* * * http://southasia.oneworld.net/weekend/women-are-challenging-the-structures-that-shackle-them/article_view#1270367050 *
* * *OWSA: *What has been your experience in the use of new media for pushing social issues and causes. Which were the issues that attracted greater response? Have these campaigns been successfull in mobilising people across borders? *Kamayani: *New Media has added stupendous possibilities for various forms of campaign and has the ability to reach out to people across the globe. I have been involved in many online campaigns. A Facebook group I initiated was after Mumbai Terror attacks was the Facebook Peace Campaign which has more than 1000 members is an example of borderless campaign against war, and raising voices for peace. I had given a call on the group for human chain on Dec 8th 2007 and I had got overwheliming responses from Ireland , USA, UK . Within India also people were together in solidarity and they did events in their respective cities. In 2008 Free Dr Binayak Sen Campaign was initiated on facebook group which has more than 2000 members and with a website; many members who had not heard of Dr Binayak Sen and the whole issue that led to his unfair detention got involved - many of them were not activists; they were from various walks of life, banking sector, film making, advertising and students. We made an online calendar which had poems for release of Dr Binayak Sen in 2009, there were poems in Spanish, Portuguese, Danish also besides English and hindi. Use of you tube for uploading protests world wide, made it one of the successful new media campaigns. Similarly we all know how the Pink Chaddi Campaign tapped into the nationwide outrage against Shri Ram Sena after its activists beat up a group of young women in a Mangalore pub, claiming that the women were violating traditional Indian values by wearing Western clothes and drinking alcohol with men. At the core of the campaign was the idea of inverting the sense of shame... A more recent example is Justice for Chithralekha campaign, Chithralekha, a Dalit woman, from Payyanur in Kannur, Kerala, was one of the first woman auto drivers to enter a workplace dominated by men from higher castes. Right from the beginning there was a strong resistance to her. In January this year Chithralekha was beaten up by CITU workers, there was no media coverage . More than 1000 people have supported the cause and many journalists also carried the story after they heard the story. The best part was that when fact finding team did reach the place and talked t people, the local SP of the area told them that he came to know about the issue through facebook. Earlier when internet was not there the movements had a different mode of mobilization, it was more personal and TOGETHER, one advantage of new media is immense information exchange and going beyond borders for campaigns. *OWSA:* What would you say is the future direction for new media in campaigns and online journalism? *Kamayani: *New Media Campaigns have made impact socially, politically and economically as well. The Internet's "viral" characteristics and its foundation technology of hypertext linking and users' ability to share information easily via e-mail -- can help lead people to discover campaigns they would otherwise have missed. This would allow more interaction between readers and provide immediate commentary and debate on news events and other issues. I do believe that online journalism will supplement traditional mediums rather than replace them. We all know online journalism has progressed rapidly in recent years since the development and widespread use of the internet and World Wide Web. Now the future of online journalism is exciting and virtually limitless. Technology has become more and more personalised for individual users, with incorporation of blogs. Global voices have emerged: and we've seen that bloggers can focus the attention of the public and mainstream journalists - on stories that might otherwise have been undercovered. There may be increased focus on monitoring web traffic to gauge the types of information web-users are seeking. This would make the medium more personal and audience specific, although it does have some privacy ramifications. As I see it, the future Web will be a space where we offer and learn from each other. A world where TVs can download Internet content or where mobile phones and iPods can access online video is a place where all of us have many more ways to access great journalism and great campaigns. -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
