Activism and Protest in the Information Age

Module code: MS3022

During this module you'll investigate different forms of activism and protest inspired, facilitated, and sustained by the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in democratic and non‐democratic societies. You'll learn about different genres of digitally mediated expression and political voices in protest and activism within specific historical, social, and political context.

Hardly any protest and activism can be successful without substantial and effective use of digital media technologies to the extent that digital activism is now mainstream. In fact, some may argue that recent global waves of social movement and activism—from Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street—have foregrounded prominent roles played by digital media technologies in mobilising and sustaining social movement. However, increasingly countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia responded to the “twitter revolution” by taming media activism and deploying digital tools for increasingly strict control.

Media activism has spread across ideological spectrums and brought to the forefront youth and pro-democracy movements. It has also been used successfully by political parties and authoritarian leaders to promote ethno-nationalist and populist agendas.