"Objection or Obstruction:
The Culture of Protest in the Twenty-First Century"
M/C Reviews, Co-editors: Jodi Crome and Kate Cuthbert
Throughout the twentieth century, protest has been instrumental in
revealing weaknesses in social, political, and environmental foundations.
In the last twelve months, protest documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11
and The President vs. David Hicks have foregrounded once again the ability
of protest to bring salient socio-political issues and concepts to greater
public attention. However, the potency of protest has also spurred debates
over its effectiveness as a tool for social change: can protest educate,
or can it only coerce?
Today's heightened political environment — springing from inquiries into
the Iraq war, questions about choices made in the Middle-East, and
elections on both sides of the Pacific — has reawakened the protest debate.
We would like to examine the concept of the protest and its potential
success or failure in the twenty-first century.
M/C Reviews is looking for new contributors. M/C Reviews is an ongoing
series of reviews of events in culture and the media. It includes the
themed sections 'events', 'screens', 'sounds', 'style', and 'words' which
publish reviews as they come to hand. It also publishes feature issues,
themed groups of reviews centring on a particular cultural event,
category, or genre. In line with M/C Reviews' general rationale that the
diverse productions of media and culture demand a more comprehensive type
of review forum than other fields, the aim of the feature issues is to
provide a space for reflecting upon key cultural phenomena in their
various aspects and from different angles, sometimes conflicting ones.
This breaks through the normal drawback of reviews — i.e. that they
usually come in ones and present monological visions. The whole concept
arises from the unique characteristics of electronic publishing — its
short production cycles and abundance of publication space allow plural
and timely treatments of relevant issues.
Possible topics include, but should not be limited to:
* Channels of protest
* The evolution of protests
* Apathy and the desertion of protestors
* Michael Moore and the radical left
* How to protest effectively
* The influence of Art on public opinion
* Popular music and social conscience
* The protestor as villain/hero
* The use of key media as protest tools
* Use of key media to counter protest
* The protest documentary
* Reviews of: Fahrenheit 9/11, Super-size Me, The President vs. David
Hicks and other relevant protest pieces.
We will publish short essays and thought-pieces of 600-1000 words. Longer
works will not be accepted. All submissions should be made through the M/C
Reviews Website. Questions or comments can be directed to
protest@reviews.media-culture.org.au.
Extended article deadline: 1 November 2004
Issue release date: 12 November 2004
