Hacked Transmissions: Technology and Connective Activism in Italy

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Mapping the transformation of media activism from the seventies to the present day Hacked Transmissions is a pioneering exploration of how social movements change across cycles of struggle and alongside technology. Weaving a rich fabric of local and international social movements and media practices, politicized hacking, and independent cultural

Reviews

"Arising out of the authors own political engagement in Telestreet, a network of pirate TV channels aiming to challenge Berlusconis control over the Italian media, this books analysis of social movements in terms of how they change the composition of the neoliberal geopolitical landscape is an intriguing and enabling proposition. It boldly reclaims the studies of political activism, and of leftist political activity in particular, from narratives and feelings of loss, failure, and melancholia."Joanna Zylinska, Goldsmiths, University of London

"With this deep dive into the creative collective spirit of early twenty-first-century media activists, Alessandra Renzi gives us the neglected histories of the activist internet while situating current corporate social media in a genealogy of radical grassroots DIY innovations. Hacked Transmissions is an instant classic for social movement media studies."Jack Z. Bratich, author of Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture

"Alessandra Renzi's exquisite account draws on a decade of research and collaboration with Italian media activists and hackers to shake up and put to rest all too simplistic theories around social movements and media. Hacked Transmissions is an intellectual tour de force, sure to hit the reader with delightful waves of methodological, theoretical, and political insights, all relevant across time, place, and case."Gabriella Coleman, author of Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous

"Simultaneously an insightful historic overview of post-1968 Italian media, a comprehensive framework for understanding contemporary mediascapes, and a good starting point for an informed and responsible approach to building the post-Covid19 world."Modern Times Review

"In Hacked Transmissions: Technology and Connective Activism in Italy, Alessandra Renzis lively ethnography transports the reader to Telestreet, which emerged in 2002 tocounter the political control over media content and production by Italian media tycoon turned Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis intermittent terms in office."Mobilization

"Hacked Transmissions is a refreshing read."Technology and Culture

Author Bio

Alessandra Renzi is associate professor of communication studies at Concordia University. She is coauthor of Infrastructure Critical: Sacrifice at Torontos G8/G20 Summit.