In January 2011, the world witnessed a political uprising in Cairo that was catalyzed by social media—so much so that pundits quickly dubbed it Egypt's “Twitter Revolution.” Scholars have yet to appraise the accuracy of that label, of course, but in the meantime, and thanks to the excellent new Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media just published by Sage, we can begin to understand the Egyptian protests within their broader historical and communications contexts. In entry after entry, the Encyclopedia reminds us that words, images, performance and sound have been used across the ages and across the globe to inspire individuals and ignite (sometimes even incite) collective action and social change.

The Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media is comprised of 250 entries, organized alphabetically, on topics that range from the local to the transnational. Articles are typically 1–4 pages in length, generously cross-referenced, and followed by brief bibliographies. Readers can use the Encyclopedia to explore subjects such as the “angry Buddhist monks” in Tibet, political murals in Northern Ireland, alternative comics (U.S.), beheading videos (Tehran), samizdat media from the Soviet era, Black Exploitation films from the 1970s, and Bhangra dance in South Asia. The list of contributors assembled for this project is impressively diverse as well; 80 percent are scholars working outside the U.S., and many of them, quite deliberately, are women.

Editor John D. H. Downing is well aware of the difficulties in amassing an encyclopedia around such a shape-shifting phenomenon. In part, those difficulties have to do with nomenclature: one person's “social movement” media, after all, might be described as “alternative,” “participatory,” “community” “counterinformation” or “nano-” media by someone else. Then there is the “dizzying array” (xxv) of subtypes to contend with: indigenous, ethnic and minority, tactical and “rhizomatic,” to name a few. And inevitably, hard choices of what to include (or not) have to be made. “You are looking at the very tip of the top of a gigantic iceberg,” Downing announces in his introduction, “so think of this encyclopedia as a first edition, a downpayment on a much more extensive project” (xxv) yet to come.

However, while the contents of the Encyclopedia are certainly eclectic, they are hardly eccentric, and Downing is explicit about his selection decisions. Chief among his “guiding principles” was a desire to “ensure as far as possible that experiences from the global South are given voice”; to sample the panoply of format types—from graffiti to tattoos, to dance and radio—through which social movements spread their messages; and to include some examples of “repressive social movement media”—like Radio Milles Collines—alongside more “progressive ones” (xxv). In fact, the overall coherence of the volume is enhanced by the detailed index at the back of the book and by a helpful reader's guide in the front. Users can view entries grouped together by region, media type, and theme.

At $150, the Encyclopedia is a worthy investment for college and university collections; it fills an unmet need with its unique focus on the means of communicating social action and it should have relevancy and broad utility across disciplines and curricula. The e-book version, just slightly more expensive, may offer an even better option for enhancing the Encyclopedia’s discoverability.

Downing envisions a 2nd edition that would incorporate “web and Internet resources even more systematically . . . to provide or link to original texts and to both visual and aural materials” (xxv). Those plans, if and when they can be realized should turn the Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, already an excellent reference resource, into an extraordinary research tool.