Reclaiming the media: technology, tactics and subversion

This chapter will explore how technological advances in communication networks open up new platforms for democratic debates. Technological advances in communication come to blur the boundaries between journalists and citizen journalists, political discourse and social movements, and definitions of democracy. Drawing on the UK radical environmental activism movements, as a case study, this chapter will show how new technologies have enabled activists to bypass traditional media practices. New Social movements made from environmental activists collectives, can produce their own websites, news reports and adapt old tactics through new technology. The result is a narrowing of the inequality in democratic debates. Smart Phones, Tablets and the World Wide Web provide a new platform for a wider range of voices, which were once limited to top-down political and media discourse. However, the web and technological as with any new tools of communication can only decrease inequalities if correctly applied. This chapter will therefore examine the positive and negative sides of new forms of communication. As Morozov notes, the internet is not a savior, but just one means of changing political, religious and cultural discourse