Transnational networking and capacity building for communication activism

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) present social movement actors with new opportunities for transnational communication, and for communication capacity building. In his book Communication Power, Manuel Castells identifies communication capacity, as well as processes associated with network building, as key contributors to social movement power and influence. However, scholars have yet to investigate these dimensions of communication activism. In order to better understand the processes and challenges associated with transnational communication capacity building, this article examined 10 Tactics for turning information into action, an initiative designed to promote communication capacity building among social movement actors in the global South. Drawing on Castells' ideas about reprogramming, switching, and connecting the local and global, we trace the networking process undertaken in the project's production, distribution and use. The examination of this case reveals a number of barriers to transnational communication capacity building and identifies dimensions of Castells' networking process that require further development or elaboration, most notably the critical role played by local agents in transnational networking.