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to look for specific kinds of data in order to shed light on the emerging theory (Charmaz, 2006).
I adopt Rucht and Ohlemacher’s (1992) definition of a protest event as “a distinct collective action pursuing an explicit goal by the use of confrontative, disruptive and even violent means” (p. 77). When I use the terms protest and protest action, cycle, campaign, event, or performance, I am referring to specific activities such as demonstrations, roadblocks, riots, and general civil disturbances. I am interested in the protest participants and the dynamics of the protest act itself, the feelings it communicates, and where and how it intersects with the requirements of civil action and civil discourse in the Jamaican context. Protest participants in the case of Jamaica engage in the gamut of possible actions—bearing placards, actively mounting roadblocks, shouting, screaming, bawling, throwing missiles (bottles, sticks, and stones), yelling expletives, undressing (to expose nakedness), addressing the media or political officials, marching, and singing. Protest participants include those people who prefer to telephone radio call-in programs or write letters or articles to the newspapers. I also include in this framework other citizens (nonparticipants or protest observers). These individuals may be readers, listeners, or viewers of the media output (including journalists who report on protest activities), academics who analyze the dynamics and power relations that are at work in the social environment, the police who monitor or suppress protests, and the political representatives and other state agents and public officials who often arrive at the scene of a demonstration to appease protestors as well as spectators or bystanders who just happen to be at the scene of a protest event.
Although I use the term protest observer to refer to a bystander, it is worth noting that the bystander may also be a symbolic supporter of or a covert (or passive) participant in the protect action. He or she may also wittingly or unwittingly become absorbed in the action or the mood of the event. Indeed, journalists and academics who, in their own sphere of activity and work, make claims upon the state on behalf of particular networks of citizens (such as the poor and disadvantaged) or engage in the debates and issues on the public’s agenda have an enormous impact