Has radical participatory online media really ‘failed’? Indymedia and its legacies

This article evaluates the contemporary state of radical participatory online news network Indymedia. After examining criticisms levelled at Indymedia from within critical communications and social movement studies, it provides a tabulated overview of current network activity and then develops a theoretical analysis of problems faced by Indymedia centres in a range of regions (focusing on centres in Latin and North America, Africa, West Asia and Western Europe). Finally, the article concludes by discussing how activists have attempted to overcome these problems and emphasizes the ongoing legacy of Indymedia within contemporary social movements such as Occupy. I argue that although there has been a steep decline in the number of active centres from 2010 onwards, the existence of flourishing centres in Latin America, Oceania, Western Europe and the United States and continued importance of practices pioneered by Indymedia in contemporary social movements are indicative of the ongoing value of radical participatory online media for activists.