Collective Action, Politics, and Protests

March 11

Last class we learned about SOPA, and the fear that it engendered in many Internet commentators. Today we’ll start by looking at how anti-SOPA activists were mobilized on the Internet to effectively stop the implementation of this legislation. This will serve as a touchstone for other reading about use of the Internet in collective action, political protests, and the role of private corporations in protecting and facilitating this discourse across the globe.

Readings/Watchings

Framing

• MIT Communications Forum, What is Civic Media?

• Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrel, The Power and Politics of Blogs (specific pages to follow)

• Bruce Etling et al., Political Change in the Digital Age: The Fragility and Promise of Online Organizing (specific pages to follow)

• Zeynep Tufeki and Christopher Wilson, Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations from Tahrir Square (specific pages to follow)

Case Studies

• Yochai Benkler et al., Social Mobilization and the Networked Public Sphere: Mapping the SOPA/PIPA Debate (read 4-10, skim 12-38, read 39-46)

• Gilad Lotan, KONY2012: See How Invisible Networks Helped a Campaign Capture the World’s Attention

• Zeynep Tufekci, #Kony2012, Understanding Networked Symbolic Action & Why Slacktivism is Conceptually Misleading

Observations, tactics, and methods

• Aaron Swartz, A Theory of Change

• Ethan Zuckerman, The Tweetbomb and the Ethics of Attention

Optional Readings

• Aaron Swartz, How We Stopped SOPA

• Yochai Benkler, SOPA/PIPA: A Case Study in Networked Discourse and Activism

• Yochai Benkler and Aaron Shaw, A Tale of Two Blogospheres: Discursive Practices on the Left and Right

• Jillian York, Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere (focus on the Introduction, and “Social Media: Privacy Companies, Public Responsibilities”)

• Yochai Benker, The Wealth of Networks (Chapter 7 - "The Emergence of a Networked Public Sphere")

Class Discussion

Please remember to sign your postings by adding four tildes (~~~~) to the end of your contribution. This will automatically add your username and the date/time of your post, like so: Asellars 15:29, 21 January 2013 (EST)