Anti-war activism: New Media and Protest

About

Using empirical work (as part of an ESRC-funded project with Frank Webster and Kevin Gillan), this talk surmises the key findings of the first major study of the anti-war movement after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Based on two years of fieldwork and over sixty interviews this work addresses what use activists make of new technologies to organize as well as to campaign in the changed information environment of war. It explores the production of the movementís alternative information environment, the symbolic strugglesí for and against war, the representations, beliefs and identities of activists as articulated online, the anti-war movementís coalitions and alliances (with particular attention paid to the distinctive involvement of Muslim participation), and the possibilities of international collaboration.