10 tactics screening in Denmark

On 3rd February, 35 young people braved the heavy snow and public transport cancellations in Denmark to come to Krogerup College, in Humlebæk, to watch ‘10 tactics for turning information Into action’. The screening was organised by Stefan Straten of WhisperIt, an organisation working to empower vulnerable groups and minorities through online technologies.

The audience was mostly students participating in ‘the world is on fire’, a Danish course about globalization, and Crossing Borders’ international ‘Global Studies’ course which focuses on global citizenship. Founder of WhisperIt, Stefan says: “It’s amazing to see that so many people showed up to the screening of the documentary even though the weather put a stop to much transport. It suggests that these ideas for using online technologies are something that interests a large group of people and through innovative ideas they can be put into practice locally and globally to empower people in an inspiring way.”

A vibrant discussion followed after the film. Most members of the audience liked the thorough examples showing just how online tools can be used for advocacy. Clayton Lavallin, from the Global Studies course, found that there was a “good balance of looking at both the strengths and weaknesses of the new media, particularly the section on the use of social networking sites like Facebook.” Furthermore, he said that the, ”information chosen for the case studies was informative and carefully chosen to be useful to those activists who might wish to work on similar projects.”

One student from ‘the world is on fire’ course, Julie, believed that many of these tools could be used in their course and emphasised, “it’s good that the movie not only shows the good sides of using the different technologies but also criticising some of it.” Stefan concluded the discussion by giving an explanation of how some of these tools could be used in his future work in Lebanon where WhisperIt “will teach people how to use these new technologies to get out with their own voice and view on the surrounding world… primarily by using web video and blogs to empower in an alternative way.”

Story and photo by Stefan Stratan.