Veronica Barassi
Anthropology/ Media and Communications
Goldsmiths, University of London

Mediating Political Action: Internet related Beliefs and Frustrations amongst International Solidarity Campaigns in Britain.

The terrain of media activism today has become an Internet connected one; one that is primarily constructed through online networks or platforms; one that is gradually transforming the way in which political action is imagined, experienced and organised. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork amongst international solidarity campaigning organisations in the Trade Union movement in Britain, this paper will discuss some of the beliefs and experiences that people encounter in their use of new information and communication technologies for political action. By doing so it aims at showing how internet technologies have re-shaped and transformed people’s understanding and experience of political opposition in empowering ways. At the same time, by looking at the everyday frustrations, anxieties and conflicts which define activists’ relationship with the Internet, this paper aims at questioning if the effect of new information technologies on contemporary forms of political action is merely an empowering and progressive one.