FS30280 Digital Media Activism

Academic Year 2022/2023

From sites like Right To Be (formerly Hollaback!) and Everyday Sexism which document instances of street harassment and misogyny, to social media-organized movements and communities like #MeToo and #BeenRapedNeverReported, feminists are using participatory digital media as activist tools to speak, network, and organize against sexism, misogyny, and rape culture. While global media has mostly amplified Western feminist activism, this module examines some of the creative, subversive, and "hidden" practices of women in the Global South. It analyses specific ways that women in Africa, Asia, the Middle-East and Latin America harness the power of digital technologies for feminist consciousness-raising, mobilization, and promoting campaigns around sexism, misogyny, and rape culture. We will explore transformative hashtag campaigns such as #BringBackOurGirls, #JusticeforLiz, #DelhiRape and #MenAreTrash. Students will develop an understanding of how digital platforms and affordances facilitate social justice campaigns while also sustaining pre-existing power dynamics and creating ‘new’ forms of exclusion defined by the speed, frequency, scope, and access to digital communication.