(Global Media Activism)

1. Global Internet Activism
Week#3 The End Run Around The
Information Gate Keepers
Trebor Scholz

2. Political Activism,
Advocacy, and Art Activism
week 1 Access, Censorship, week 2
Social Media, and the
Alleged Democratization
of Society Citizen Media: from
week 3
Seattle to South Korea
War and Social Media: Serbia
week 4 week 5
War and Social Media: Iraq, Gaza
War and Social Media: week 6 Counter-publics week 7
Spring Break
Iran, Afghanistan in Iran
Cell phone-enabled
week 8 week 9
Citizen Media in China
activism: Philippines
week 12
Burma
week 11
week 10 Japan, Singapore
A Better World in Second Life?
week 14
One Laptop Per Child
week 13
Cyber Publics in India
week 15
Mobilization
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3. First research post Sept 15
1000 words on NING

5. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/watching-the-inauguration-with-all-my-facebook-friends/

6. Citizen Media: from Seattle to Seoul
week 3
Required Readings:
Dorothy Kidd, "IndyMedia.org A New Communication Commons," Martha McCaughey and Michael Ayers,
Cyberactivism (London: Routledge, 2003) 47-65.
Gillmore, Dan. We the Media. Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. 1 July 2004.
Chapter 1: From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond. 6 Jan. 2009 <http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/
book/ch01.pdf>.
Case Studies:
OhMyNews, IndyMedia, Riseup’s Crabgrass
Film: Battle in Seattle (2007)
Trebor Scholz

7. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Pennsylvania_Gazette_-­‐_1729-­‐9-­‐25_-­‐_Project_Gutenberg_etext_20203.jpg

8. in-class: 12 mins
link on slideshare 55 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQqQUrQScs

9. Citizen Media: from Seattle to Seoul
week 3
1) What is citizen journalism? Why is it flourishing over the past decade?
2) Name five advantages and five problems related to citizen journalism.
3) Describe the events of 1999 in Seattle that led to the creation of Indymedia.
4) Keeping in mind the Internet's capability to amplify the voices on all sides of the
political spectrum, is/was Indymedia still empowering?
5) Dorothy Kidd
6) Dan Gilmore
7) Articles
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10. Citizen Media: from Seattle to Seoul
week 3
A few student responses:
http://mediaactivism-newschool.ning.com/profiles/blogs/we-the-media-response
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11. http://mashable.com/2011/09/14/mexican-blog-wars/

12. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/09/online-comments-run-afoul-of-
thailands-laws-shielding-royalty-from-criticism244.html

13. http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/
2011/08/20118308455825769.html

15. Erick:
(response to Gilmore)
Is there a place or need for large media networks such as CNN, NBC, Fox?
(response to Kidd)
Keeping in mind the Internet's capability to amplify the voices on all sides of the political
spectrum, what then of “the opposition”? Are they also empowered?
Joe:
Could popular activism websites (e.g., IndyMedia) become the equivalent of the corporate
broadcasters? Should not we consider them as a monopoly also?
Calvin:
(response to Gilmore):
If forms of grassroots media have really been around for hundreds of years as Gillmore
argues, why has it only recently become such a buzzword and movement according to the
mainstream media?
Elena:
Should independent journalism and non-professional news be labeled with a disclaimer as
they are often just as partisan as the sites that they react against?

16. Chris:
[I’d] say that [Indymedia] would probably get more hits to a video of their content on
YouTube than they would on the front page of their site. Why is this?
Peter:
Is independent media more objective than corporate media, or does a stated or implied
goal of countering corporate media indicate an equal degree of bias? To what extent are
technological developments responsible for the success of the IMC? Could such a network
exist without the Internet?
Trebor Scholz

18. The Caring
Problem

19. http://gapdev.law.harvard.edu/

20. Rwanda, 1994
© Alfredo Jaar

21. project full-screen
http://www.alfredojaar.net/rwanda_web/
95newsweek/newsweek.html

22. http://video.pbs.org/video/1239788836
28 mins into the piece

24. Who Writes
the First Draft
of History?

25. Controlling what people think: editing history, selecting narratives
from: Manufacturing Consent, Naom Chomsky

26. All The News That’s Fit To Print
Benkler, chapter 6

27. Gate Keeping
Absolute Dominance Is Over

28. “Twenty-two years ago, Trent Lott, then a
House member from Mississippi, told a home
state political gathering that if the country
had elected segregationist candidate Strom
Thurmond to the presidency ‘30 years ago,
we wouldn't be in the mess we are today.’
The phrasing is very similar to incoming
Senate Majority Leader Lott's controversial
remarks at a 100th birthday party for
Thurmond last week.”
Trent Lott, resigned Nov 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37288-2002Dec10?language=printer

29. The Lead-Up To The War In Iraq (2003)
Who did a better job reporting
Colin Powell’s February 2003 speech in front of the United Nation
The New York Times or the plethora of blogs?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/IraqMobileProductionFacilities.jpg

31. What question would you most like to have answered
regarding the topic of the lecture today?
Of all ideas and points you have heard so far today, which is
the most obscure or ambiguous to you?
What is the most contentious statement you heard in the
lecture so far?

34. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/12-­‐30-­‐2006_oventic_media.jpg

36. http://english.ohmynews.com/ http://tinyurl.com/2dnhmy
“OhmyNews was influential in determining the outcome of the South Korean presidential elections in December 2002
with the election of Roh Moo Hyun. After being elected, Roh granted his first interview to OhmyNews.”

38. http://www.newsvine.com/

39. http://dev.riseup.net/crabgrass/

40. http://www.youku.com/

41. http://tinyurl.com/2569dr

42. http://globalvoicesonline.org/

43. http://www.groundreport.com/tv

44. Harun Farocki: Images of War (at a Distance)
VISIT to MOMA MOMA
The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Media Gallery, second floor
Projects Gallery, second floor

46. bloggers, academics, writers, journalists,
columnists, opinion makers, CEOs, closed
circle of users, ad revenue shared,
everything is edited (posts and comments),
no pay, focus on high quality writing
Content Management System
South Africa
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/about-thoughtleader/

49. Research blog post
- 2000 words (include word count)
- due Feb 17 before class, posted to NING blog (tagged with name
and “essay1”) before class (no late submission)
- focus on one argument
- send me one paragraph about the topic of your blog essay
in the body of an email before Friday
- evaluation: logic, clarity, referenced research vs. unsubstantiated
claims
- spelling, grammar, structure

50. Trebor Scholz
scholzt@newschool.edu
Twitter: trebors
Blog: http://www.collectivate.net/journalisms
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