Cinco anos de Indymedia: construindo novos modelos de comunicação democrática

Abstract

This article is part of the author’s recent thesis titled “Social sharing communities at the Independent Media Center”. It contains one of the conceptual approaches developed throughout the thesis with the purpose of demonstrating the contribution of the social appropriation of information and communication technologies (ICTs). In the context of the formulation of public policies on the basis of social action, that social appropriation is a component of a concrete experience of democratization in communication. The Independent Media Center (IMC) is a worldwide nonprofit organization with collectives of activists in many countries, including Brazil. It acts on and from the Internet, builds social sharing communities, i. e., the connection of individuals in local groups that also form a global network connected through the Internet. This global network not only shares information in text, image, audio and video, but also social values and views and common policies, which are strengthened and enhanced on the Web. The article is based on a descriptive bibliographical and documental research, pointing out the importance of communication in the context of civil society organizations, on the basis of a greater involvement and awareness by its members. It also highlights the networking with social movements that incorporate the resources made available by the IMC, pointing to their better use in the connection of networks and communities that not only operate in, but also on the basis of the Web.