1 Social media at Australian rallies: Protest grammars and their produsers Dr Stewart Jackson, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney, stewart.jackson@sydney.edu.au Dr Peter John Chen, peter.chen@sydney.edu.au Abstract: Physical protests are an important tactical tool employed by activists. These events are performative and communicative. In recent years, considerable attention has been turned to the role that social media plays in organizing protest activities, and the types of messaging created by participants. This paper employs interviews of social media creators to examine how and why they engage in media production in and around protest events. Using survey and interview material, this paper creates a typology of creators and unpacks their understandings of the production of social media around protests using a mixed epistemology that includes agency and media affordances. This analysis considers their reflexive views on interaction and documentation forms of ‘protest grammars’ employed in their social media posts to achieve personal and group objectives; how technological affordances shape their practices, and; issues associated with the way social media mediates their relationships with the collective, time, and audiences.