Shooting Hipsters ― Rethinking Dissent in the Age of PR

In an age of PR, public protest and other forms of dissent have lost their meaning and impact. The intense media interest in rioting and political violence, as well as an existing obsession with youth culture, have led to an over-saturation and misrepresentation of what these movements are about. Political protest has become a pantomime where activists are always villains, and therefore the politics of these groups are routinely ignored. By identifying the ways in which publicity has helped and hindered a wide range of movements, Shooting Hipsters will find out the ways in which dissenting groups can thrive and survive in a media-saturated age, as well as describing the common ways that they can be undermined.

Christiana Spens was educated at the University of Cambridge and the University of St. Andrews in Philosophy and Politics. She is the author ofThe Wrecking Ball, The Socialite Manifesto and Death of a Ladies’ Man, and has written for Studio International, The Quietus, the Journal of Terrorism Research and others on art, literature and politics.