Skip to main content

Protest in Digital Age


Protest has been part of human societies for millennia. Movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too offer a powerful reminder of the continued relevance of activism in the 21st century.
While these examples of protest share a common DNA with historical civil rights and gender equality movements, activists today operate in a world where digital technology affords particular advantages and disadvantages that have changed how we engage with protest and dissent. We now have constant access to a steady stream of information about dissatisfaction with the state of our world, who is alleged to be responsible for the situation, and who is calling for change.
Consequently, it has never been easier for activists to disseminate messages, educate the public and encourage participation by like-minded people.

Digital technology has also been criticized for facilitating ‘armchair activism’, in which dissent can be expressed in a single click or tweet instead of substantive action to achieve genuine change and.
How does digital technology change the way activists operate compared to historical models of protest and activism? What can today’s activists learn from historical instances of protest? What impact does online activism have upon the importance of space and place to protests? How do new and emerging technologies change the way we understand and value online engagement as a form of protest and activism? How can these understandings assist activists in developing more effective strategies for achieving their goals in the future?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reaction to Globalization

Globalization and the attendant concerns about poverty and inequality have become a focus of discussion in a way that few other topics, except for international terrorism or global warming, have. Most people have a strong opinion on globalization, and all of them express an interest in the well-being of the world's poor. The financial press and influential international officials confidently assert that global free markets expand the horizons for the poor, whereas activist-protesters hold the opposite belief with equal intensity. Yet the strength of people's conviction is often in inverse proportion to the amount of robust factual evidence they have.As is common in contentious public debates, different people mean different things by the same word. Some interpret "globalization" to mean the global reach of communications technology and capital movements, some think of the outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others see globalization as a byword for...
50 comments
Read more

LEARNING DISABILITIES

The term learning disability refers to many different types of learning issues that can vary widely in levels of severity. Students with a learning disability have at least average intelligence. They have areas of high functioning and areas of difficulties. Their learning disabilities are not caused by problem, such as vision or hearing impairments, or by primary emotional disturbance, and their challenges are not the result of poor schooling. Students with learning disabilities take in information, such as sights or sounds, but may have difficulty understanding or attaching meaning to it. They find it hard to organize information so that it is readily accessible. Retrieving the information from either short or long term memory is difficult. In addition, expressing the information, either verbally through speech or writing, or nonverbally may be a problem. Students with learning disabilities often exhibit wide discrepancies between different skills areas, in other words, they may be g...
32 comments
Read more

A TEACHER’S TRIBUTE TO STUDENTS

Teaching is a passion, and my experience as a teacher has been beautiful, emotional and fulfilling. Over the years, I’ve watched the student – teacher equation evolve: From Guru, as all-knowing to Guru as friend and equal, as someone who doesn’t always know the best. Today’s teacher and the learner are partners in the process of teaching and learning. We inspire, motivate and learn from each other; if I don’t know, I can admit it to my students. The teacher is only a facilitator; one who will help the student grow, become a self-learner. The teacher is only one of many sources. Not infrequently, there is a role reversal. With children being so tech-savy, often I am the student and they are my teachers. Has teaching changes the way I think ? Yes, most certainly. My students have shown me how to manage time. I marvel at how deftly they juggle sports, academics, dance, and theatre, for instance. I have learnt how to accept failure as I see my students taking success and failure with equan...
16 comments
Read more