Berkman Luncheon Series >

oct
18
2011

Tweeting the Revolution: agency, collective action, and the negotiation of risk in a networked age

Beth Coleman, MIT

Tuesday, October 18, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

This paper looks at the impact of social media platforms on collective action. In particular, it focuses on spheres of activism where personal risk (bodily or otherwise) is the condition of participation. For this analysis, I discuss interviews conducted with Egyptian activists around the events of Tahrir Square. Issues of copresence, witness, and visibility are central to my discussion. This talk is based on a research paper developed with my coauthor Dr. Mike Ananny.

About Beth

Dr. Beth Coleman’s work focuses on the role of human agency in the context of media and data engagement. She is currently a Harvard University Faculty Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a visiting professor at the Institute of Network Cultures, Hogeschool van  Amsterdam. From 2005-2011, Coleman has been an assistant professor of comparative media studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is the primary investigator of the Pervasive Media/City as Platform research and design lab. Her book Hello Avatar: Rise of the Networked Generation is published by the MIT Press. She received her B.A. in literature from Yale University and her Ph.D in comparative literature from New York University.

Photo Credit: Brooke Williams 

Links

• Ethan Zuckerman liveblogged the talk