Considering a New Key Word "Internet Activism".

The pioneering use of the Internet in the Zapatista movement has inspired social movement activists to adopt new media technologies to disseminate their agenda and mobilize resources. Internet-fueled social movements had also gained considerable momentum at the anti-corporate globalization movement in Seattle in 1999, which demonstrated an innovative pattern of transnational movements. The Zapatistas and the Seattle protests, however, are but two examples of the various kinds of Internet activism emerging at local, national and global levels: hacktivism, the alternative media movement, the anti-corporate globalization movement, the global anti-war movement, cyber-electioneering, minority-community construction, and other interactive forms of Internet media, including blogs and wikipedia. This study aims to suggest a preliminary conceptual map of Internet activism. It reviews literature that draws upon definition and characteristics of Internet activism, beginning with a debate on the political impact of new media technologies. It also discusses collective action and social movement theories from different perspectives. Classifying and synthesizing new trends of Internet-based activism, this study outlines three major domains of Internet activism: the use of the Internet as (1) a mobilizing tool, (2) a site of virtual struggles, and (3) a discursive space for alternative knowledge production. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]