ABSTRACT
Maireder and Schwarzenegger who explore a short protest by Austrian students with very similar characteristics of self-organization and interaction with the public and media to that of the UK students found that both individual and institutional protest websites and weblogs were mainly focused on providing information and communication. Students criticized the cuts as an attack on education that would deter the majority of poorer students from applying, and a break of campaign promises, especially on the part of the Liberal Democrats. Ministers, protesters and the media acknowledged that the demonstration, which was at that time the largest and most dramatic in response to a series of austerity measures planned by the British government, gained significant public support. Although websites have been found to be indispensable tools for protest activism, the literature has focused primarily on social movement organization (SMO) websites and has overlooked their use by spontaneously formed, short-lived, loosely organized protest groups.
