The Impact of Information Technology

Nayeli Yazmin FernándezLIS 390 Andre Brock

“We tend to ignore the impact of technology on revolution, which over the past century

has changed the very concept of the term”

(Mc Donald and Tamrowski 93).

Thesis

Recent technological advancements, including the internet and the radio, are positively impacting

political movements in the United States by helping with the spread of information. These two mediums allow people to easily communicate with

one another and are valuable methods to maintain people informed about current issues. In

this presentation I will show the ways that the internet and the radio have recently helped

promote activism in the Chicano/Latino communities across the nation.

The Radio with its history as a tool of war, as Mary Cawte writes, has “played a role in all the wars of the twentieth century” (2) and has also played a major role in countries

were freedom of expression is denied, therefore, clandestine radio stations have been formed in search of the right of

speech. The radio is an important source for common people who most likely have access to radio stations where they listen to the political movements that are being formed

nationally and internationally. In the United States, there are few Spanish radio stations that promote political movements,

with the new immigration bills that affect many Chicano/Latinos in the United States, the radio is an important

revolution tool to promote activism within the community.

http://www.granma.cu/documento/ingles/index-i.html

The first clandestine radio in Latin America was used during the Batista Regime in Cuba, it was created in 1957. Clandestine Radio Stations originally date back “at least to the beginning of World War II,” (Soley

166) in Latin America it was started as a way to form a community and unity with people who were against Batista’s regime, “the radio station demanded the immediate resignation of Batista” (171). These radios stations kept other people from other countries informed as well, they too had hope that the dictatorship in their countries would end, these countries included Nicaragua and Dominican Republic, who suffered from the same struggles as Cuba in their government. The radio in

countries such as Central America and the Caribbean is a symbol of revolution because they were used in part to inform people about the

current issues surrounding it. The radio was useful because it reached anyone, even in the “villages without electricity” (Mc Donald and

Tamrowski 100) this being their only source of communication about the revolutions taking place in their country.

Indeed, the radio has been an important method for organizing people against their government or to

protest against them nation-wide. The results were positive in many of the cities where these type of marches happened. According to the LAWEEKLY

500,000 people marched in the downtown LA area in favor of an immigrations reform. Daniel Hernandez

writes in the article that the media was a great influence in the great demonstration that took place in

Los Angeles, “Saturday’s marcha was a remarkable example of what is possible when the media mobilize

like-minded people” the media that Hernandez is talking about is for the most part the radio that had a great influence in peacefully organizing the people of

Los Angeles.

Clandestine Radios played an important role in revolutions in Latin American to overthrow dictatorships. In the United

States, Latinos in the United States are using radio stations to promote protests and rallies that are meant to show the

government that we are united and slogans such as, “Today we March and Tomorrow we Vote” are meant for

Congressmen to know that they need to hear the Latino Community if they want to be re-elected. Two people that advocated the marches and answered the community’s

question on the radio were Eddie “el Piolin” Sotelo and in Chicago “El Pistolero,” both disc jokeys informed the community about the new legislations and urge their

communities to take action. In Los Angeles, Piolin not only informed and brough together the Spanish-speaking

community and the Spanish-speaking DJ’s in Los Angeles but also inspired “KISS-FM’s morning host Ryan Seacrest” whom together, according to LAWEEKLY, “ simulcast the talk live,

reaching out and informing both communities about the Senserbrenner-King bill,” (Quiñones) something that had not

happened before.

The internet and the radio have a history of being used as political mediums. According to Ramona S. McNeal and Caroline J. Tolbert’s research, the internet promotes political participation and increases votes. Because the internet helps people to easily access information about candidates, the internet is an important source of information. Many times, the population with more access to the internet is the white, middle-class, college educated (177). Recently, we have seen how the internet has played an important role in the recent pro-immigration protests that have emerged in the Chicano/Latino/immigrant communities. The internet has served as a way to communicate and organize nation-wide organization in a way to come together as one to fight against racist bills, protest against injustices, as a call for solidarity within people

of color.

Today, more people in the United States are accessing the internet, a 1998 research states that,

“white and minority students have roughly equal access to the Internet in schools,” these students

may or may not have equal access at home, according to this research by Barry Fishman, Jeff

Kupperman and Elliot Soloway, in 1998 there was a “very little use of the Internet in lower-income Latino homes. With the increase demands of

students’ usage of the internet and computer, it seems like the internet is being used more by

Latinos.

Historically, the Chicano movement and the Blowouts/Walkouts were started and supported by students that attended high school and college. In the movie, Walkout, directed by Edward James Olmos, High School student leaders protested in California against the injustices they faced in school. This movie was released one week before the recent Walkouts that took place in the Southwest of the United States, according to The Los Angeles Times, suggesting that this typed of media influenced the decision of the students to walkout of school. Users of WebPages such as myspace.com promoted the idea of high school students walking out by circulating an electronic flyer where they persuaded students to leave school in support of immigrant rights. A high school walkout, strategically allows students to miss school, in order for the district loses money for each

student that did not attend school.

Two very well known websites are Myspace.com and facebook.com both commonly used by college students. Myspace.com is a website that is accessible to a wider general public; you just need any e-mail address to be registered in this website. On the other hand, facebook.com is only accessible to college students, faculty, staff or high school students. The only way that high school and college students can communicate with each other is if they know each other. For the March 10th march in Chicago, facebook users took advantage of the profile picture, to promote the march to other college students. The march turned out to be a great success in Chicago. People from Chicago and the surrounding areas joined against the racist bill HR4437 and in favor of a comprehensive

immigration reform.

College Students promote Activism through their

facebook profile

Both myspace.com and facebook.com offer the option of creating a “group” where one could parallel to a club in real life, where people come together as a

community to express their opinions. Myspace.com has several groups, created by users that are dedicated to promote activism. There are also pages

that are created by students or other members that are meant to give out information about the new activities that will be taking place, for example, the

page that I found was the Latino Student Movement page, one of the purposes that they state is that, “This space has been created so that students from the

Los Angeles area and other students from California (and other states) can organize and create a solidarity network and organization AGAINST HOUSE

RESOLUTION 4437” the bill that spark all the current pro-immigration marches. In the page blog section, we can also find important information about

WALKOUTS, marches and the rights of students as activist. The site keeps students up to date to the events that have been occurring in the nation.

Besides myspace.com being a website for meeting new friends, it is also a website that helps students and non-students express their political views and to promote activism and political mobilization to people that may not be active in this way. The page allows people to pass out flyers and post bulletins that

can be re-post to rapidly pass out the word.

Latino Student Movement Page

Flyers like the following can be found in myspace.com,

promoting activism in different cities throughout the United States

Similarly, facebook.com has the same approach with their “My Events” section, which allows students to publicized events that they might be hosting on campus. Facebook was used in some schools to promote April 10th National

day of Action and the May 1st National Boycott pro-immigration. It was also used to promote local rallies and

protests in their colleges. “My events” allows the creator of the event to promote the event in his/her school and to

make other people “administrators” so they will be able to invite their friends as well. The creation of an event allows the creator to know how many people are going to attend the event and how many are not. It also allows students in other universities to be aware of what other campuses are

doing in regard to political mobilization. Since many schools are registered with facebook, this allows the events to be

known nation-wide, only if the person who creates the

events knows people throughout the nation.

“My Events” allows students to promote rallies/protests in their

campus or other campus nationwide.

When people use the internet in a positive way, we have communities joining together for a good cause. With the recent pro-immigration

marches we have seen different people from different races coming together against a bill that would criminalize a lot of innocent people

just for helping undocumented people. The internet has helped publicized the different activities that have been happening around the

nation. It is easier to contact people through websites that allow the promotion of these types of events. The radio, historically, has helped people against dictatorships and by informing people of revolutionary events. Today, the Spanish-speaking radio is helping people mobilize

against laws that affect the community as whole. Technology, is helping revolutionize and protest against inequalities, easier than

before, as a whole, united community.

Offline response to Online Activism

Students and the community United all over the country Against racism and oppression.

Works CitedFishman, Barry, Kupperman, Jeff, Elliot, Soloway. “Introducing Urban Latino Families to the Internet at

Home: Preliminary Issues and Trends” International Conference on the Learning Science. Atlanta, GA: AACE

P, 1998. Hernandez, Daniel. “Stirring the Other L.A.” LA Weekly 27 March 2006. 19 April 2006 <http://www/laweekly.com.html>. McDonald, Ronald H., Tamrowski, Nina. “Technology and Armed Conflict in Central America” Journal of

Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 29 (Spring 1987): 93-108.

Quiñones, Ben. “The Piolin Factor” LA Weekly 27 March 2006. 19 April 2006 <http://www/laweekly.com/news/news/the-piolin-factor/12978/.html>.Soley, Lawrence. “Radio: Clandestine Broadcasting, 1948-1967” Journal of Communications 32 (March

1982): 165-178 Tolbert, Caroline J., McNeal Ramona S. “Unraveling the Effects of the Internet on Political Participation?”

Political Research Quarterly 56 (June 2003): 175-185