Radical political activist movements are growing all the time. Activist politics have come to influence 'mainstream' politics over fundamental issues such as trade, gender relations, the environment and war.
This book brings together activists and academics in one volume, to explore the theory and practice of global activism's relation to all forms of media, mainstream and otherwise. The contributors examine how global activism is represented in the mainstream press and explain the strategies that activists adopt to spread their own ideas.
Investigating Indymedia and internet activism, they show how transformations in communications technology offer new possibilities, and explain how activists have successfully used and developed their own media. Case studies and topics include the world social forums, an example of a campaign from the NGO Action Aid, a campaign strategy from an internet activist, Greenpeace and the Brent Spar conflict, the World Development Movement and representations in the mainstream press, the Independent Media Centre, transgender activism on the net, Amnesty International, Oxfam and the internet.
Introduction
Part One: Global Civil Society, Global Public Sphere and Global Activism
1. Networks of Knowledge and Practice: Global Civil Society and Global Communications by Ronnie D. Lipschutz - Professor of Politics and Associate Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz
2. Media and the (Global) Public Sphere: An Evaluative Approach by Colin Sparks - Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster
3. Social Movements and Global Activism by Neil Stammers - Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sussex - and Catherine Eschle - Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of Strathclyde
4. Between a Political-Institutional Past and a Communicational-Networked Future? Reflections on the Third World Social Forum, 2003 by Peter Waterman - former researcher and senior lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague (The Netherlands); Postscript by Marianne Maeckelberg - doctoral student at the University of Sussex
5. My Life as an Activist; from Shop Steward to Internet Activist by Sarah Berger - CND activist
Part Two: Global Activism and Mainstream Media
6. Dying for Diamonds: The Mainstream Media and NGOs- A Case Study of Action Aid by Ivor Gaber - former Professor of Broadcast Journalism at Goldsmiths College, University of London - and Alice by Wynne Willson - Head of media relations for ActionAid
7. Limits and Possibilities of Media-based Oppositional Politics; Greenpeace versus Shell; The Brent Spar Conflict by Wilma de Jong - Lecturer in Media Theory and Production at the University of Sussex
8. The World Development Movement: Access and Representation of Globalization-Activism in the Mainstream Press by Dave Timms - Press Officer of the World Development Movement
9. Peace Activism and Western Wars: Social Movements in Mass-Mediated Global Politics by Martin Shaw - Professor of International Relations and Politics at the University of Sussex
Part Three: Global Activism and Activist Media
10. Activist Media, Civil Society and Social Movements by John Downing - Director of the Global Media Research Center in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, Southern Illinois University
11. If It Leads It Bleads: The Participatory Newsmaking of the Independent Media Centre by Kate Coyer - Visiting tutor in the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London
12. Transgender Activism and the Net: Global Activism or Casualty of Globalization by Kate O' Riordan - Lecturer in Media, Culture and Communication Studies in the department of Continuing Education at the University of Sussex
13. Bridging the Gap: From the Margins to the Mainstream by Pollyanna Ruiz - Doctoral student at Sussex University
14. Civil Society Organisations and the Internet: the Case of Amnesty International, Oxfam and the World Development Movement by Anastasia Kavada - Doctorate student at the School of Media, Arts and Design of the University of Westminster
Index
