Save the Frogs!

Picture this, a large garden shed in the backyard, the ground was damp, it had been raining and it was about to start again.  Two young girls snuck out from under their mother’s watchful eye, behind the shed where they knew the fence was lined with baby ‘frogs’.  The girls were on a mission! The frogs must be saved! They can’t be left out in the rain to catch cold! No! So handful by handful they were relocated to indoor pot plants, the mail box, their father’s work boots…

Needless to say the young girls were my sister and I and the ‘frogs’ were really toads.  Dad placed his foot into his work boots only to be met with the squelchy bodies of baby toads and we were in immense trouble.  Let’s just say it didn’t do much for his fear of frogs.      

(Ridge Haven 2010)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That had been one of my first forms of eco-activism, followed by a recycling crusade, water saving campaign (thanks Sesame Street) and a need to save trees at my local primary school.  I am thankful that back then I didn’t have access to the means of communication that now enables digital activism.  Digital activism uses digital technology as a platform (think blogs and social media websites) to increase the effectiveness of a social or political change campaign (Sivitanides & Shah 2011).  Many years later I’m not the Green Peace activist that I originally envisioned in fact I lead a remarkably uncontroversial life. 

Looking at my broader engagement of digital activism a few years ago I joined the Facebook group ‘1,000,000 people in search for Daniel Morcombe’.  In December 2003, Daniel Morcombe was abducted from a bus shelter near the Sunshine Coast.  I joined that group to raise awareness, hoping that more and more people would join through exposure to my Facebook profile and that Daniel would eventually be found.  His family used both traditional media outlets (television, radio and print) as well as digital media (websites and social networks) as a platform to reach people encouraging people to put forth information whilst also highlighting the issue of children safety.

Digital activism can occur in different forms other than social media.  Culture jammers may feel they need to highlight particular issues often using detournment.  Culture jammers resist cultural hegemony by means of guerrilla communication strategies where they’ll reuse a well-known text creating a new text that carries a message contrary to the message the producer intended (Bainbridge, Goc & Tynan 2011, p.192).  An example of this is the use of the Harry Potter series texts through fan-fictions sites where fans can create stories based on the original Harry Potter novels where they explore the relationships between characters, create new adventures, etc.   I’ve read fans’ stories where they explore the homosexual relationship between the character Dumbledore and Grindelwald. 

Cultural critic, Mark Dery (2010) views cultural jammers as ‘part artistic terrorists, part vernacular critics’.   Dery describes what culture jammers do to texts as ‘media sabotage’.

One would think that well-known books such as Harry Potter would be covered by stringent copyright laws.  However, these culture jammers are able to use Rowling’s story altering her intended message.  Dery (2010) states ‘jammers offer irrefutable evidence that the right has no copyright of war waged with incantations and simulations’.  Media sabotage indeed.

I honestly don’t think that the authors of these fan-fictions mean to detract from Rowling’s original story but more so that by writing these altered versions of Harry Potter they are representing issues they’re passionate about; their own form of digital activism. 

However, there are some culture jammers that participate in ‘Anti-branding’ a type of consumer activism that’s seen as a counter attack against capitalism, there has been a growing resistance towards certain brands and globalisation (Sivitanides & Shah 2011, p.5).  Such as Greenpeace pressuring Levi jeans through social network campaigns using Levi’s logos on signs and altering Levi’s advertisements to create a new message.

I think social media will continue to be a strong contributor to activism in the future.  Social media is a free and is an easy way of reaching the masses and is becoming more and more accessible with the growing number of mobile devices that can access social media at any time of the day or night.  Essentially it’s like we’re carrying these activists’ messages in our pockets.

References

Bainbridge, J, Goc, N & Tynan, L 2011, Media and Journalism. 2. Oxford University Press Australia Higher Education, VitalSource Bookshelf, viewed 15 December 2012.

Dery, M 2010, Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of Signs, Shovelware, October 8, viewed 15 December 2012 http://markdery.com/?page_id=154

Sivitanides, M & Shah, V 2011, The Era of Digital Activism, CONISAR Proceedings, viewed 15 December 2012 http://proc.conisar.org/2011/pdf/1842.pdf

Bracale, R 2008, (c)20090614 [image], Ridge Haven, viewed 16 December 2012 http://www.ourridgehaven.com/A_Menu_Photos_RH03.htm

 

Colvin, M 2012, Morcombe laid to rest 9 years on, ABC News, viewed 16 December 2012 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-07/morecombe-laid-to-rest-9-years-on/4415806

Mugglenet 1999, viewed 16 December 2012 http://www.mugglenet.com/