Internet activism

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Internet activism (also known as electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, and online organizing) is the use of communication technologies such as e-mail, web sites, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and deliver a message to a large audience. These Internet technologies are used for cause-related fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, community building, and organizing.

Contents 1 Growth 2 Empowering insurgencies 3 Corporate activism 4 Criticism 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Growth

The sophistication and impact of Internet activism seems to be growing.^{[citation needed]} Its origins are arguably the early nineties when internet communications enabled Mexican rebel group The Zapatistas to reach out from behind the frontline in a previously unheard of manner, effectively networking with first world activists and stimulating the anti-globalization movement's Peoples Global Action.^{[citation needed]} This group remained at the forefront of the movement, with large scale protests beginning in Geneva and London. Media activists utilized growing internet technologies to communicate their struggle, essentially creating the globalization of protest.^{[citation needed]} Following extensive protest in London in which such media activism was developed,^{[citation needed]} when the protests eventually hit America this had developed to such a point that a global network of Internet activist sites, under the umbrella name of Indymedia, sprang up in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, opponents of corporate-led globalization used the Internet effectively to coordinate protests against the World Trade Organization that came to be known as the "Battle of Seattle."^{[citation needed]} Groups like MoveOn and Care2 have successfully used the Internet to raise funds and push their causes.^{[citation needed]} U.S. election campaigns have successfully used the Internet for fundraising or other purposes.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Empowering insurgencies

Carol Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., thinks the Internet works best as an organizing tool for "charismatic, outspoken mavericks" with "outsider" appeal in elections. It also invites a decentralized approach to campaigning that runs contrary to the traditional controlled, top-down, message-focused approach. "The mantra has always been, 'Keep your message consistent. Keep your message consistent,'" said John Hlinko, who has participated in Internet campaigns for MoveOn and the electoral primary campaign of Wesley Clark. "That was all well and good in the past. Now it's a recipe for disaster...You can choose to have a Stalinist structure that's really doctrinaire and that's really opposed to grassroots. Or you can say, 'Go forth. Do what you're going to do.' As long as we're running in the same direction, it's much better to give some freedom." [1]

"The Internet is tailor-made for a populist, insurgent movement," says Joe Trippi [2], who managed the Howard Dean campaign. In his campaign memoir, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Trippi notes that the Internet's "roots in the open-source ARPAnet, its hacker culture, and its decentralized, scattered architecture make it difficult for big, establishment candidates, companies and media to gain control of it. And the establishment loathes what it can't control. This independence is by design, and the Internet community values above almost anything the distance it has from the slow, homogenous stream of American commerce and culture. Progressive candidates and companies with forward-looking vision have an advantage on the Internet, too. Television is, by its nature, a nostalgic medium. Look at Ronald Reagan's campaign ads in the 1980s - they were masterpieces of nostalgia promising a return to America's past glory and prosperity. The Internet, on the other hand, is a forward-thinking and forward-moving medium, embracing change and pushing the envelope of technology and communication"

According to some observers, the Internet may have considerable potential to reach and engage opinion leaders who influence the thinking and behavior of others. According to the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet, "Online Political Citizens" (OPCs) are "seven times more likely than average citizens to serve as opinion leaders among their friends, relatives and colleagues…Normally, 10% of Americans qualify as Influentials. Our study found that 69% of Online Political Citizens are Influentials." [3]

The Internet has also made it easier for small donors to play a meaningful role in financing political campaigns. Previously, small-donor fundraising was prohibitively expensive, as costs of printing and postage ate up most of the money raised.^{[citation needed]} Groups like MoveOn, however, have found that they can raise large amounts of money from small donors at minimal cost, with credit card transaction fees constituting their biggest expense. "For the first time, you have a door into the political process that isn't marked 'big money,' " says Darr. "That changes everything. [4]

[edit] Corporate activism

Corporations are also using Internet activism techniques to increase support for causes they favor. According to Christopher Palmeri with BusinessWeek Online big companies launch sites with the intent of influencing opinion in selected audiences, to positively influence their own public image, to push for policy changes and to provide negative pressure on competitors.^[1]

[edit] Criticism

Internet activism has been criticized on grounds that it gives disproportionate access to affluent or technically aware activists, marginalising minorities and elderly citizens due to lack of access to or confidence in emerging technologies.^{[citation needed]}

This concern is especially relevant in developing countries, where many people still lack even the basic literacy needed to access written materials on Internet.^{[citation needed]} However, projects such as the open source movement and A-Infos Radio project have consciously tried to reduce economic barriers to entry, and in developed countries such as the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Another concern, expressed by author and law professor Cass Sunstein, is that online political discussions lead to "cyberbalkanization"—discussions that lead to fragmentation and polarization rather than consensus, because the same medium that lets people access a large number of news sources also lets them pinpoint the ones they agree with and ignore the rest.

"The experience of the echo chamber is easier to create with a computer than with many of the forms of political interaction that preceded it," Sunstein told the New York Times. "The discussion will be about strategy, or horse race issues or how bad the other candidates are, and it will seem like debate. It's not like this should be censored, but it can increase acrimony, increase extremism and make mutual understanding more difficult."

"The Internet connects all sides of issues, not just an ideologically broad anti-war constituency, from the leftists of ANSWER to the pressed-for-time 'soccer moms' who might prefer MoveOn, and conservative activists as well," observes Scott Duke Harris. According to University of California professor Barbara Epstein, however, the Internet "allows people who agree with each other to talk to each other and gives them the impression of being part of a much larger network than is necessarily the case." She warns that the impersonal nature of communication by computer may actually undermine important human contact that always has been crucial to social movements. [5]

[edit] See also

• Activism
• Advocacy
• Community informatics
• Community organizing
• E-democracy
• Grassroots
• Virtual community

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "GCommerce" Online Activism Info & Documentary Filmast:Ciberactivismu

es:Ciberactivismo pt:Ciberativismo