Document details

Video for Change

In: The Handbook of Development Communication and Social Change
Karin Gwinn Wilkins; Thomas Tufte; Rafael Obregón (eds.)
Chichester: Wiley Blackwell (2014), pp. 453-470

Signature commbox: 10-Development-E 2014

"This chapter argues that in order to understand contemporary forms of video activism, we need to extend our analytical scope beyond the confinements of the strategic work of social movement actors. It offers a schematic map of the various fields and disciplines in which video for social change has been given analytical attention pointing towards three key approaches and theoretical horizons in the literature. The chapter provides a brief history of video activism by drawing parallels between the early days of analog video cassettes during the so called “Portapak revolution” to the emergence of digital video and online sharing platforms such as YouTube. It provides an introduction to the notion of “radical online video” as a label for identifying and analyzing a broad range of video for change in contemporary online environments. Finally, the chapter broaches a discussion of some of the challenges facing video activism today." (Summary)