BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW
DIGITAL ACTIVISM DECODED:THE NEW MECHANICS OF CHANGE
MARY C JOYCE(EDITOR)
It is the first book explicitly dedicated to digital activism, its editor Mary Joyce proudly says. In Digital Activism Decoded, 15 authors explore the intersection of activism and digital technology, in an attempt to map the field of digital activism in its entirety. From Mary's summary: The book begins with a section on Contexts, addressing not only the technology of network infrastructure, devices, and applications, but also the social, economic, and political environment in which digital activism occurs. An analysis of Practices follows, not in the usual format of case study analysis, but by presenting different ways of thinking about these practices. The section begins with a chapter on pre-digital social movement theory, while a second chapter takes the digital perspective of web ecology. Both constructive and destructive activism practices are discussed. The final section on Effects seeks to address the range of opinions on digital activism’s value.
It is a well written book on a relatively new topic which has generally been recognised to have played an important role in the arab spring but so far explored via ancedotes and circumstantial only,rather than on a theoretical framework.This book tries to build a common theoretic framework by including major articles on the use,applications,definitions and possible misuse of the digital media.