By: C. Schubert, L. Bergman, A. Shulipa and A. Gng Group 5

Outline of the presentation

Purpose with our presentaion What is New Media Activism? Gender and Online Activism – new

opportunities for women? Online vs. Public Activism Intellectual property perspectives Surveillance – there are two sides Hacktivism Summary of our literature review

What is the purpose of this?

The increasing influence and impact that the tool – internet – has have to continously be scrutinized, researched and discussed. Otherwise we won’t be able to keep up.

New Media Activism - Definition

New media activism differs from traditional activism since being more reliant on technological competence and mobile devices and being more geographically dispersed.

Media is: - Medium to communicate - Interact and execute- Create meaning

Activism is: - The intent to change or make

history.

Gender in the context of new media activism

Gender and New Media Activism The percentage of women

included as news subjects only increased from 17 percent to 24 percent between the years of 1995 and 2010.

Only 4 percent of the news stories published online challenges gender stereotypes while 42 percent reinforce them

Online vs. Public Sphere Activism

Can this type of activism lead to social/political change? Or is it only

public sphere activism that can create an impact?

What really makes a difference? New opportunities Risk of ’Slacktivism’ Extract the strengths from both sides Steps forward

Perspectives of Intellectual Property in Media Activism

Three key issues being examined here;

firstly, the commodification of that process;

secondly, the issues of propriety and finally, the diffusion of the private

vs. public delineation raising issues of privacy.

Perspectives of Intellectual Property in Media Activism

in particular copyright, increasing creeping commodification of knowledge and the corporatization of its structure (Scholz, 2008:362).

Assertion of ownership over uploads on blogs and social networks, often in the form of an implied license.

E.g., on Facebook, the copyright ownership of that picture is then transferred onto Facebook until it is deleted or the account is closed (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php).

Perspectives of Intellectual Property in Media Activism

2 opposite directions: - <-emergence of the ‘copyleft’ and the creative

commons on the one hand- ->Increase copyright assertions –e.g., Digital

Rights Managements; expansion of TRIPS plus regimes (from WTO to Bilateral agreements)

Perspectives of Intellectual Property in Media Activism

Diffusion of the dichotomy of private vs. public delineation that raises not only the issues of increasing commodification but also its privacy and the controls of personal autonomy .

Not easy to migrate or leave- entrenched communities and as captive audience –e.g., Facebook

Centralized – means easier to control and manipulate e.g., from targeted commercials to state surveillance.

Perspectives of Intellectual Property in Media Activism

Dichotomy of online and offline lives are also diffused!

Notion of knowledge, its meaning and space is contextualized and contested in cyberspace (Lovink, 2007)

Most coherent global legislation is TRIPS but application is fragmented while regionalism or bi-lateralism add further layer of obligations

Perspectives of Intellectual Property in Media Activism

Regulatory lacuna and global agreement and/or understanding of normative practices

Opportunities for Media Activism But also Challenges

Media Activism –premised on fundamental rights of expression

Surveillance

New tools and technology have opened

the door of opportunity for sharing,

creating, and distributing content.

BUT also - to STEAL content. Today all the information about the person

is in provider’s hands. People start to worry about their private life. People’s

awareness causes deviance and social activity. As a result different social movements appear.

Many organizations and foundations reacted to problems of communication privacy online. They develop toolsets and software that help to protect information.

Hacktivism – What is that?

Form of Form of Digital Digital ActivismActivism

Hacking + Hacking + activismactivism

Hacking Hacking for a for a causecause

Raise Raise awarenesawarenesss

• Hacktivism – new term used to describe a type of computer hacking for political or social change.

• Question: Is hacktivism a truly civil disobedience of the computer age or just a group of bored computer geniuses with too much time on their hands?

• Hackers join forces with activists – hacking for a cause.

• Hacktivism could be understood as the writing of code to promote political ideology:promoting expressive politics, free speech, human rights, and information ethics throughsoftware development.

Summary of our presentation

Public sphere activism has a real competitor

Are those still my pictures? Rights after uploading property

How to protest online but staying inside the law – Hacktivism

How to engage people in both spheres – the future challenge!