Week 12/13 blog post

The reading Activist Genre Knowledge by Nish takes a look at genre knowledge and the idea of uptake. The concept of uptake spreads genre knowledge organically through different people picking up interpretations of something, a post for example, and spreading this interpretation between other people. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the intended knowledge or interpretation of something, but becomes influential once its spread enough. The disabled rights movement and community also is subject to this. It allows for more connection between activists and other users, spreading awareness in general as well as specific ideas. It allows for participation that might be otherwise difficult to get offline, but ultimately is not perfect. Performative activism is an idea that people bring up when considering online activism and the people who do it, but I think it is reductive to label any one form of activism as useful or useless. Particularly in the disabled community, online activism and facilitating and taking part in uptake and genre info is the only way some disabled people and activists can actually participate. Denying people this mode of activism only harms people in the end, and for some movements, like disabled rights, can be very damaging.