A media ecology of hyperlocal resistance-the Indian farmers’ movement

Abstract

This article examines how protestors navigated a collapsing media environment during the Indian farmers’ movement of 2020–2021, one of the largest and most sustained protests in the country’s democratic history. Triggered by the passage of controversial agricultural marketing laws, the movement quickly became a site of contestation not only over economic reform but also over the legitimacy and role of the media. Legacy news media, widely perceived as aligning with government narratives, lost the trust of the protesting public. This study applies a media ecology framework, integrating McLuhan’s tetrad of media effects, and uses hermeneutic phenomenology to analyse the communicative dynamics of the protest movement. Drawing on interviews with protestors, union leaders, and journalists, as well as hyperlocal news artefacts and supported by field observations and media contextualisation, the study identifies three key dynamics: the breakdown of trust in institutional media, the emergence of decentralised hyperlocal channels, and the formation of insular communicative loops. Positioning McLuhan’s tetrad as an analytical extension within media ecology, this study empirically shows a crucial dimension of protest communication. While hyperlocal media enhance coordination, they also have the potential to be reversed into information loops. By mapping this paradox, the study advances Media Ecology Theory, enriches protest communication scholarship, and underscores the democratic risks arising from the loss of trust in traditional media.