Activist Laboratories of the 1990's.
In the 1990s, as the Internet went public, a throng of technological utopianists began declaring the coming of an authentic social, political and democratic revolution. In the reflection of instantaneous, unregulated flows of information and countless self-generating channels of communication, a gro...
| Published in: | Cultural Studies Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 657 - 676 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jul2014
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=95625691&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 95625691 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09502386 05G jtl: Cultural Studies issn: 09502386 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2014 vid: 28 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 95625691 10.1080/09502386.2014.888931 ppf: 657 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 121KB tig: atl: Activist Laboratories of the 1990's. aug: au: Wolfson, Todd su: Internet & activism Social media Social classes Technology & politics Technology & culture Social change sug: subj: Internet & activism Social media Social classes Technology & politics Technology & culture Social change keyword: class media activism Occupy Wall Street participatory communications social media technology ab: In the 1990s, as the Internet went public, a throng of technological utopianists began declaring the coming of an authentic social, political and democratic revolution. In the reflection of instantaneous, unregulated flows of information and countless self-generating channels of communication, a growing group of pundits saw the promise of an empowered and engaged citizenry that could rewrite the balance of power in society. Breathing life into these quixotic visions, young, white, college-educated men across North America, Europe and Australia flocked to the Internet. These computer programmers-cum-activists took to the Internet with the vision of protecting the non-hierarchical nature of this new communications medium, while harnessing its powers to support a myriad of political organizing projects. In this paper, I look at three of the most critical media activist projects of the 1990s: BURN!, Z Media Institute and CounterMedia and make two interrelated arguments. First is BURN!, then ZMI and CounterMedia, as well as other activist laboratories, were the central sites where the cultural logic and media practices of contemporary social movements began to take shape, particularly as this logic was actualized through technology. Second, I argue that the class position of the new media activists led to a specific understanding of resistance and, correspondingly, the role of technology in social change. Thus, while the activist laboratories of the north created critical new media tools and open, participatory communications platforms, there was a tendency for technology itself to become the answer to social ills. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Cultural Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Cultural Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2014 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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