Digital Media, Social Movements and Social Change

From the Zapatista uprising in the early 1990s to Black Lives Matter, the Internet has become a central tool for social change, insomuch as the logics of online networks and social movements are now often considered as inseparable. Mixing theoretical perspectives and a case-study approach, this course focuses on the relationship between the use of social and mobile platforms, the development of social movements, and dynamics of political and cultural change. It highlights the tension between commercially driven technological design and the ideals and values of online communities; the correlation between online engagement and offline protest; and, ultimately, the potential that digital media hold for democracy and participation.