new media | Re-public: re-imagining democracy

Networked revolts
October 11, 2011

The continuing uprisings spreading across North Africa and the Middle East have been inherently associated with the increasing entanglement of social media, or digital networks in general, with everyday life. The multiple uses of technologies –cell phones, Facebook, twitter, the Internet– by local participants and by global supporters and observers and the counter-measures of blocking access and shutting down communication channels by the toppled or still surviving governments have gained global attention and have already ignited a series of related debates. Are the social media causes or symptoms of the Arab revolts? How can we determine their degree of influence in the revolts?

The special issue will attempt to move beyond these debates and approach the Arab revolts by making no ontological distinction between the digital and the real.

Lina Ben Mhenni – The Tunisian revolution is not over
October 11, 2011

Lina Ben Mhenni was one of the main speakers of the “Networked revolts” public event organised in Athens, Greece by journals Re-public and Konteiner. This is the transcript from his speech, followed by the video including simultaneous Greek translation.

I will describe our experiences, firstly in relation to what happened in the past and then about what is going on right now in Tunisia. Here, there are pictures of the first demonstrations which took place in the capital Tunis in support of the popular uprising which had started in Sidi Bouzid. This was the city where Mohamed Bouazizi had set himself on fire.

Tarek Amr – The effect of social media in the Egyptian revolution
October 11, 2011

Tarek Amr was one of the main speakers of the “Networked revolts” public event organised in Athens, Greece by journals Re-public and Konteiner. This is the transcript from his speech, followed by the video including simultaneous Greek translation.

Malek Khadhraoui – The internet in the struggle against the Tunisian regime
October 11, 2011

Malek Khadhraoui was one of the main speakers of the “Networked revolts” public event organised in Athens, Greece by journals Re-public and Konteiner. This is the transcript from his speech, followed by the video including simultaneous Greek translation.

Simon Cottle – Arab uprisings, media inscriptions
October 11, 2011

What is striking about the continuing wave of Arab uprisings is not only their historical momentousness and stunning speed of succession across so many countries, but also the different and complex ways in which media and communications have become inextricably infused inside them. Indeed some have been so bold as to label them as the ‘Twitter Revolutions’ or ‘Facebook Revolutions’ in recognition of the prominent part played by new social media, whether in the co-ordination of mass protests, communication of real-time images and up-to-date information, or processes of contagion across the Arab region. This, however, is to do less than justice to both the political and media complexities involved or their mutual interaction moving through time. If we are to begin to understand the complex ways in which media systems and communication networks have conditioned and facilitated these remarkable historical events and communicated them around the world we need to broaden our frame of reference beyond the events of the uprisings themselves and attend to the multiple, complex and interpenetrating ways in which today’s media ecology have not only conditioned them but served to enact them, entering into their unfolding trajectory and powerful reverberations around the world. Here ten different forms of media and communication inscription are noted, each demanding further research and scholarly attention in the months and years ahead.

Kostas Kechagias – The “indignants”, online communities and parliamentary democracy
October 11, 2011

The organization of political actions through online communities and social networking is becoming more frequent and massive. This phenomenon is difficult to comprehend and interpret, within a broader context. In addition, it embodies special characteristics, such as the absence of specific political demands, which impede it from functioning as an actor of political pressure and influence. In this article, an effort towards the comprehension of the characteristics of the phenomenon, based on the understanding of the operation of the online communities, is attempted. A mechanism for developing political demands is also suggested.

Rolando B. Tolentino – Media piracy and Philippine cosmopolitanisms
February 6, 2011

The democratization of digital technology has intensified the cultural specificity of media piracy in the Philippines. Media piracy is a racialized and class-consigned activity: it is bound to ethnic and religious identifications, since its main agents are mostly Muslim Filipinos, coming from the southern island of Mindanao (their autonomous region being one of the most poverty stricken in the country) and it is also class-consigned since this type of entrepreneurship connotes low-end origins that serve the more affluent economic groups in the country.

Irmak Ertuna-Howison – Pirates, authors, and the fear of collective intelligence
February 6, 2011

As the chain of neo-liberal ideology tightens around our necks, it becomes harder to pull on the leash and attempt to break away from its influence in our thinking. Even cultural historians, critics, and authors- those who have traditionally taken the role of vanguard of progressive thinking – submit to conservative ideas. One such author is Jaron Lanier, whose book You’re Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, published in 2010, received enthusiastic reception from conservative critics such as the famous The New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani. Her review “A Rebel in Cyberspace, Fighting Collectivism“, as the title suggests, cuts right to the chase of the issue and pinpoints Lanier’s caution against the “wisdom of crowds” and threat to intellectual property posed by free Internet content as the real virtue of his book. Collectivism of cyber content, in distribution and production, is seen as an insidious threat to originality and imagination by conservative authors.

Ernesto (founder of TorrenFreak.com) – Piracy and the formation of public opinion
February 6, 2011

Ernesto, the founder of TorrenFreak.com, one of the most prominent online sources for news about file-sharing, talks about the politics of the Pirate Parties, the productive effects of digital piracy, the increasing penalisation of piracy by the pro-copyright forces, and the future of file-sharing. He argues that “people will always find ways to circumvent laws and regulations and in the end technology will always be a step ahead of the anti-piracy outfits,” and adds “that the only way to decrease piracy is by making content available more easily, and at a decent price.”

Thanasis Priftis – Imaginary piracy
February 6, 2011

On Christmas of 2009 YouTube was “hacked” and many profiles’ icons were changed to other images, faces, new thumbnails. A multi avatar hacker under the title MeiAIDS was credited with the hack that, mostly, involved avatars around a community creating “YouTube Poops”. In short, this is a method of video editing, which became popular through YouTube’s always increasing fame. “YouTube Poops” are bizarre, quasi artistic creations, an in-joke between a group of friends or clips of cartoons and other assorted junk strung together to form nonsensical moving images on Youtube. Such a complex communication, affiliation system inter-connecting language, entertainment and even piracy needs to be revisited.

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