What impact do recent media advances like blogging and podcasting have on animal activism?
Bob: The Internet is a wonderful tool, if only because it is radically democratizing. Instead of being rigorously hierarchical, the Internet is more rhizomatic, and it allows for interconnections between people that previously were impossible. This relatively non-hierarchical structure means that we no longer have to be dependent upon large, managed organizations to participate in this movement. We can begin to build something unique, authentic and truly grassroots, rather than the Astro-Turfed populism of the national organizations like PETA or HSUS. The power in using the Internet as an organizing medium to route around the big groups is that we can begin to see truly genuine and unique ideas channeled into activism, rather seeing human creativity forestalled by organizations that call donating money “action.” I also predict that we’ll see increasing empowerment of individuals and more local groups as technologies like podcasts, videocasts and the like become increasingly easy to use
