Editing Indymedia (section)

==History==
[[Image:Indymedia Cuiabá.jpg|thumb|Indymedia collective at [[Mato Grosso Federal University]] in [[Cuiabá]], Brazil, hosting a free radio broadcast in 2004]]
[[Image:Indymedia Edinburgh DSC04943.JPG|thumb|Temporary IMC in [[Edinburgh]] covering protests at the [[31st G8 summit|2005 G8 summit]]]]
The origins of Indymedia can be traced to the [[global justice movement|global justice]] protest [[Carnival Against Capital]], which took place in over forty countries on June 18, 1999.{{r|Ainger}} In late November 1999, the first dedicated Indymedia project was ready to cover the [[1999 Seattle WTO protests]]. The first post was made on November 24.{{r|"Pickard"}} It read:
{{Blockquote
|text=The resistance is global ... The web dramatically alters the balance between multinational and activist media. With just a bit of coding and some cheap equipment, we can set up a live automated website that rivals the corporates'. Prepare to be swamped by the tide of activist media makers on the ground in Seattle and around the world, telling the real story behind the World Trade Agreement.
|author=Maffew & Manse
|source={{r|"Pickard"}}
}} 
When the protests began, a hundred videographers were on the streets filming, joined by photographers and journalists, all working as volunteers.{{r|Downing|p=251}}

After Seattle, local, autonomous collectives formed. Local sociopolitical context determined each individual center's focus.{{r|"Pickard"}} However, it was a core theme that centers would have both an open publishing structure to which anyone could contribute and an open archive.{{r|Downing|p=252}} Centers tended to be set up in response to meetings of groups such as the [[World Bank]] or [[G8]], to world forum events, or to party conventions, such as Democrat or Republican meetings in the US.{{r|Downing|p=243}} By 2002, there were 90 Indymedia websites, mainly in the US, Canada and Western Europe but also Australia, New Zealand and Latin America.{{r|Downing|p=243}} The number of centers continued growing, especially in Europe, reaching 142 in 2004 and 175 by 2010.{{r|radpar|p=426}}

The Indymedia movement reached its peak in the mid-2000s.{{r|radpar|p=423}} Centers in the United States began to atrophy around 2008,<ref name="Glaser2019">{{cite journal |last1=Glaser |first1=April |title=Another Network is Possible |journal=Logic |date=Summer 2019 |issue=8 |pages=155–169 |issn=2573-4504 |url=https://logicmag.io/bodies/another-network-is-possible/ |access-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809114524/https://logicmag.io/bodies/another-network-is-possible/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and by 2014, the global network had declined significantly, with the number of active sites down to 68.{{r|radpar|p=426}} A number of reasons for the decline have been put forward. In February 2013, Ceasefire magazine had noted a decline in the use of Nottingham Indymedia, stating that activist usage of commercial social media had increased. The poverty of activist collectives to invest in resources was contrasted with the massive investments made by corporations such as [[Facebook]] and [[Twitter]].<ref name="Ceasefire">{{cite web|url=https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/indymedia-its-time-move/|title=Indymedia: It's time to move on|date=17 February 2013|publisher=Ceasfire Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209180339/https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/indymedia-its-time-move/|archive-date=9 December 2019}}</ref> In an article published by the journal ''[[Convergence (journal)|Convergence]]'' Eva Giraud summarised some of the different arguments that had been made by academics and activists, which included [[flat organization|informal hierarchy]], [[bureaucracy]], security issues including [[IP address]] logging, lack of regional engagement, lack of [[social class|class]] politics, increase in [[web 2.0]] social media use, website underdevelopment, decline in volunteers and decline in the global justice movement.{{r|radpar}} [[Corporate Watch]] saw the rise of social media sites and the normalization of 'open publishing' as recommodifying Indymedia's key innovations for the cultural industry.{{r|Corpwatch}}

In a 2019 article published on occasion of Indymedia's 20th anniversary, April Glaser suggested that factors such as volunteer burnout, lack of resources, lack of centralized accountability, lack of leadership development, and the waning of the [[anti-globalization movement]] all contributed to the decline of Indymedia.<ref name="Glaser2019"/>