Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times

Citation

Stuart, D. (2008), "Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times", Online Information Review, Vol. 32 No. 5, pp. 689-690. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520810914052

The media landscape has seen two comprehensive changes in recent years: increased disillusionment with the traditional media sources in the post 9/11 world, and the rise of the social web and the democratisation of knowledge. At a time of hyperbole regarding the roles of traditional news sources and the potential of digital media, Digital Media and Democracy brings together a collection of essays and interviews with media activists and journalists, which explores the changing nature of traditional media, the role of tactical and alternative media, and the potential of the social web. While the exact nature of what is and is not tactical media is difficult to pin down (as discussed at length in Alessandra Renzi's Chapter, “The space of tactical media”), Digital Media and Democracy shows how voices of dissent can come from many different quarters as people utilise the resources they have available in new and innovative ways, whether this is the physical improvised gambiarra in Brazil or the remixing of the audio files of George Bush online.

While much has been written about the potential of new media and the blogosphere to monitor traditional media, Digital Media and Democracy puts such claims into perspective, most noticeably in Jodi Dean's Chapter, “Communicative capitalism”, and Travers Scott's Chapter, “Tempests of the blogosphere”. While Dean discusses the fallacies of abundance, participation and wholeness in a disjointed and noisy web with unequal levels of traffic, Scott contrasts the blog stories that have kept mainstream media “honest” with those that have failed to resonate despite their importance. These works do not negate the role of the web, or the potential of other alternative or tactical media, but rather emphasise the complexity of the media landscape and the difficulty in establishing the effectiveness of various campaigns. Mainstream media continues to be important, although it often from new and unexpected quarters, as emphasised most clearly in the chapters on Al Jazeera English and Boler and Turpin's discussion on the importance of satire and The Daily Show.

With 19 chapters in addition to the 50‐page introduction, Digital Media and Democracy does provide a broad international perspective on the relationship between traditional and tactical media, albeit a decidedly Leftist perspective. While I would like to recommend the work unreservedly, it is worth noting that some of the best chapters have appeared elsewhere.