(with apologies for x-posting) Announcing two new books of potential interest to people on this list: *Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left* (History of Communication Series, University of Illinois Press), by Todd Wolfson *Digital Rebellion *examines the impact of new media and communication technologies on the spatial, strategic, and organizational fabric of social movements. Todd Wolfson begins with the rise of the Zapatistas in the mid-1990s, and how aspects of the movement--network organizational structure, participatory democratic governance, and the use of communication tools as a binding agent--became essential parts of Indymedia and all Cyber Left organizations. From there he uses oral interviews and other rich ethnographic data to chart the media-based think tanks and experiments that continued the Cyber Left's evolution through the Independent Media Center's birth around the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. As Wolfson shows, understanding the intersection of Indymedia and the Global Social Justice Movement illuminates their foundational role in the Occupy struggle, Arab Spring uprising, and the other emergent movements that have in recent years re-energized radical politics. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Rebellion-Birth-History-Communication/dp/02520... UIL Press: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/89cmd2yt9780252038846.html *** *Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism* (Inside Technology Series, MIT Press), by Christina Dunbar-Hester [not internet studies in the narrowest sense, but concerned with issues of digitality, the interplay between old and new media, and the politics and social life of technology] The United States ushered in a new era of small-scale broadcasting in 2000 when it began issuing low-power FM (LPFM) licenses for noncommercial radio stations around the country. Over the next decade, several hundred of these newly created low-wattage stations took to the airwaves. In *Low Power to the People*, Christina Dunbar-Hester describes the practices of an activist organization focused on LPFM during this era. Despite its origins as a pirate broadcasting collective, the group eventually shifted toward building and expanding regulatory access to new, licensed stations. These radio activists consciously cast radio as an alternative to digital utopianism, promoting an understanding of electronic media that emphasizes the local community rather than a global audience of Internet users. Dunbar-Hester focuses on how these radio activists imputed emancipatory politics to the “old” medium of radio technology by promoting the idea that “microradio” broadcasting holds the potential to empower ordinary people at the local community level. The group’s methods combine political advocacy with a rare commitment to hands-on technical work with radio hardware. The book follows the ways in which activists’ hands-on, inclusive ethos was hampered by persistent issues of race, class, and gender. Projecting utopian politics onto technology resulted in unanticipated challenges. Dunbar-Hester’s study of activism around an “old” medium offers broader lessons about how political beliefs are expressed through engagement with specific technologies. It also offers insight into contemporary issues in media policy as the FCC begins issuing a new round of LPFM licenses in 2014. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Low-Power-People-Politics-Technology/dp/0262028123/ MIT Press: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/low-power-people