This paper examines the use of visual technologies by political activists in protest situations to monitor police conduct. Using interview data with Australian video activists, this paper seeks to understand the motivations, techniques and outcomes of video activism, and its relationship to counter-surveillance and police accountability. Our data also indicated that there have been significant transformations in the organization and deployment of counter-surveillance methods since 2000, when there were large-scale protests against the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne accompanied by a coordinated campaign that sought to document police misconduct. The paper identifies and examines two inter-related aspects of this: the act of filming and the process of dissemination of this footage. It is noted that technological changes over the last decade have led to a proliferation of visual recording technologies, particularly mobile phone cameras, which have stimulated a corresponding proliferation of images. Analogous innovations in internet communications have stimulated a coterminous proliferation of potential outlets for images Video footage provides activists with a valuable tool for safety and publicity. Nevertheless, we argue, video activism can have unintended consequences, including exposure to legal risks and the amplification of official surveillance. Activists are also often unable to control the political effects of their footage or the purposes to which it is used. We conclude by assessing the impact that transformations in both protest organization and media technologies might have for counter-surveillance techniques based on visual surveillance.
This article challenges common conceptions of the 1980s as simply a period of 'backlash' for feminism. Instead it argues that remediatory cultural activism by feminists shifted discussion and understandings of rape in this decade in complex and contradictory ways. While more space was given to feminist and survivor voices, survivors continued to be denied cultural authority. In addition, a lack of intersectional awareness allowed feminist understandings of rape to be incorporated within criminal justice discourses. The article illustrates these arguments through a 1990 media event, the publication by the Des Moines Register (Iowa) of a five-day series based on the experiences of a local rape survivor, Nancy Ziegenmeyer. The series was made possible through cultural antecedents, such as actor Kelly McGillis' public disclosure of her own rape as part of the publicity for the avowedly feminist rape film, The Accused, and academic and Democratic political figure Susan Estrich's writing about her own rape prior to becoming the manager of Michael Dukakis' failed 1988 election bid. Consideration of three media events help to outline the complex cultural legacy left by feminist media activism around sexual violence in this decade.
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