Political activism in the era of the Internet (original) (raw)

individualization processes, the crisis in the ideological frameworks which structured political life in the 20 th century, the weakening of political parties -date from before the emergence of communication via the Internet, which is influenced by these preexisting trends, while at the same time modifying them. 3. The bibliography on the effects of the virtual world counterposes "pessimists" and "optimists". The optimists stress that the communication technologies open up new possibilities for horizontal communication among citizens, diminish communication transaction costs in the public space, accelerate communication and eliminate physical distance enabling people and groups to issue opinions and establish dialogues on an unprecedented scale, reducing the relative importance of the old communication media and opening up new alternative information channels for citizens. The pessimists believe that impacts of the Internet are the impoverishment and polarization of political culture and debate, the destruction of privacy -providing the State and companies with access to databanks which enable the manipulation and control of individuals -, and the illusion of Country Case studies Argentina Ni Una Menos Change.og Partido de la Red Brazil Internet Civil Framework Avaaz June 2013 Protests Mídia Ninja Online/off-line: the new fabric of political activism Online support campaigns Online support campaigns for specific causes represent the continuation of a long democratic tradition of support for manifestos or petitions requesting changes in legislation. The use of signatures collected online is still not recognized legally in any of the countries in the region. Alternative ways of using this means of online participation to obtain effective results, must, therefore, be explored. In subsequent chapters , we present three case studies of online support campaigning organizations: Avaaz in Brazil, Change.org in Argentina and YASunidos in Ecuador. Avaaz in Brazil and Change.org in Argentina are global organizations of foreign origin and have existed for a number of years. In these countries they have the largest number of followers (people who have signed at least one petition), in absolute numbers in the case of Brazil and relative to the size of the population in Argentina. YASunidos is an isolated experience related to a specific problem.