A Review of Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice
Martha McCaughey and Michael D. Ayers
Portsmouth, NH: Routledge, 2003
ISBN: 0-415-94320-5 $19.75 pp. 310
Review by Jessica Singer (with Sarah Boggs)
Introduction
Part I: Cyber-Social Movements Emerging Online
Features and Target Audience Final Reflections
University of California at Santa Barbara
My mom went to college at the University of California at Berkeley during the free speech movement in the 1960s. I grew up hearing her tell stories of the impact of student protests on national policy and values. As a child, whenever I thought about activism, I pictured my mom standing alongside thousands of her classmates demonstrating for civil rights. Years later, as a high school English teacher, I worked to create curriculum for my ninth and twelfth grade students to understand and explore the work of activists. As I invited students to read autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs about individuals who devote time and energy to create positive social change, I realized that my early understanding of what counts as activism was narrow. My high school students created activism projects connected to their own interests. Projects included letters to Congressional representatives about school budget cuts, a school mural of
tolerance, community gardens, photo essays about clear cutting, and a Web site about stem cell research. Through the books I read along with my students about activists and through my students' activist projects, I realized that you do not have to stand in a line of protestors to work toward change. Positive social change is created in a multitude of ways. In fact, in this time of ever expanding computer technology you do not have to leave the privacy of your home to effect change.
Part II: Theorizing Online Activism
Part III: Cautionary Readings of Community, Empowerment, and Capitalism Online
Epilogue: Current Directions and Future Questions (David Silver)
What I appreciate most about Martha McCaughey and Michael D. Ayer’s edited collection, Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, is that it shares the ways in which activists have adopted recent technology to serve their needs. This text highlights in each chapter how work toward positive social change is deeply influenced by specific communities and networks of support. In high school and college history courses we are often taught that famous activists like Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and Colin Powell were lone warriors standing up against oppression. In reality, these individuals were aligned with like-minded groups who supported their work toward change. Ever-expanding Internet access throughout the world provides a new way for individuals to connect with larger support networks, causes, and associations. When people learn about activism coming only in two extreme forms, the lone warrior or the massive demonstration such as the ones my mom participated in, then people come to assume that activism is not something that can be integrated into their day-to-day lives. The chapters within this edited collection do not promote cyberculture as a panacea for social ills; however, they present online activism as an effective tool for creating positive social change. The overriding purpose of this text is to improve and influence conversations about cyberactivism and community building.
This is an edited collection with a clear political agenda. Some of the political causes addressed in the book include cyberprotests against the World Bank, the Zapatista movement’s use of the Internet to organize support, the use of the Internet to organize citizens in the Environmental Anti-Toxins Movement, and cyberactivism in connection to Amnesty International. The book contains three parts, including case studies of liberal individuals and organizations along with theory to define what counts as social activism online. Also in question in this text is how cyberactivism positively influences political causes and why, in some cases, it does not.
This book is more than a report or evaluation of current online activist work. The eleven chapters provide a historical framework connected to specific examples of cyberactivist movements. The inclusion of the historical frame within each chapter helps clarify the ways in which cyberactivism is a phenomenon that must be contextualized within the larger world of cyberculture and the life history of specific political and historical movements. The historical information also helps demystify how individuals working toward change do not spontaneously become change makers by aligning themselves with specific issues or causes. Rather, the values, politics, and community that impact their daily lives at specific points in history influence individuals.
Contributors to the book are scholars in various disciplines including sociology, communications, science, technology, media studies, and rhetoric. The text is intended to be read by other scholars interested in social movements, activism, and technology. I read this book along with a fellow graduate student, Sarah Boggs, in a graduate course on literacy and technology. Within the context of a graduate course, it served as a useful resource for understanding cyberactivism and a wonderful tool for conversations about critical literacy and technology. As a computer and Internet novice, I found the writing accessible and informative. This book may serve as a useful resource for classroom teachers interested in understanding issues of activism connected to computer technology. Unfortunately, the chapters do not include specific tips for educators to directly transfer the ideas and information in the text into social justice curriculum. However, the chapters are each rich and approachable case studies that teachers may add to their social justice curriculum with ease.
I have used specific chapters from this book in my own curriculum as a writing instructor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In a unit on social activism that I incorporated into my introductory composition course, I asked students to read Chapter Four by Larry Elin, "The Radicalization of Zeke Spier: How the Internet Contributes to Civic Engagement and New Forms of Social Capital," which traces the emergence of Spier’s development from a high school student concerned with social action into a radical and influential cyberactivist. I chose this chapter as a model of a young adult using the Internet to connect himself to a wider community of support. Elin describes how access to the Internet profoundly influenced and empowered Spier’s social change work: "The Internet became for him the link between education and motivation and the catalyst for action" (99). I was drawn to this chapter because it traces the development of a young adult activist over time and it serves as an excellent model for other young adults to expand their notions of what it means to be an activist. Spier was inspired by studies of political activists in his high school social studies and anthropology classes. He then used the Internet to expand his understanding of political issues, like the WTO, and began connecting himself to wider political movements. My freshmen composition students read multiple examples of activists such as Spier. After exposure to a variety of issues and examples of positive change makers, my students wrote, revised, and presented formal proposals for activism projects of their own.
Elin’s chapter comes from the second part of the book, "Theorizing Online Activism." The other chapters are equally interesting. Part I, "Cyber-Social Movements Emerging Online" introduces new social movements that have emerged as a direct result of Internet technologies. For example, chapter three, "The Classifying Forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests Against the World Bank" by Sandor Vegh introduces forms of activism that could not exist without current computer technology. Vegh provides an in-depth look at cyberhacktivism, cyberconflict, and cyberpartisanship. It is fascinating to encounter language that has emerged as a result of new cybercultures. This chapter introduced me to new cyberterms such as, "defacements," "email bombs," "ping storms," and "DOS attacks." For a novice like myself, this terminology was particularly useful in enabling me to engage with the ideas and work of a new discourse community. The computer language, which is drenched with militaristic terms, caused me to reflect on the values adopted within this community.
Part 3 is titled "Cautionary Readings of Community, Empowerment, and Capitalism Online." In chapters nine through eleven the authors provide case studies of cyberactivist groups that complicate online activism. Individuals and organizations often use computer technology with every intention to create positive change, but like any social network made up of diverse individuals and interests, this work becomes complicated and, at times, ineffective. I appreciate how this book does not paint a picture of cyberactivism as a flawless or easy way to impact social change. For example, in Chapter 10, "Ethnic Online Communities: Between Profit and Purpose," Steven McLaine discusses the consequences of imbalanced choices between profit and purpose magnified in many ethnic online communities. This chapter argues that the Internet should never be seen as an equalizer. McLaine also argues that technology often reveals inequities rather than working to abolish them. Cyberactivism is only an option for individuals who have access to computers and computer literacy. McLaine’s purpose in his chapter is to create a blueprint of the central characteristics for potential ethnic online communities in order for them to have relevance and impact.
A concern I have with the book is that the chapters presented only include "leftist" organizations and causes. Although I happen to agree with the leftist uses of cyberactivism, I worry that others may easily dismiss the book as one-sided. It is important to acknowledge that the Internet also supports activist causes on the "right," and it would be useful to know how to learn about and/or influence causes on both ends of the political spectrum. With the exclusion of multiple political perspectives, the book has the potential to alienate prospective audiences. Although I align myself with many of the political causes included in this book, I also find it essential that other groups who do not agree with these same causes have the opportunity to engage in critical literacies in order to become informed citizens. A more balanced look at off-line activist movements is necessary to further contextualize activist work and to adequately define cyberactivism.
This text serves as a good launching pad and resource for critical studies of activism on and offline. Although the intended audience for this book is social change theorists and academics, it is my belief that the audience should also include teachers. For example, any of the case studies in the collection could be used in college or secondary classrooms interested in computer literacy and social activism. More specifically, the text includes chapters that may be incorporated into a variety of course curriculum, such as environmental studies, Chicano studies, economics, history, and/or women’s studies. Educators teaching for social justice may use the case studies in the text as models of how individuals and groups carefully and critically appropriate cyberspace for specific causes. This book also invites opportunities to practice critical literacy skills through an understanding of the pitfalls, dangers, and benefits of moving or developing activist causes online.
The studies presented in this book would have been even better if they included specific examples of how to teach using online activism and computer technology. The scholarly community studying the cyberworld repeatedly argues that students need to be taught and exposed to the new literacies the Internet fosters, yet this book offers no explicit inroads for classroom teachers to use these new literacies. One way to do this would have been to include addendums with each chapter and/or Web sites with curriculum resources. It is a shame that this book was not intended for educators.
This text helped me see how computer technology works to redefine community and participation. I wish this book had been available when I was living in the Northwest during the WTO protests in Seattle. At the time, many of my friends were actively involved in this political demonstration. Until I read this book, I had no idea that much of the organization and networking that took place behind this famous political movement occurred online. In this election year, activist groups like MoveOn.org are gaining publicity for organizing "get out the vote" campaigns and initiating wide spread use of the Internet for political causes. Books like Cyberactivism help me understand how these movements take shape and how they influence and are influenced by other activist communities.
McCaughey, Martha and Michael Ayers, eds. Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice. NY: Routledge, 2003.
Singer, Jessica. Stirring Up Justice: Teaching Social activism in the High School English Classroom. Forthcoming. New Hampshire: Heinemann.
* Many thanks to my "Literacy and Technology" class at UCSB, including Sarah Boggs, Tim Dewar, Karen Lunsford, and Paul Rogers.