It is possible to say that communication is carried out by digital ways today, thanks to the big investments made in technology. Considine (2009) stated that unlike traditional mass media tools such as radio, television, and newspapers, which improve in parallel with communication technologies; internet, providing the representation of new media, is frequently used by activists to communicate with each other and to organize actions or protests they plan to do on certain themes. Thus, different groups of activists interact with more people in a shorter time.
Resistance is to oppose something or to continue the action of resisting. It is possible to count multiple types of resistance such as civil and passive., which is defined as "resistance, solidarity" in TDK. Digital resistance is carried out today through methods such as digital activism, slacktivism or clicktivism.
Digital Activism covers the activities that people do by using developing communication technologies, in order to express their opinions, thoughts, reactions or supports about various issues or events and to realize them. Thanks to this, it creates a field of activity for absolutism based on highly effective and low-cost polyphony (Uçkan, 2012). This field of activity provides people with a digital area of resistance.
One of the other significant concepts, Slactivism, which provides a digital area of resistance, was first used in 1995 by Dwight Ozard and Fred Clark at the Cornerstone Festival and it was defined as "supporting digital action from where it stands" (Christensen, 2011). This concept, which was formed by combining the words lazy (slacker) and activism, is realized by performing resistance activities such as commenting and sharing on the digital network without physically participating in the protests.
Another action of digital resistance, clickctivism, is diffferent from the concept of slactivism in some ways. The clitivists carry out internet-based actions and campaigns with more concrete numbers and steps, with very clear goals (Yegen, 2014: 90). Thus, social campaigns or protests are carried out in a digital but organized way. Via activities such as slactivism and clicktivism, individuals can start a new petition on the internet, protest anything, or support another protester with just a “click”.
The development of internet and technology has also started a transformation in the public space; also enabled many communication activities to take place in a digital aspect. Digital resistance, which is one of these, creates a field of action in quick way all over the world and thus it has the power to affect various areas from companies to governments.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Seyra Kestel
Advertising Department
REFERENCES
Christensen, H. (2011). Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means?. First Monday, 16(2). doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i2.3336
Considine, S. (2009). Homepage: Internet activism and women. Field:journal, 3 (1), 133-142.
Uçkan, Ö. (2012). “Dijital aktivizm mi?” “Aktivizm mi?”. Retrived from https://spotdergi.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/ dijital-aktivizm-mi-aktivizm-mi/
Yegen, C. (2014). Bir dijital aktivizm biçimi olarak Slaktivizm: Change.org örneği. Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi İletişim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 8, 84-108. Retrieved from https://dergipark.gov.tr/ktuiad/issue/10315/126536
