Power to the Wired: Digital Activism, Politics, and Journalism

The four book series Technology in Our Time thoughtfully examines a broad range of topics and issues central to the study of new media.

Volume Power to the Digital Activism, Politics, and Journalism provides insight into how new media has a part to play in politics and movements for social change. The growth of participatory journalism and political blogs allows for unparalleled freedom of expression. What is the role of activism in the cybersphere? Perhaps the future of conventional power structures will be forever altered by the power of the wired.

Laura Robinson earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Santa Clara University. Professor Robinson held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center, and her research has been funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Her research has focused on new media, digital inequality, and comparative research on The United States, Europe, and Latin America.

Professor Robinson has published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Sociology, Qualitative Sociology, The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and Information, Communication, and Society. Her article “The Cyberself,” published in New Media & Society, was awarded the Outstanding Paper Award by the Computer Information Technology Section of the American Sociological Association. Professor Robinson's work on Brazilian, French, and American online political forums has won awards from the Computer Information Technology Section of the American Sociological Association, the Association of Internet Researchers, and the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the National Communication Association.