#MahsaAmini: Discourse as Opportunity and X Posts as Capital

This article analyzes the success of diffusion and internationalization of the Mahsa Amini protests' revolutionary discourse in the context of digital era. By reviewing the historical course of contemporary Iran, the leaderless nature and porous structure of the Mahsa Amini protests necessitate the factors outside the formal organizational structure for its nationwide mobilization and global resonance. 235 English posts with highest hit in #MahsaAmini on X (formerly Twitter) were collected to conduct discourse analysis based on Laclau and Mouffe's theory to explore its meaning system. Discursive opportunity structure and Bourdieu's field theory are utilized as theoretical tool to elaborate the finding in the process of coding and analysis. In this case, discursive opportunity structure reveals the framing and subjectively existing opportunity within the context of Iran and international society respectively. Bourdieusian perspective is applied to provide an insight of how protesters and their supporter managed to change the distribution of various types of capital through social media, especially X.