"The ABC of Tactical Media" by David Garcia & Geert Lovink (Response)

Tactical media is a way for people to find their voice. Affordable consumer electronics and nearly ubiquitous wireless and wired broadband helped democratize the sharing of information and disparate points of view. Tactical media falls into the category of bottom up or grassroots resistance, and it is within the power of almost anyone to exercise. In tactical media, "the weak make use of the strong" (p. 82). Even so, people and organizations with money can drown out these independent voices with paid ads, like Trump is doing right now on Facebook. The author quotes Peter Lamborn Wilson, who describes tactical media as a "useful antidote" to "the unopposed rule of money over human beings" (pg 81), but this does require a concerted effort, and it is helpful to have numbers on your side (either in the creation or support of tactical media) to gain the inertia to make it effective.

I do think tactical media is a necessary response to mainstream media. Even media that purports to be balanced ignores some of the meta-analysis of the larger role it plays in perpetuating hype or lies (repeated interviews with known liars like Kellyanne Conway for example). This is the problem with media that is not self-reflective, what the authors note as a "continual process of questioning the premises of the channels they work with" (p. 82).

I appreciate the authors' zen-like focus on "temporary connections you are able to make" (p. 82). "Here and now" (p. 82) is all we have.