The Labors of Internet-Assisted Activism

Overcommunication, Miscommunication, and Communicative Overload

Bibliographic Data

ID12972170
AuthorsR K Nielsen (0000-0002-3376-4918, Columbia University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume6
Issue3-4
Pages267-280
Publication date2009-07-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Information Technology & Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1933-169X • E-ISSN: 1933-1681
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19331680903048840
OpenAlexW2058759359
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited30

This article analyzes the use of Internet elements in political activism through a close ethnographic case study of a volunteer group involved in the 2008 U.S. Democratic presidential primary. Whereas the literature on political activism has generally argued that the Internet provides low-cost communication that facilitates collective action, this case highlights the labors that accompany Internet-assisted activism. The analysis, based upon participant-observation, identifies three interrelated problems with which the activists struggled: overcommunication, miscommunication, and communicative overload. Drawing on concepts taken from science and technology studies, the article argues that these problems have sociotechnical roots and arise from the specific affordances of an increasing number of Internet elements. Such elements reduce the up-front costs associated with communication for the sender, but they generate new transaction costs when integrated into heterogeneous assemblages with no shared communication protocol, no clear infrastructure or exostructure, and no significant means of tempering the tendency towards ever greater amounts of communication

Affordance · Collective action · Communication source · Internet privacy · Knowledge management · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Sociotechnical system · Telecommunications · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · E-Government and Public Services · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Law · Social Media and Politics

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