Decoding Digital Activism

We have been asking the same questions about digital activism for several years now, but do not seem any closer to the answers: Does digital technology give activists or repressive governments the advantage? What are the implications of the changing tools and technologies that underpin it? If cyber-utopians and cyber-pessimists are both overstating their cases, where does the truth lie? What don't we know about digital activism?

What do we need to do to better understand it and get beyond debates based on anecdote and messy comparisons across starkly different contexts? The web, the devices that we use to access it, and our practices change year on year. Though our understanding can be only partial, it seems we know less than we should. At this event we will dissect the current problems in the way digital activism is discussed and debated and suggest ways to frame the issue for policy makers and move the field forward.

Join the New America Foundation and our guests, Mary Joyce, Robin Lerner, and Katharine Kendrick for a conversation about these questions.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/decoding_digital_activism

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Digital
• Activism
• Social
• Media
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Apps
• Africa
• Local
• National
• Congress
• Senate
• House