Out of the Shadows, Into the Streets! Transmedia Organizing and the Immigrant Rights Movement

Out of the shadows, into the streets examines the role of "media ecology" in the formation, organization, and development of the immigrant rights movement in the United States. 

In reviewing the achievements and limitations of the immigrant rights movement since the immigrant rights marches of 2006, the author argues that it is "both dangerous and wrong" to suggest that "vertically structured movements" are the most effective organizing paradigm. Instead, he cites numerous examples of how "horizontalism" has produced major gains and victories.  He takes to task those funders who are "pushing movement organizations away from horizontalist organizational logics and away from the norms of network culture." He also cautions, that "digital media technologies cannot somehow be sprinkled on social movements to produce new, improved mobilizations." Each chapter in the book explores a particular episode in the immigrant rights movement from a media perspective. (Abstract courtesy of Dr. Nicholas V. Montalto)

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