*CFP* "MEDIA OF CRISIS, CRITICISM, AND OPPOSITION: TACTICAL MEDIA IN THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE", SPECIAL 2019 FALL ISSUE OF DEMOCRATIC COMMUNIQUÉ

Tactical media has been explained as “media of crisis, criticism, and opposition” (Lovink and Garcia, 1997), growing out of a long history of advocates for social change employing their creativity to capture media attention. From the use of mainstream television by the anti-war movement in the Sixties to the Zapatistas’ innovative use of the Internet in the mid-1990s, and the use of social media during the Arab Spring in 2010 and 2011, the Quebec student strike of 2012, and the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong in 2014, examples of the tactical use of media in struggles for social change abound. 

Currently, many students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the Valentine’s Day school shooting have used Twitter to organize, coordinate and challenge the National Rifle Association (NRA) and American gun laws to great effect. While on-the-ground activity was instrumental in all of these actions, the positive impact that various media forms had on these events cannot be discounted.

Democratic Communiqué invites contributions to the Fall 2019 special issue dedicated to “Tactical Media in the Struggle for Social Change.” This issue focuses on the analysis and investigation of the tactical and political use of media in the struggle for social change. We ask: How does the tactical use of media in the struggle for social change construct, shape and/or influence various movements? What effects do the tactical use of media have on advocacy?  Other possible topics of interest include the following:

• Concepts of “tactical media” were first formulated before the advent of social media. How do Twitter, Facebook, etc. complicate earlier theories of “tactical media”? 
• Tactical media have been described as “ephemeral,” “hold[ing] no ground of their own,” “disappear[ing] once they are executed,” and “represent[ing] no particular politics or vision of a desirable future” (Ray and Sholette, 2008). Does this assessment stand today? What are the possibilities and/or limitations of tactical media? 
• What developments in theory and/or methodology might be especially relevant or useful in understanding tactical media? 
• How do the uses and effects of tactical media get inflected by race, gender, disability, and other axes of identity?

While we are open to an examination of any media platform, ones focusing on social media are particularly welcome. We invite comparative transcultural perspectives.

Deadline for submission of abstracts (500 words, add 200 words bio): January 1, 2019 to cfptacticalmediassc@gmail.com

Notification of acceptance: February 15, 2019

Final deadline for submission of full article: May 31, 2019

All articles undergo a double-blind peer review process.

Edited by Rhon Teruelle and Jesse Cohn