{"id":290188,"date":"2010-02-07T17:00:02","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=65317"},"modified":"2010-02-07T17:00:02","modified_gmt":"2010-02-07T22:00:02","slug":"fdl-book-salon-welcomes-jessica-clark-and-tracy-van-slyke-beyond-the-echo-chamber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/290188","title":{"rendered":"FDL Book Salon Welcomes Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke, Beyond the Echo Chamber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jessica<\/a>[Welcome Jessica Clark<\/a> and Tracy Van Slyke<\/a>, and Host Matthew Kerbel<\/a>.] [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book. \u00a0Please take other conversations to a previous thread. – bev]<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyone interested in how progressives are using the Internet as a vehicle for political and social action should pick up Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke\u2019s accessible, provocative book, <\/a>Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <\/em>(The New Press, 2010).\u00a0 Their micro-analysis of networked progressive activism forms a topographical map of the loosely affiliated groups and individuals who have emerged as a movement in a rapidly changing media environment.\u00a0 Using this map, readers can sort their way through the thicket of interrelated legacy publications, websites, blogs and social networking sites that constitute the hubs and highways of the progressive movement and understand how progressives have been using new media to push back against the political status quo.\u00a0 Especially for those who are engaged in the process, having the opportunity to understand how their efforts are reinforced and influenced by the contributions of those in other portions of the far-flung blogosphere gives purpose and definition to the broader workings of an often ill-defined entity. <\/span><\/p>\n

The book\u2019s title refers to the volume Echo Chamber <\/em>by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph Cappella of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Annenberg School, which explores how the right built a media juggernaut that has energized conservatives around a well-reinforced group identity.\u00a0 Clark and Van Slyke acknowledge the idea that partisan communication engages people politically and take Jamieson and Cappella one step further: what Rush Limbaugh and Fox News have done for the right, the Internet has done for the left \u2013 only more effectively, because the open architecture of the Web meshes with the philosophical predispositions of the left to create a politics of community that leverages the best the Internet has to offer.<\/p>\n

The authors combine theory and case study observations with their practical experiences as progressive activists (Van Slyke was once publisher and Clark executive editor of In These Times <\/em>magazine).\u00a0 Clark and Van Slyke approach technology, journalism and political action as elements of a system, and showcase the way changes in each have facilitated changes in the others.\u00a0 Where a decade ago there was no progressive media strong enough to challenge either mainstream reporting or the right\u2019s well-financed \u201cnoise machine,\u201d the middle of the last decade witnessed the evolution of an interconnected media network fostered by emerging technology and the motivational pull of Bush administration policies.\u00a0 Initially, there were big gaps in the network, limiting its reach and effectiveness linking up emerging progressive media portals with established progressive organizations, elected officials, and mainstream media.\u00a0 But, these gaps were filled organically and, in retrospect, quickly, producing a fairly robust progressive infrastructure capable of influencing political outcomes and policy debates.<\/p>\n

Rather than approaching the Internet as a singular entity, Clark and Van Slyke identify four overlapping layers of networks that collectively delineate the contours of netroots activism: networked users; self-organized networks; institutional networks; and networks of institutions.\u00a0 Networked users are people like you and me \u2013 the tens of millions linked to the online public sphere who use the Internet to read, respond to, recommend or create online content.\u00a0 Self-organized networks are integrated groups of users who proactively come together to create online communities.\u00a0 Institutional networks are either created by organizations that exist in the bricks and mortar world as they look to transition to the Internet world, like NOW, the Sierra Club, and the ACLU, or web-natives like MoveOn.org.\u00a0 Networks of institutions form when online entities use social networking tools to exchange information, coordinate strategies, and amplify messaging.\u00a0 Clark and Van Slyke contend that for online progressives to have maximum impact, they need to integrate all four layers into political action strategies \u2013 and they identify places where this integration is taking place and making a difference.<\/p>\n

The authors elaborate a set of interrelated approaches they feel could amplify the impact and expand the reach of online progressives, aimed at combating the power of established political and media elites, the stickiness of right-wing messaging, and the assumptions of conventional journalism by drawing on the potential for openness and diversity that flow naturally from the Internet\u2019s decentralized architecture.\u00a0 Clark and Van Slyke use the term \u201cmedia makers\u201d to describe those who have some influence over the shape of these strategies.\u00a0 It stands in sharp contrast to the companion term \u201cmedia owners\u201d \u2013 used to describe the limited few who had influence over the means of communication in the centralized world of conventional media \u2013 and is descriptive of the way progressives have been figuring out ways to unlock the political potential of cyberspace.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to talk about here, a lot of provocative questions to consider about the implications for policy, politics and journalism.\u00a0 The authors quote Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks <\/em>on the difference the Internet has made: \u201cBefore, you had to beg someone to put you on the air,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIn this [Internet] model, you create your own air.\u00a0 We\u2019re broadcasting because we say we are.\u201d\u00a0 Beyond the Echo Chamber<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>is infused with this proactive spirit and sense of potential, grounded in a subtle understanding of networked politics.<\/p>\n

\"Share <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Welcome Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke, and Host Matthew Kerbel.] [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book. \u00a0Please take other conversations to a previous thread. – bev] Anyone interested in how progressives are using the Internet as a vehicle for political and social action should pick up Jessica Clark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}