Very interesting topic. While I think new digital technologies definitely allow for increased interactivity amongst groups that traditionally would have been kept separate, I think it would also be interesting to consider how new media actually helps to preserve historical divisions. These days, governmental organizations, NGOs, and private corporations alike try to maintain a highly visible web presence in order to preserve the illusion of transparency that modern civilians so adamantly demand. Still, there’s a great deal of information that the uninitiated simply do not have access to. I think we have to be careful to take these organizations’ ostensible support of transparency with a grain of salt.
Not relevant to your main point, but still pretty interesting (to me, anyway): All of those small acts of rebellion you point out in your post (#AskThicke, #myNYPD, etc.) were manifested in very controlled spaces. Would criticism of this kind have occurred if the NYPD hadn’t started the hashtag and, however unintentionally, kickstarted the conversation? What does it mean if these acts of rebellion are fundamentally guided by the dominant power?
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