There are many existing online resources for one-day drama workshops on cyber-bullying and online safety, but these seem mostly to be reactive. They focus on how to stay safe in response to threats, not how to actually own the space. The ideology of theater of the oppress turns ‘reactor’ or ‘spectator’ into ‘actor’, which makes it a fitting vehicle for this type of learning.
Also as a tool for social justice, it will help focus attention on the innate injustices in online data ownership, access, and literacy.
Having watched clips of theater of the oppressed in Turkey, India and New York, I’ve started mapping out a possible workshop idea based on Newspaper theater, as this allows participants to also improve their critical media literacy by deconstructing a newspaper article.
Theater of the Online Oppressed - Newspaper Theater idea
crossed reading:
Comparing article on victims to article on perpetrators (who are also victims when children):
Article on victims: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807351/We-devastated-Revenge-porn-hacker-posts-naked-pictures-TWENTY-women-online-breaking-photo-sharing-accounts.html
Article on perpetrators: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/12019426/Revenge-porn-Teenage-boy-becomes-youngest-convicted-of-posting-explicit-images.html
complementary reading: Data and information generally omitted by ruling classes is added
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807351/We-devastated-Revenge-porn-hacker-posts-naked-pictures-TWENTY-women-online-breaking-photo-sharing-accounts.html
Add information about this Right Wing populist newspaper’s own vested interest in exploiting women’s bodies (it is famous in the UK for this!), and previous controversy over phone-tapping and online hacking by this Newspaper. Also increased Government surveillance, see most recent wikileaks data).
Rhythmical reading: News is read to rhythm of samba, tango, etc.
Students could read news to rhythm of the musical genres they listen to, or as a string of code, etc.
Parallel action: Actors mime parallel actions while the news is read
This could be the intergenerational element, that brings in the parallel actions that parents, older siblings, or younger siblings could have taken to intergenerationally educate around the issue.
Concentration of the abstract:
Students could compile digital narratives, slides, images, and interview audio with victims to bring home the cruel physical and psychological reality of online victimization.
I wondered what people’s thoughts are on the benefits and costs of using this method for ‘one-off’ workshops and the importance of training facilitators and building the trust required for meaningful roleplay under strict time constraints.