E-mails, texts, facebook messages, tweets. This day in age, there are many avenues in which one can organize events, share your opinions and find likeminded individuals who share those opinions. In terms of political or social issues, this ability to communicate so quickly and efficiently can result in activism for a specific cause. This is

Source: http://whennoodlesdream.wordpress.com/tag/internet-activism/

known as “Internet Activism”. Internet activism has become more and more popular as the internet has become part of our daily lives. However, author *Robert Lebowitz discusses the pros and cons of using the internet to promote political activism, and to what extent the internet has actually influenced activism. In his article, “Can Internet technology still revolutionize activism?” a few aspects Lebowitz evaluates is: the effectiveness of E-mail petitions, Web-based petitions, virtual sit ins, the Internet as a tool for mobilization and virtual sit ins. He explains that e-mail petitions, while they are a good idea in theory because it would reach a wide audience, would result in duplicate names and even forgery. He also explains that an e-mail petition is the least effective form of communication with government officials. Lebowitz cites a nonprofit group called OMB Watch, who monitors activity at governmental offices, and states that e-mail petitions are the least effective in terms of influencing a governmental official. They released a statement explaining,

Most [US] Congressional offices give the most weight to personal letters, followed by [in descending order of priority] personal visits, telephone calls, faxes, personal e-mails, paper petitions, form letters, postcards and form e-mail.

Lebowitz goes on to explain that web-based petitions and virtual sit-ins (where a large group of people crash a controversial site) are effective, but are not necessarily the most meaningful. The point I found most interesting was his discussion of the Internet as a tool for mobilization. Lebowitz states that the Internet allows organizations to organize protests, meetings and demonstrations, and makes it easy to coordinate with groups across the nation. He gives an example of a group called Stand for Children who organized events all across the nation. He explains the efficiency the Internet provided,

As these activities were spread out over the entire country, it was imperative to find a way of unifying and coordinating them so as to broadcast a central message. For this purpose, the Internet was used as a tool to give those involved in each event a sense of being part of the larger whole.

This discussion of using the Internet as a tool for mobilization reminded me of the start Egypt’s revolution in 2011. An Egyptian activist organized a protest by reaching out to thousands of Egyptians through facebook. After this protest, the revolution took fulleffect, and the people were eventually able to overthrow Egyptian President Mubarak. Lebowitz states in his article that some people,

…still believe in an even more ambitious role for the internet in political activism.

But to be honest, I can’t think of a more ambitious role for the internet to play other than sparking the revolution that overthrew an unjust government.

Source: http://alanknight.wordpress.com/tag/2011-egyptian-revolution/

* I could not find any biographical information on Robert Lebowitz, which makes me a bit weary of his article, not knowing his qualifications for making these claims. However, the website, Tactical Media Files, seems legitiamte. Tactical Media Files is a documentation resource using the available media to make it more accessible for activists and scholars. TMF partners with prestigious European universities and institutions, which makes this source seem more reliable.