Abstract
This chapter analyzes the online presence and activities of Idle No More, the largest Indigenous protest in Canadian history, to investigate questions concerning the capacity and role of online and digital media in serving a public good, insofar as they allow activists and protestors to circumvent traditional hegemonic media control and narratives. In addition to this subversion of mainstream media power structures in terms of framing events, Idle No More also uses online tools and platforms to organize their protests and activities, demonstrating the civic role that these media platforms can fulfil and the essential public good they can provide.
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Acknowledgments
Kathy Dobson gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support of ALiGN (Alternative Global Network) Media Lab, under the leadership of Dr. Merlyna Lim, in the Communication Department at Carleton University, for conducting the research for this chapter.
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Dobson, K. (2020). Connecting, Bypassing, and Networking: Analyzing Idle No More’s Online Activities. In: Hunsinger, J., Allen, M., Klastrup, L. (eds) Second International Handbook of Internet Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1555-1_62
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