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This study examines the role of the Internet in challenging the state after 9/11. Drawing on interview data with members of the Internet-based group MoveOn.org and participant observation data collected at MoveOn events, the authors argue that the Internet provides citizens an opportunity to lodge democratic challenges against the state during hostile political climates. There are at least three features of the Internet that make it a useful tool for challengers after political shocks such as 9/11: (a) it provides a free space for challengers to form oppositional points of view away from dominant groups; (b) it allows individuals to participate anonymously and, thus, buffers challengers from the high costs of activism; and (c) it moves challenges from the virtual to the real world by engaging citizens in intermediary forms of activism. In short, the Internet engages individuals in a broader range of activities--and this has important implications for democratic processes. Keywords: activism; internet; mass media; democracy; MoveOn.org

This special issue of American Behavioral Scientist, 'Activism After 9/11,' addresses a void in the social movement research literature and illuminates the practical implications of political shocks, or dramatic changes to international and/or national systems that fundamentally alter the processes, relationships, and expectations that drive political interactions, on social movements and democratic processes. The nine original research articles in this volume examine how political shocks shape state response and, in turn, how these responses--represented in both policy and rhetoric--affect movement trajectories, opportunities for democratic expansion, democratic participation and protest, and coalition building. The work in this issue highlights the need for social scientists and citizens alike to understand how political shocks like 9/11 affect consensus, dissent, state transparency, and democratic processes more generally. Keywords: political shocks; social movements; 9/11; protest; democracy

Political opportunities and threats are important to tactical choices. Yet, scholars have not examined how the political environment affects the tactical choices of social movement organizations in the media arena. In this article, I analyze how political threats and opportunities affect the media strategies and tactics of two reasonably successful and long-lived social movement organizations on opposite sides of the abortion debate, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), from 1980 to 2000. In particular, I examine how political shifts affect the tactics these groups use in response to their allies over time. I find that different social movement organizations respond to political opportunities and threats similarly. In times of political opportunity, groups remain silent on their allies' activities because silence distances their organizations from rancorous public debates and buttresses their political legitimacy. During political threats, groups cooperate with their allies in the media arena but they use public coalition work to advance their own political and media goals. Conceptually, this research broadens how we think about media tactics, which vary far more than scholars currently recognize, and deepens our understanding of coalition work and movement dynamics. Keywords: abortion, coalitions, collective action, media, and opportunity.

A study is presented to find out how ideologically opposed social movement organizations, the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Concerned Women for America (CWA), get the media coverage during critical moments of the abortion debate. How organizational structure and identity that facilitate or constrain a social movement organizationEs ability to get mainstream media coverage is analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the model offered by Thomas Rochon is used to examine how ideas, activism, and changing American values have influenced advertiser practices as they relate to sexualized images of men in mainstream media. Previous research has highlighted the importance of economic shifts on advertiser practices, ignoring the importance of cultural factors, such as the influence of the gay liberation movement on representations of masculinity in the post 1960s era. Second, a quantitative analysis of sexualized depictions of masculinity is presented. These data suggest that men in contemporary advertisements increasingly display the visual cues of objectification. After positioning these sexualized images in a larger social, political, and economic context, the implications of male objectification is discussed. KEY WORDS: gender roles; objectification; advertisements.