Who’s Left Out? Taking a Critical Look at Online Organizing
In his book “The Myth of Digital Democracy,” Matthew Hindman “debunks popular notions about political discourse in the digital age, revealing how the Internet has neither diminished the audience share of corporate media nor given greater voice to ordinary citizens.” This panel will use Hindman’s argument as a starting point, addressing the question of whether or not online political and social organizing is indeed reaching under-represented communities, such as young people in inner-cities and rural areas. Do online organizing sites work with and reach a diverse group of members, especially in terms of age, race, education level and economic background? Who is being left out of the conversation? Looking forward, what steps do we need to take to make sure these communities are incorporated into the discussion so they can be empowered both socially and politically?
Matthew Hindman is an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University, and the author of the book “The Myth of Digital Democracy.” His research interests include American politics, political communication, and (especially) online politics.
Eszter Hargittai's academic work looks at how differences in people’s Web-use skills relate to different types of Internet uses including in the realm of politics. She is editor of the forthcoming book "Research Confidential", which presents a rare behind-the-scenes look at doing empirical social science research.
She started Eszter’s Blog in 2002 and has also been contributing to the Crooked Timber group blog since 2003. She tweets at http://www.twitter.com/eszter.
The Executive Director of the League of Young Voters Education Fund, Rob "Biko" Baker is a nationally recognized leader. He has organized town hall meetings and used social networking to motivate young people to get involved in the civic process. Baker has served as the deputy publicity coordinator and young voter organizer for the Brown and Black Presidential Forum. He has appeared on C-SPAN, Fox News and MSNBC, has interviewed luminaries Cornell West, Russell Simmons, and Howard Dean, and he has also written a number of articles for America's biggest online outlets, including the Huffington Post. Baker is a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, and serves on the New Organizing Institute's board as well as CIRCLE's research advisory board.
Xavier Lopez-Ayala is the New Media Director at Alliance for a Better Minnesota, the communications hub for Minnesota's progressive community. Prior to his work with ABM, Xavier served as the Obama campaign's New Media Director in Minnesota, organized online activists and coordinated volunteers for the Clinton campaign, and helped build community around film on a social networking website. This past May, Xavier graduated from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI with Political Science honors.
Williams is a Washington DC based political activist and commentator who works for the political empowerment of the Millenial generation, people of color, and other underrepresented communities. She currently serves as the Deputy Director of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress. Listed by Politico.com as one of 50 Politicos to Watch, she leads the organization and young people across the country in implementing national campaigns on a range of progressive policy issues. She is a former staffer of Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park.
I spend most of my time thinking about how progressives can tell better stories about not only what we want the world to look like, but how we think we can get there.
I'm Senior Director of Membership and Communications at Women Donors Network, which is a community of women who are amplifying their relationships and their philanthropic dollars to create a more fair and just world. I am also a co-founder of Simple Revolutions, creator of DemDash, a social channel for politics. I serve on the board of Netroots Foundation.
I was a journalist at the LA Times before giving it up to get involved in politics in 2003. I live in San Francisco with my husband and fellow organizer Dan Ancona, our son, Marco and cat, Oscar.
