Connected Activism: Indigenous Uses of Social Media for Shaping Political Change

Authors

  • Marisa Elena Duarte Arizona State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v21i0.1525

Keywords:

Social media, Indigenous peoples, methodology, activism, social movements

Abstract

Prior studies describe digital tactics as specific strategies actors apply within broader repertoires of contention, specifically in social and political contexts. A comparison of EZLN, Idle No More, and the ongoing Rio Yaqui water rights movement reveals the kinds of community knowledge work that has to happen prior to and around activating digital tactics in Indigenous rights movements, including choices in messaging and discourses of Indigeneity, targeting of movement opponents, and selection of digital tools and techniques. Activists harness these communicative affordances to practice a politics of visibility, cultivate solidarity, diffuse an Indigenous consciousness, enforce dominant governments’ trust and treaty responsibilities, and remind many of the irrevocable injustice of colonialism. Designing methodologies that account for specific Indigenous social and political contexts as well as the affordances of various digital environments is part of the future work of Indigenous media theorists.

Author Biography

Marisa Elena Duarte, Arizona State University

Marisa Elena Duarte is Assistant Professor of Justice and Sociotechnical Change through the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University.

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Published

2017-07-19

How to Cite

Duarte, M. E. (2017). Connected Activism: Indigenous Uses of Social Media for Shaping Political Change. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21. https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v21i0.1525

Issue

Section

Research on Indigenous use of Information and Communication Technologies