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You can listen to this episode above and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to this episode on Stitcher, Cyber Ears or download it on Archive.org (62mins, 43MB).

Nick is joined by “Mother” aka sociologist Dr Theresa Petray for the entire episode. We discuss some of her research on the opportunities and limitations of using the Internet to bring about social change, as well as some of the ways it can be used more effectively by activists.

For more on these issues, check out Theresa’s articles ‘Self-Writing a Movement and Contesting Indigeneity: Being an Aboriginal Activist on Social Media’ and ‘Protest 2.0: Online Interactions and Aboriginal Activists’, her talk ‘The Revolution will not (just) be Tweeted: Social Media and Social Movements’ and her video ‘Slacktivism…or Saving the World?’. See more of Theresa’s publications here and you can also hear her on our 45^th episode, discussing Indigenous self-determination.

Also covered throughout the episode is: the effectiveness (or lack of) in waving the rainbow flag on Facebook, queer critiques of same-sex marriage, huge government spending on monitoring social media use, the “digital divide” – with only about 40% of the world having internet access, Nick’s article ‘Australian Media Hegemony and the Internet’, the book Ready Player One, Sam Graham-Felsen’s article on the importance of encouraging supporters to ‘up the level of engagement’, and Aicha Marhfour’s article ‘Hashtags Won’t Save Palestine In War Of Words And Clicks’.

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Clips:

Fresh Meat ‘Series 3, Episode 6’ – ‘Occupy’, Chumbawamba ‘Pass it Along’, Omar Offendum with The Narcicyst, Freeway, Ayah and Amir Sulaiman ‘#Jan25 Egypt’.

You can listen to a short (10 minute) version of this episode, which features a shortened version of the discussion on online activism, below. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.