Cyberactivism already has a rich history, but over the past decade the participatory web—with its de-centralized information/media sharing, portability, storage capacity, and user-generated content—has reshaped political and social change. Cyberactivism on the Participatory Web examines the impact of these new technologies on political organizing and protest across the political spectrum, from the Arab Spring to artists to far-right groups. Linking new information and communication technologies to possibilities for solidarity and action—as well as surveillance and control—in a context of global capital flow, war, and environmental crisis, the contributors to this volume provide nuanced analyses of the dramatic transformations in media, citizenship, and social movements taking place today.
Introduction: Cyberactivism 2.0: Studying Cyberactivism a Decade into the Participatory Web Martha McCaughey 1. Trust and Internet Activism: From Email to Social Networks Laura J. Gurak 2. Dark Days: Understanding the Historical Context and the Visual Rhetorics of the SOPA/PIPA Blackout John Logie 3. The Harry Potter Alliance: Sociotechnical Contexts of Digitally Mediated Activism Jennifer Terrell 4. Dangerous Places: Social Media at the Convergence of Peoples, Labor, and Environmental Movements Richard Widick 5. The Arab Spring and Its Social Media Audiences: English and Arabic Twitter Users and Their Networks Axel Bruns, Tim Highfield, and Jean Burgess 6. Twitter as the People’s Microphone: Emergence of Authorities during Protest Tweeting Alexander Halavais and Maria Garrido 7. From Crisis Pregnancy Centers to TeenBreaks.com: Anti-Abortion Activism’s Use of Cloaked Websites Jessie Daniels 8. Art Interrupting Business, Business Interrupting Art: Re(de)fining the Interface Between Business and Society Constance Kampf 9. Cyberactivism of the Radical Right in Europe and the USA: What, Who, and Why? Manuela Caiani and Rossella Borri 10. Young Chinese Workers, Contentious Politics, and Cyberactivism in the Global Factory Dorothy Kidd 11. Women Activists of Occupy Wall Street: Consciousness-Raising and Connective Action in Hybrid Social Movements Megan Boler and Christina Nitsou 12. Emergent Social Movements in Online Media and States of Crisis: Analyzing the Potential for Resistance and Repression Online Lee Salter
Biography
Martha McCaughey is Professor of Sociology at Appalachian State University, in Boone, NC, USA. She is the lead editor of Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice (Routledge 2003).
