This paper presents a critique to dominant social movement theories problematising their North-centrism and the lack of an in-depth analysis of media and communication's role for social movements. Drawing on Downing’s (2008) argument that there is very little dialogue between the areas of social movement studies and media and communication, a link between social mobilization and communication is identified in Latin American scholarship. The argument advanced is that concepts such as hybridization and conscientization, developed by Latin American scholars to explain social mobilization in the region, can be the missing analytical connection between social movement studies and media and communication. Furthermore, as these concepts were developed to explain social mobilization in post-colonial, underdeveloped and unequal societies, they are presented as a theoretical alternative to the Euro-American universalism of the dominant theories.