Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age

Author:   Symon Hill
Publisher:   New Internationalist Publications Ltd
Edition:   1
ISBN:  

9781780260761


Pages:   160
Publication Date:   11 April 2013
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable   Availability explained
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.

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Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age


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Overview

From Occupy to Uncut, from the Arab Spring to the Slutwalk movement, few questions about recent activism raise as much controversy as the role of the internet. This book suggests that the internet is a tool, not a cause, of social change. It has profoundly affected the way people communicate, making it easier to find the truth, to learn from activists on the other side of the world, to co-ordinate campaigns without hierarchy and to expose governments and corporations to public ridicule. But it has also helped those same governments and corporations to spy on activists, to disrupt campaigns and to create illusions of popular support. Focused on the real-life experiences of activists rather than theory or abstract statistics, Digital Revolutions asks how the internet has affected activism, how it has allowed movements to go global more quickly and what the future holds for corporations and social movements that are doing battle online.

Full Product Details

Author:   Symon Hill
Publisher:   New Internationalist Publications Ltd
Imprint:   New Internationalist Publications Ltd
Edition:   1
Dimensions:   Width: 13.80cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.221kg
ISBN:  

9781780260761


ISBN 10:   1780260768
Pages:   160
Publication Date:   11 April 2013
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable   Availability explained
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.

Table of Contents

1.Foreword by Peter Tatchell. 2.Introduction. 3.The 'menace' of cyberspace. Social media and other communication technologies have been a feature of recent protest movements. The mainstream media moved from ignoring them altogether to presenting them as revolutionary. But just how central has the internet been to recent resistance? 4.Breaking the monopoly. 2009: in Iran and Britain two individual deaths are transformed by social media into events of massive political significance. And both governments and media barons realize the game has changed. 5.The hashtag revolution. The Uncut movement against tax-dodging that went viral. The Slutwalks that became a global phenomenon. Two very different forms of protest that took off thanks in part to a simple Twitter device called the hashtag. 6.'We are next!' Catalyst or tool? What part did the internet play in the cascading revolutions and rebellions that became known as the Arab Spring or Arab Awakening? 7.Camping on the doorsteps of power. From Climate Camps to Tahrir Square, from Indignados to Occupy, the humble tent has become a vital accessory to modern resistance movements. But just as integral to these protests has been cutting-edge communications technology - and their success may lie in the creative tension between online and physical space. 8.Cyberactivism explodes. From mass online petitions by the likes of Avaaz and 38 Degrees to YouTube protests like Pussy Riot, cyberactivism is breaking new ground. But even as it takes us into virgin territory, it throws up important new questions - not least about the value of 'clicktivism' and about the impact of the internet on minority languages. 9.Fighting corporations in cyberspace. The new communications technology may be used by protesters - but all the tricks of the trade are of course also available to transnational corporations and governments. 'Astroturfers' are infesting online debates, emails are being harvested and websites are being shut down. Battle in the ether has well and truly been joined. 10.These hands our weapons. Cyberactivism is not a magical cure-all - it is a tool like any other that can be put to good use or bad. But it is impossible to ignore - and much about our collective future will depend on how we harness the power of the internet to inspire resistance. 11.Bibliography.

Reviews

'A timely and necessary book' - Laurie Penny


Author Information

Symon Hill has been an activist since his teens. He has campaigned on issues including the arms trade, religious liberty, same-sex marriage, disability rights and economic injustice. He has worked with NGOs including the Campaign Against Arms Trade, People & Planet and the Fellowship of Reconciliation and was a founding member of Christianity Uncut. He has trained hundreds of grassroots activists in campaigning skills and media engagement. In February 2012, he was dragged by police from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral during the eviction of Occupy London Stock Exchange. He is associate director of the Ekklesia thinktank and an associate tutor at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. He writes regularly for the Guardian, Morning Star, The Friend and Third Way. His first book was the No-Nonsense Guide to Religion.

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