Summer of Unrest: Activism or Slacktivism?: The Future of Digital Politics

by Tom Chatfield

Overview

The student protests during the closing months of 2010 were organised online via Facebook, Twitter, university forums, Google Maps and other networks. They came in the wake of a surge of activity on the web that confonted the traditional media channels when Wikileaks and Anonymous disrupted them, creating a New World Order of breaking news.

The fluid organisation of the protests showed that the internet and social media were key tools for organising dissent. Then in the Spring 2011, a wave of uprisings broke over North Africa with Tunisia, Egypt and Libya swept up in revolts also galvanised online.

Tom Chatfield explores how the internet is re-shaping society and affecting identity in a period of acute political turbulence.

BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781446483848
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	07/28/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	35
File size:	638 KB

About the Author

Tom Chatfield is a freelance author and commentator. His first book, Fun Inc. (Virgin), was published in 2010. He has done design, writing and consultancy work for games and media companies including Google, Mind Candy, VCCP, Preloaded, Grex, Red Glasses and Intervox; and has spoken widely on technology, media and gaming at forums including TED Global, the Cannes Lions Festival, the House of Commons, the RSA, ICA, authors@Google and the World IT Congress.

A former senior editor at Prospect magazine, he has a doctorate from St. John's College, Oxford, and has written widely in the national and international press, including for the Observer, Independent, Sunday Times, Wired, New Statesman, Evening Standard, Times Literary Supplement, and the website Boing Boing. He also writes fiction, and plays jazz piano.