Media & communications - openDemocracy (Page 147)

Radical media, stop fighting the mainstream - instead, let's build the future

Radical media are wasting too much energy competing with the mainstream. They should return to their great strength: discovering new ways of 'doing' media in the service of progressive change.

By James Hamilton

/ 25 Oct 2011

Reproduction of movement(s) without organisation: #UKUncut, #OWS, #OccupyMovement

A global day of collective action in 82 countries shook the world on October 15, 2011. Yet the protests were not co-ordinated by political parties, unions or other institutional actors. They were driven by the rapid dissemination of memes, made possible by the internet.

By Aaron Bastani

/ 18 Oct 2011

#OccupyLondon: not the beginning or the end, but a momentous opportunity

The first weekend of the London occupation felt victorious, as the protesters established their own democracy and showed solidarity with a growing global movement. Even if it is soon disbanded, this is one step forward in an ongoing struggle.

By Hilary Aked

/ 18 Oct 2011

The Revolution Will Be Digitised: dispatches from the information war

Heather Brooke uncovered the MPs expenses scandal and played a key role in the Wikileaks project. Her new book explores the emancipatory consequences of digitisation, as well as the potential for new forms of oppression.

By John Booth

/ 11 Oct 2011

Unruly politics: atomised movements, activist individuals and clientilism

Do new social media create new forms of citizen action? Jenny Morgan reports on a knowledge exchange conference in the Hague

By Jenny Morgan

/ 10 Oct 2011

Joining up the dots: Steve Jobs, Slavoj Žižek and "good capitalism"

Watch the moving and inspirational commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. From the story of his birth to the daily awareness of his death, he joins up the dots to write the personal story. But those dots are part of a larger context of what has made the technology industry a

By Tony Curzon Price

/ 7 Oct 2011

Murdoch and Berlusconi: the fall of two media empires and the network multitudes

The simultaneous fall of the Murdoch and Berlusconi media empires – symbolic of an epoch – is not a coincidence but part of a deep global change in which the exponential growth of horizontal communication networks plays a central role. In this global epoch, despite the thin line between new democr

By Giorgio Griziotti

/ 30 Sep 2011

Anatomy of a Networked Riot: rapid violence, rapid response

Social networking has come under fire since England's week of riots and looting. But the same tools that facilitated a rapid escalation of violence also allowed citizens to organize a speedy response.

By Catherine Dempsey

/ 13 Sep 2011

The Localism Bill: towards democracy or small-state Conservatism?

The Localism Bill's stated aim is to shift power from Westminster into the hands of local people. But will it strengthen England's democracy, or simply shrink the size of the state?

By Andrew MacDonald

/ 12 Sep 2011

The net of hatred: after Utøya

The public debate in Norway following the massacre of 22 July 2011 is taking shape. A key focus is the obsessional and hate-filled language that pervades and dominates online discussion, says Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

By Thomas Hylland Eriksen

/ 6 Sep 2011

PR.ocess or PR.opaganda: a battle for the truth

The multi-billion dollar industry of Public Relations (PR) is divided between those who use it for genuine democratic exchange, and those who use it for commercial propaganda. There are precious few promoters of the former and far too many pushing the latter.

By James Rose

/ 18 Aug 2011

Networked activism meets the dominant culture of technocratic managerialism in Westminster

The first full-time executive director of the Open Rights Group (and one-time openDemocracy technology director) describes the clash of cultures she experienced as a citizen activist trying to influence digital policy. Expect centralising managerialism to continue to have all the wrong instincts o

By Becky Hogge

/ 4 Aug 2011