Skillful Digital Activism: Cultivating Media Ecologies for Transformative Social Change

Vicki  Callahan  

USC,  Division  of  Media  Arts  +  Prac;ce  vcallahan@cinema.usc.edu  

 

“  Skillful  Digital  Ac;vism”  is  Not  Utopian  

       Binocular  Menagerie,  Leslie  Thornton,  May  2014    

Nor Dystopian

   National Security Agency (NSA) Data Storage Facility, Bluffdale, Utah  

The Dangers of “Clicktivism” and “Slacktivism”

•  Micha White “Clicktivism is Ruining Left Activism” Guardian, August 12, 2010.

•  Malcolm Gladwell, “Small

Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted” New Yorker October 4, 2010.

•  Josh Kron and J. David Goodman, “Online, a Distant Conflict Soars to Topic No. 1” New York Times, March 8, 2012.

 

“Skillful” Digital Activism Key elements for skillful activism: 1) Robust media ecology Mixed media environment, connective and is generative 2) Employ Social Media – tools for connecting, sharing, and changing (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo, Google toolbox, websites (Blogger, Tumblr). Not commercial generally. 3) Transmedia – cross-platform strategy and can include print, live performance, audio, video, online (may or may not include social media but often does) 4) Co-creators: the people formally known as “the audience,” although authorship boundaries vary

                 Mir  Hossein  Mousavi  speaks  to  elec;on                  protestors  in  Tehran,  June  2009  

“By Any Media Necessary”*

•  Objectives + Goals 1.  Awareness 2.  Dialogue 3.  Archive/Preserve 4.  Participatory Culture/

Community 5.  Organize

Objectives are related but often distinct from Outcomes: what does change look like?            

•  Methods + Strategies 1.  Broadcast 2.  Interactive 3.  Immersive 4.  Speculative Fiction 5.  Distributed Authorship,

Co-creation, Collaboration 6.  Transmedia

•  From Sasha Costanza-Chock’s , Out of the Shadows and Into the Streets: Transmedia Organizing and the Immigrant Rights Movement (MIT Press, 2014)  

Awareness: Broadcast/Transmedia Food, Inc. Participant Media + Take Part

                     hOp://www.takepart.com/foodinc    

 Food  Inc,    Robert  Kenner,  2008      

       Participant Media/Take Part

Awareness: Transmedia Global Women’s Rights/”Movement”

Half the Sky, Maro Chermayeff (from book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn) http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

Objectives: Awareness, Behavior/Policy Change

•  Awareness both in US and Globally

•  Education and behavioral changes on issues of violence, reproductive rights, trafficking, economic/personal empowerment

•  “nurture” policy changes

Edna  Adan,  ac;vist,  strategies  for  educa;on    on  issue  of  female  genital  mu;la;on    

Media Ecology •  Book •  Website with rich media for

both US and global context. Media from local communities/NGO as well as “celebrities,” policy makers, activists in West

•  Documentary Film (VOD, PBS) •  Facebook game and mobile

games targeted to issues and local communities.

•  Global Engagement initiatives with NGO educational videos (free download) and education guides

Outcomes

•  $5 million raised for organizations partnering with Half the Sky

•  1.1 million participants in Facebook game

•  30+ NGO partners •  1500 screenings on

campus and communities with discussion groups

•  US and Global Educational workshops

Awareness: Immersive/Virtual Reality

Project Syria, 2104 and Hunger in LA, 2012, Nonny de la Peña

Dialogue: Transmedia “The Open Space Documentary”

Lunch, Love, Community, Helen De Michiel (2010- present) http://www.lunchlovecommunity.org    

Objectives

•  Awareness of Berkeley School food program

•  Food Justice issues, especially with regard to schools and children

•  Community dialogue through “media socials”

•  Policy Intervention LUNCH  LOVE  COMMUNITY,  Helen  De  Michiel  

Media Ecology

•  Website •  Short films on site and

YouTube •  “Media Socials” •  De Michiel writings and

presentations on project and renovations and re-imagining of documentary form

Outcomes

•  Community dialogue •  Grassroots organizing on

food issues •  Re-institution of funding for

school program after city cut off funds (due to ballot initiative)

•  “Open Space” as participatory media model, dialogue, engagement, rather than “advocacy”

•  12 episode film on dvd for non-theatrical, educational market

Dialogue: Black Masculinity

Question Bridge (2012-present), Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Bayett Ross Smith, Kamal Sinclair http://questionbridge.com/#

Objectives

•  Dialogue •  Change perceptions

both within and outside African American community

•  Show diversity of experience, “represent and redefine black male identity in US.”

•  Archive stories

Media Ecology

•  Video installation (museums, festivals, institutions)

•  Online video •  Mobile app (goal of

200K participants, “living archive of black male voices”)

•  Facebook •  Blueprint

Roundtables •  High School

curriculum

Outcomes

•  Ongoing project •  How to gauge

awareness and perceptual shifts?

•  Creating alternative media space

Archives: Preserve + Co-creation

               Triangle Fire Open Archive (and now Open Museum) http://rememberthetrianglefire.org/open-archive/

Connecting the Past and the Present, the Personal and the Political

 hOp://rememberthetrianglefire.org/open-­‐archive/sash-­‐for-­‐neZe-­‐liebowitz/    

Archives: Preserve + Co-Creation, Audio

StoryCorps, http://storycorps.org  

Proximity of Personal and Political

Archive: Preserve + Reclaim Representation

Through a Lens Darkly and Digital Diaspora Roadshow, Thomas Allen Harris, 2014 http://1world1family.me  

Objective: Visibility, Perceptual Shifts, + Community Expression

•  Two part strategy: 1.  Documentary Film

(Through a Lens…): Stereotypes/Received images and African American artists’ intervention in representations of community

2.  Archive and Public Events: Digital Diaspora Roadshow

(community outreach)

Through a Lens Darkly http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/through-a-lens-darkly/  

Media Ecology

•  Live events •  Website •  Flickr + Instagram •  Facebook •  Documentary film

(screened on PBS, live events, and available on video on demand)

•  Lesson Plans on African American History and Identity

•  Archive both public and private

Digital Diaspora Roadshow

 Outcomes:    •  Change  the  received  images,  create  new  public  narra;ves  about  the  African  American    experience  •   Create  archive  of  history  previously  not  valued;  provide  opportunity  for  community  to    connect  their  stories,  deepen  community  bonds  •  Develop  media  literacy  skills  in  community  as  both  creators  and  as  informed  viewers  

 

Participatory Culture: Transmedia/Co-creation

 “Mapping  Memories”  hOp://www.mappingmemories.ca      

My Two Families, Leontine Uwababyeyi

Participatory Culture: Speculative Fiction/Alternate Reality Game

World Without Oil, Ken Eklund and Jane McGonigal, 2007: http://worldwithoutoil.org/metaabout.htm  

Organizing: Transmedia, Social Media

Bree Newsome removing Confederate Flag from South Carolina State Capitol, June 2015 “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?”

Alicia Garza, founder of #BlackLivesMatter 2015

Organizing: “Transmedia Organizing”*

     *  Sasha  Costanza-­‐Chock,  Out  of  the  Shadows….  

       “A  Day  without  an  Immigrant,”  Los  Angeles,  2006    

    Manual Rodriguez, “silence will never be an option…”

Critical Making: The Drift to Praxis

hOps://witness.org/resources/    

Participatory Culture: “Internet of Things” (Networked Culture and Smart Objects) ARG

Sherlock  Holmes  and  the  Internet  of  Things,  hOp://sherlockholmes.io                                          Lance  Weiler,  Nick  Fortugno,  Jorgen  van  der  Sloot  

Objectives

•  Consider  human/tech  interac;ons,  human  at  center,  not  passive  

•  Redefine,  reimagine  storytelling  possibili;es  

•  Media/Tech  Literacy  •  Build  Networks  and  

Community  with  Art  and  Technology  

How Story Spread

•  MOOC with over 200 participants on Novoed

•  Open Global Collaborative Game

•  Organized on Hackpad •  Live events, Beta tests at Lincoln Center (NYFF) and at Power to the Pixel (LFF) •  Pilot stage for ongoing

project in 2016, prototypes developed