Tactical Media

Wikipedia describes tactical media as "the appropriation of mass media in order to oppose and criticize a target which often occupies a certain position of power. This modern form of activism can be recognized by its use of current technology and its ‘hit-and-run tactics’ media campaigns which are often short-lived in nature. The purpose of tactical media lays within the type of information it distributes and the warnings it can sometimes produce. By generating this information and creating this reaction, tactical media attempts to reverse the one-way-flow of communication and power and give some of the control back to the public." The authors consistently emphasize tactical media's success is due to the avoidance of "essentialized identity" or ultimate goal, allowing groups the freedom of critique as well as self-criticism.

Chapter 2: The Space of Tactical Media
The author emphasizes that tactical media are "expressions of dissent that rely on artistic practices and 'do it yourself' (DIY) media created from readily available, relatively cheap technology and means of communication." These approaches are constantly evolving and produced collectively. Tactical media can be separated from other forms of political activism by the distinction between tactics and strategies, with tactical media focusing on shorter-term actions. Renzi views tactical media less as a movement or practice, but as a space where "tactical things" happen. Social software (blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc.) are dynamic places or means for groups to meet and prepare tactical action.

Chapter 13: Media Interventions and Art Practices: Interview with Shaina Anand
Shaina Anand is an artist and media activist in India, working primarily through the medium of film and documentaries to produce works engaging the local communities in India as subjects, producers and audience. She works mainly in places where there is very little or no existing local media. One of the primary questions she asks in her work is "Where is the power reversal for these people who have become your subjects?" Her focus is on micropolitics and very local effects, as her project Rustle TV clearly shows. In it, Rustle TV was designed to flip normal filmmaking on its head: the entire market was participatory as it became their channel, produced by a student crew that worked to produce content desired by the market.

Rustle TV

Chapter 14: The Gambiarra: Considerations on a Recombinatory Technology
Gambiarra is a Portuguese word that means essentially, "to make do" or a quick-fix solution, an "improvisation as a means of survival." Gambiarras were used in acts of urban terrorism in Madrid and Sao Paulo, but are also seen as positive solutions in recycling discarded technologies. The author argues that we need to pay attention to what is happening around us on the streets instead of merely keeping up with North American and European trends.

Bricolage and Gambiarra

Chapter 15: Where the Activism Is
Scholz refers to it as the "social Web", a place with potential for social life. He argues that activism extends beyond the traditional protests, strikes, donations, letters to Congress, etc., and now includes "the toolbox of the social Web." In the developed world, blogs and wikis are the dominant forms used by activists. The developing world, however, are using mobile phones and inexpensive phone plans for innovative activist purposes. More people are spending time online in networked activism, fundraising, and self-expression due to a disappearing public sphere in the economically developed world.

Chapter 17: The Daily Show and Crossfire: Satire and Sincerity as Truth to Power
"Jon Stewart's 'court-jester' critiques not only offer a much-needed antidote [to mainstream media coverage], but they also represent a niche of media convergence for news content as well as circulation." Stewart's legendary appearance on Crossfire in 2004 was a demand for traditional new media to return to truthfulness in reporting and representation. While Stewart wasn't a funny man on that appearance, his typical MO through The Daily Show is to use satire to speak "truth to power."

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Chapter 18: Cybersupremacy: The New Face and Form of White Supremacist Activism
We'd talked in class last week about how not giving voice to neo-Nazis helps lead to their growing insistence. It was interesting to read in this chapter about the expanding white supremacist movement online through Stormfront.org. I found it quite disturbing, actually. This is a case in point of how the internet is not exclusively a democratizing force and that tactical media doesn't always have the goal of redressing inequalities. Stormfront's goal is to "provide information not available in the controlled new media and to build a community of White activists working for the survival of our people." As unsettling as it is, the author points out that because of the lack of broader conversations about race and racism online, Stormfront is left as one of the few places where whites can work through their concerns about race without fear of personal stigma.

Stormfront.org

Chapter 19: Re-Visioning the State of the Media: Concluding Interview with Brian Holmes
Holmes was interviewed in the middle of an event called "Emergent Geographies" that was sponsored by the tactical media group Hackitectura. They were there to think about "how to replay the twentieth-century modernities that failed…to put another myth into circulation, to tell a different story about the world and build it at the same time." Hackitectura is based on free software development and the idea that urban spaces can be transformed from below.

Hackitectura.net

QUESTIONS:
1. Why is it that "If tactical media were ever to attain their legitimate objectives they would immediately become redundant"?

2. Shaina Anand is cynical about the "permanent thing" and how it follows the currency of social capital or commerce. How does the temporality of tactical media combat the power dynamic?

3. How can Gambiarra be significant in North American society?

4. Satire has been historically successful in its critique on current power structures. How is it that this form of humor strikes such a powerful note?

5. In the chapter on Cybersupremacy, Statzel makes an interesting point that "the distinction between 'the real world' and 'virtual reality' is often actually quite blurred." Do you agree with her that as regards "power, politics, and structural relations … cyberspace is as real as it gets"?