I.

• What constitutes a public sphere in a period of increased media concentration and ownership and privatization that often precludes public debate and dialogue?
• To what extent does increased citizen access, production, and distribution challenge the “naturalized” edifice of media conglomerates?
• How might uses of social Web really offer new hope for a public sphere or
  democracy?
• What language do we need to expand tactical media within the daily-changing,
  radically diverse digital media landscape?
  
• How do we understand the coincidence of inadvertent democratization of media at
  the same time there is unprecedented repression of press freedom, whether we mean censorship, lock-step press corps, embedded journalists, or bending public
  perception?

II.

• What is the role of community radio as well as access to Web 2.0?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of what we call “alternative media”?
• How do gate-crashing, tactical media, and alternative and citizen journalism play a role in setting news agendas?
• How do we understand the global relationship to news sources such as Al Jazeera and how can we access these sources through broadcast or online?
• Do we need to reconceptualize the concept of a fourth estate?

III.

• How are media used to forward marginalized or unpopular views, intended to
  counter dominant and mainstream news coverage of events?
• How do specific kinds of blog stories show us how the digital–public sphere is or is
  not helping redefine corporate media news agendas?
• How are tactical media being used in different international contexts?
• How do we understand the increased appeal of political satire and its function as an intervention?
• How do we make sense of the increasingly creative and versatile practices of activism using digital media?