Sessions and Plenaries from the DIY Citizenship Conference: Critical Making and Social Media, Nov 11-14 are now available online:
Nov 11 Opening Event: Henry Jenkins and Corynne McSherry, “Supporting the DIY Citizen”
http://epresence.kmdi.utoronto.ca/1/watch/859.aspx
DIY Citizenship Conference: Sessions held in CCF (all plenaries, and one panel during each concurrent session)
Nov 12: http://hosting.epresence.tv/MUNK/1/watch/198.aspx
Nov 13: http://hosting.epresence.tv/MUNK/1/watch/200.aspx
Nov 14: http://hosting.epresence.tv/MUNK/1/watch/199.aspx
Other Concurrent Sessions:
http://itube.ischool.utoronto.ca/Panopto/Pages/Sessions/List.aspx#folder={%22ID%22%3A%2283e5a623-06d6-4172-bc14-23469bbba492%22%2C%22Name%22%3A%22DIY%20Citizenship%22%2C%22Role%22%3Anull}
Twitter Archive: http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/diy10
Western Tech High School Student Videos and blogposts:
1. Hack space DIY conference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ9IkvYHBhw
2. What is DIY citizenship to you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XexymRaMKlw
3. Women’s representations online
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_zl_CGr9VU
blog Youth Journalists @DIY http://diycitizenship.com/youthjournalists
Finally, here is the concluding text from my Plenary talk at DIY which I had to cut for time: “Despite Stewart and Colbert denying the Internet’s role in mobilizing 400,000 people to travel to D.C. to rally for Sanity, Malcolm Gladwell’s critique is relevant to the rally’s outcome. As he writes, “Because networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals. They can’t think strategically; they are chronically prone to conflict and error. How do you make difficult choices about tactics or strategy or philosophical direction when everyone has an equal say?â€
Gladwell is talking specifically about the weak ties of online social networks. However, from the extensive evidence of ongoing counterpublics engaged in follow-up political engagement to the Rally—such as the Facebook site one finds postings to date every few minutes with ongoing political debates, countless other online sites and blogs and within TV and news culture such as Jon Stewart’s interview by Rachel Maddow on November 11–it is clear to me that Gladwell makes again the error of too strong a distinction between on- and offline activism which my own and others’ research confirms to be increasingly inaccurate.
So I leave you with these questions, and one final clip intended to reflect the creative diversity of “ironic citizens,†which might be promising save their embrace of “moderation†which raises many political concerns in the current climate, and the fact that rally-goers by and large refuse an identification as “political†or activist—despite the fact that they traveled in many cases thousands of miles to express criticism of news media such as FOX.
- What sense do we make of [thus far leaderless](DIY?) massive civic engagement catalyzed by political satire?
- What kind of citizens/subjects are we, “made†through the confluence of popularized target audience in combination with net/grassroots bodies taking to the streets?
- What is the significance of a populist public desire for a new, creative politics under a pluralist banner of ‘moderation’?
The last clips I share reflect the spectrum of what seems possible through this paradoxical form of coming together within the empty square of irony that is neither about fixed meaning nor apathy, but a plurality that defies summary: [final clip—btw, some of the clips now up on YouTube Never been to Rally Before; Why Did you Come to Rally?]