digital activism, #metoo, #blacklivesmatter, slacktivism, digital media

Activism in the digital age

File
The Editors
15/03/2017

Activism has changed in the digital age. Social movements and activists need media. Counter movements use their own and mass media to mobilise and to have impact. Mass media in modern societies opened a space for critiquing the rulers. Access to media was necessary to have an influential voice in mediatised modern societies. With this file Diggit Magazine tries to understand the rise of new social movements and their use of the internet to spread their message and organise resistance in the 21st century.

Wakker Dier chasing a home delivery van from supermarket Albert Heijn

Wakker Dier: animal rights activism in the Netherlands

Article
Claudia Gerards
26/11/2019
17 minutes to read

Some meat comes from animals that had a terrible life. In protest, organization Wakker Dier went viral with a campaign in which they followed supermarket home delivery trucks. But how did they achieve virality?

The battle of 'The System Kills Us' against Valeri Simeonov

Article
Aleksandra Lazarova
22/12/2018
12 minutes to read

Recently a series of actions taken from former Vice Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Valeri Simeonov, led to him submitting his resignation. This article investigates how a Bulgarian online movement collaborated to take him down.

digital media, revolution politics

Revolutions, the digital divide and working-class media

Column
Ana Deumert
23/10/2018
7 minutes to read

Can digital media be used to organize revolutions and uprisings? Ana Deumert considers digital social inequalities in social media use, and explores their implications for developing a radical politics of the commons. 

Do viral campaigns work? From Movember to #itsoktotalk

Paper
Thi Phuong Anh Nguyen
22/10/2018
10 minutes to read

Viral challenges like the Ice Bucket Challenge or Movember have raised awareness and money for charity. We propose that a combination of seriousness and playfulness may be an important element of such campaigns. 

algorithmic populism, bots, social bots, Trump, make america great again, algorithmic activism

Algorithmic populism and algorithmic activism

Article
Ico Maly
10/10/2018
12 minutes to read

Digitalization gave birth to a new kind of populism: algorithmic populism. Algorithmic populism cannot be understood without taking the uptake and algorithmic activism in particular into account.

Stop Tihange and Doel: Activism in the streets and on social media

Paper
Aimée Overhof
23/06/2017
14 minutes to read

This paper contains a digital ethnographic inquiry into the Stop Tihange movement. What role do new media play in the essembly of this movement, that aims to shut down a nuclear plant in Belgium?

Why activists should be aware that social media are not the public sphere

Column
Lucas Pascholatti
29/03/2017
5 minutes to read

This column aims to discuss the current context of social media use, activism and how it is connected to the public sphere itself. It shows that there are many questions that should be raised in the context of post-truth democracy. 

black lives matter #blacklivesmatter #ferguson #transgender #equality democracy

Black Lives Matter too: from #hashtag to movement

Paper
Iris Wijers
13/03/2017
28 minutes to read

The Black Lives Matter movement has become a real phenomenon in American society. Iris Wijers analyzes this powerful and polarizing movement.  

Street protests and the creative spectacle

Article
Philip Seargeant
09/03/2017
6 minutes to read

How social media’s sharing culture is influencing the way people voice their message through street protest signs

#BlackLivesMatter

Paper
Laura Nelissen
18/01/2017
10 minutes to read

Black Lives Matter is a movement known and active all over the world. It all started with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter but now their message is more complex. The constructed message of a movement.

Brexit and online political activism

Paper
Isabell Wutz
30/04/2016
19 minutes to read

Isabell Wutz and Lisanne Nugteren (Tilburg University) argue that in the context of the Brexit. that vox populism, slacktivism and online intertextuality have an adverse effect to the representativeness of the public debate.

Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong

Paper
Ho Chuen Ng
13/03/2016
23 minutes to read

This paper uses the Umbrella Movement as a case study to illustrate how the digital world can empower people in social movements.