner: Semiotic Resistance. On the social and media criticism of the communication guerrilla . In: Gerd Hallenberger, Jörg-Uwe Nieland (ed.): New criticism of media criticism. Work analysis, user service, sales promotion or cultural criticism? . Halem, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-931606-86-4 , ( Edition Medienpraxis 2), pp. 316–368.
  • Franz Liebl, Thomas Düllo: Cultural Hacking. Art of Strategic Action . Springer Vienna a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-211-23278-8 .
  • Hagen Schölzel: Guerrilla Communication. Genealogy of a political form of conflict . transcript, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2235-5 .
  • Andreas Völlinger: In the spirit of the market. Culture jamming, communication guerrilla and subversive protest against the logo world of the consumer society . Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8288-2269-6 .
  • Ernst Volland , Peter Huth (Ed.): This book is pure forgery. From A to Z: Everything is fake . Zweausendeins Verlag, Frankfurt 1989, (documentation of works by the communications guerilla).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Barthes, Roland: Sade, Fourier, Loyola, Paris 1980, p. 141