Cyberspace Actvism

Outlookindia: Social networking sites, once the preserve of lonely hearts, networkers and job-hunters, are now flexing their muscles in aid of larger causes, from introducing sex education in schools to freeing Dr Binayak Sen. In recent weeks, the Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women, a Facebook group launched to protest the Sri Rama Sene's moral policing in Mangalore, has already managed to get together a 40,000 member-list and is growing. The Pink Chaddi campaign, another response to the Rama Sene, swiftly grew from a quiet online ripple into a wave...

But one fact internet crusaders omit to mention is that campaigns like these owe a great deal of their success to other, older media—Internet penetration in India is limited to 5-8 per cent of the population, and it is the extensive coverage that newspapers and TV channels give these Net initiatives that has vastly multiplied their visibility and audience outreach.

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