1. Global Internet Activism
Week#3 The End Run Around The
Information Gate Keepers
Trebor Scholz | LCST 4014 A | Spring 2009

2. Political Activism,
Advocacy, and Art Activism
week 2
week 1 Access, Censorship,
Social Media, and the
week 3
Alleged Democratization
Citizen Media: from
of Society
Seattle to South Korea
War and Social Media: Serbia
week 5
week 4
War and Social Media: Iraq, Gaza
week 6 Spring Break
week 7
War and Social Media: Counter-publics
Iran, Afghanistan in Iran
week 8 week 9
Cell phone-enabled
Citizen Media in China
week 12
activism: Philippines
Burma
week 11
week 10 Japan, Singapore
A Better World in Second Life?
week 14
One Laptop Per Child
week 13
Cyber Publics in India
week 15
Mobilization
Trebor Scholz | LCST 3073 A | Spring 2009

5. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/watching-the-inauguration-with-all-my-facebook-friends/

6. Citizen Media: from Seattle to Seoul
week 3
Feb 10, 12
Required Readings:
Dorothy Kidd, quot;IndyMedia.org A New Communication Commons,quot; Martha McCaughey and Michael Ayers,
Cyberactivism (London: Routledge, 2003) 47-65.
Gillmore, Dan. We the Media. Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. 1 July 2004.
Chapter 1: From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond. 6 Jan. 2009 <http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/
book/ch01.pdf>.
Case Studies:
OhMyNews, IndyMedia, Riseup’s Crabgrass,
Trebor Scholz | LCST 3073 A | Spring 2009

7. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Pennsylvania_Gazette_‐_1729‐9‐25_‐_Project_Gutenberg_etext_20203.jpg

8. in-class: 12 mins
link on slideshare 55 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQqQUrQScs

9. Citizen Media: from Seattle to Seoul
week 3
Feb 10, 12
What is citizen journalism?
What are its advantages and downfalls?
Trebor Scholz | LCST 3073 A | Spring 2009

11. Erick:
(response to Gilmore)
Is there a place or need for large media networks such as CNN, NBC, Fox?
(response to Kidd)
Keeping in mind the Internet's capability to amplify the voices on all sides of the political
spectrum, what then of “the opposition”? Are they also empowered?
Joe:
Could popular activism websites (i.e., IndyMedia) become the equivalent of the corporate
broadcasters? Should not we consider them as a monopoly also?
Calvin
(response to Gilmore):
If forms of grassroots media have really been around for hundreds of years as Gillmore
argues, why has it only recently become such a buzzword and movement according to the
mainstream media?
Elena:
Should independent journalism and non-professional news be labeled with a disclaimer as
they are often just as partisan as the sites that they react against?
Lauren
From my experience of listening to Democracy Now, it is almost as biased as FOX News.
They also seems to be pushing an agenda, no matter how different an agenda from that of
corporate media.

12. Chris:
[I’d] say that [Indymedia] would probably get more hits to a video of their content on
YouTube than they would on the front page of their site. Why is this?
Peter:
Is independent media more objective than corporate media, or does a stated or implied
goal of countering corporate media indicate an equal degree of bias? To what extent are
technological developments responsible for the success of the IMC? Could such a network
exist without the Internet?
Trebor Scholz | LCST 3073 A | Spring 2009

14. The Caring
Problem

15. http://gapdev.law.harvard.edu/

16. Who Writes
the First Draft
of History?

17. Controlling what people think: editing history, selecting narratives
from: Manufacturing Consent, Naom Chomsky

18. All The News That’s Fit To Print
Benkler, chapter 6

19. Gate Keeping
Absolute Dominance Is Over

20. “Twenty-two years ago, Trent Lott, then a
House member from Mississippi, told a home
state political gathering that if the country
had elected segregationist candidate Strom
Thurmond to the presidency ‘30 years ago,
we wouldn't be in the mess we are today.’
The phrasing is very similar to incoming
Senate Majority Leader Lott's controversial
remarks at a 100th birthday party for
Thurmond last week.”
Trent Lott, resigned Nov 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37288-2002Dec10?language=printer

21. The Lead-Up To The War In Iraq (2003)
Who did a better job reporting
Colin Powell’s February 2003 speech in front of the United Nation
The New York Times or the plethora of blogs?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/IraqMobileProductionFacilities.jpg

23. -Buzz Group Break-
What question would you most like to have answered
regarding the topic of the lecture today?
Of all ideas and points you have heard so far today, which is
the most obscure or ambiguous to you?
What is the most contentious statement you heard in the
lecture so far?

26. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/12‐30‐2006_oventic_media.jpg

28. http://english.ohmynews.com/ http://tinyurl.com/2dnhmy
“OhmyNews was influential in determining the outcome of the South Korean presidential elections in December 2002
with the election of Roh Moo Hyun. After being elected, Roh granted his first interview to OhmyNews.”

30. http://www.newsvine.com/

31. http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/new
very large team of writers. local news by locals

32. http://dev.riseup.net/crabgrass/

33. http://www.youku.com/

34. http://tinyurl.com/2569dr

35. http://globalvoicesonline.org/

36. http://spot.us/

37. http://www.groundreport.com/tv

38. http://www.nowpublic.com/

40. bloggers, academics, writers, journalists,
columnists, opinion makers, CEOs, closed
circle of users, ad revenue shared,
everything is edited (posts and comments),
no pay, focus on high quality writing
Content Management System
South Africa
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/about-thoughtleader/

43. Research blog post
- 2000 words (include word count)
- due Feb 17 before class, posted to NING blog (tagged with name
and “essay1”) before class (no late submission)
- focus on one argument
- send me one paragraph about the topic of your blog essay
in the body of an email before Friday
- evaluation: logic, clarity, referenced research vs. unsubstantiated
claims
- spelling, grammar, structure

44. Trebor Scholz
scholzt@newschool.edu
Twitter: trebors
Blog: http://www.collectivate.net/journalisms
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