Mexico’s Zapatista movement was one of the first to use the internet to propel a local struggle onto an international stage. In so doing it originated a new kind of social movement, one that pushes beyond group identities around which social movements have traditionally organized and into the realm of network identity. This analysis of Zapatista websites and listservs examines the ways several key myths - of a universal Marcos, of noble savages and of a neoliberal beast - help structure the relationships among diverse members of the network. Examining the myths around which the movement is organized reveals how people go about creating network identities and helps us assess to what extent they are new and to what extent traditional roles and relationships are being played out in a new environment.

Media coverage of the 2011 UN Climate Summit in Durban makes evident the blurring of the lines that once separated participants, reporters, activists, and networked publics. While journalists look to media activists for sources, breaking news, and reporting tactics that tap into the new potential of the mobile and networked environment, contemporary media activists devised new ways to do some of the work traditionally ascribed to journalism. This article, based on semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis of coverage from three NGOs, the New York Times and USA Today, documents various notions of public good manifest in activist media and newspaper coverage. In the broadest sense, the study addresses the questions: Where do legacy and activist news media differ and where do they overlap, both in terms of content and professional norms? And what are the implications of the emergence of new activist media for the field of journalism?

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In this article, we propose to study news flashpoints. Flashpoints are bursts of news attention that are unique to the networked news environment, in which various forces vie to influence public discourse, blurring traditional boundaries between journalists, publics, activists, and various other forms of strategic communication. They are sudden and brief periods when interest in specific topics rises and falls rapidly across networked journalism. After identifying characteristics and examples of flashpoints, we argue for why news flashpoints are central aspects of contemporary news and journalism, and discuss the analytical and strategic importance of flashpoints.