Communication, Culture & Critique ISSN 1753-9129 O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E Distributed Activism: Domestic Violence and Feminist Media Infrastructure in the Fax Age Carrie A. Rentschler Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada Feminist activists in the 1990s used fax machines to disseminate crucial resources for media activism against domestic violence. This article analyzes how a particular feminist organi- zation, with the help of a public relations agency, sought to transform media coverage of domestic violence by building a feminist media infrastructure that linked organizations across the United States through newsletter distribution, illuminating the constitutive rela- tionship among social movement organizations, networking capabilities, and activist media process at that time. To evaluate this relationship, the study focuses on the specific media strategies feminists developed to respond to the high-profile O. J. Simpson gender violence case and its race-based dimensions, and to the antifeminist backlash upsurge in the 1990s. Keywords: Domestic Violence, Feminism, Distribution, Media Activism, Public Relations, Fax, Print Culture. doi:10.1111/cccr.12079 In 1994, a group of feminist activists against domestic violence took up a powerful new tool: the activist facsimile. Such a move may appear counterintuitive in light of the increasing use of the Internet in the 1990s, but Internet access was expensive at the time. Many organizations in the movement to end domestic violence lacked ade- quate financial resources to purchase computers and set up Internet service. So these activists, organized by the Family Violence Prevention Fund in San Francisco, Cal- ifornia, and the Washington, DC-based public relations agency PR Solution s, built a fax-based network for sharing techniques to shape media discourse about domes- tic violence. Their newsletter, Speaking Up: News and Tips for the Domestic Violence Community, became a key instrument of activist media training for movement orga- nizations across the United States. In its first issue, Executive Director of the Family Violence Prevention Fund Esta Soler and Anne Menard, Director of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, presented a vision of what the newsletter would accomplish: Corresponding author: Carrie A. Rentschler; e-mail: [email protected] 182 Communication, Culture & Critique 8 (2015) 182 – 198 © 2014 International Communication Association C. A. Rentschler Distributed Activism [From reviewing] national and regional media coverage of domestic violence, provid[ing] updates on research and new developments from government and private sources, track[ing] the “backlash” among those who are trying to minimize the epidemic, includ[ing] fact sheets and easily accessible data, and much more. (Speaking Up, November 7, 1994, p. 1). “Every issue,” they promised, “would provide … media tips and/or material” and “o ...

1. Communication, Culture & Critique ISSN 1753-9129
O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E
Distributed Activism: Domestic Violence and
Feminist Media Infrastructure in the Fax Age
Carrie A. Rentschler
Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, McGill
University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Feminist activists in the 1990s used fax machines to disseminate
crucial resources for media
activism against domestic violence. This article analyzes how a
particular feminist organi-
zation, with the help of a public relations agency, sought to
transform media coverage of
domestic violence by building a feminist media infrastructure
that linked organizations
across the United States through newsletter distribution,
illuminating the constitutive rela-
tionship among social movement organizations, networking
capabilities, and activist media
process at that time. To evaluate this relationship, the study
focuses on the specific media
strategies feminists developed to respond to the high-profile O.
J. Simpson gender violence
case and its race-based dimensions, and to the antifeminist
backlash upsurge in the 1990s.
Keywords: Domestic Violence, Feminism, Distribution, Media

2. Activism, Public Relations,
Fax, Print Culture.
doi:10.1111/cccr.12079
In 1994, a group of feminist activists against domestic violence
took up a powerful
new tool: the activist facsimile. Such a move may appear
counterintuitive in light of
the increasing use of the Internet in the 1990s, but Internet
access was expensive at
the time. Many organizations in the movement to end domestic
violence lacked ade-
quate financial resources to purchase computers and set up
Internet service. So these
activists, organized by the Family Violence Prevention Fund in
San Francisco, Cal-
ifornia, and the Washington, DC-based public relations agency
PR
Solution
s, built
a fax-based network for sharing techniques to shape media
discourse about domes-
tic violence. Their newsletter, Speaking Up: News and Tips for
the Domestic Violence
Community, became a key instrument of activist media training
for movement orga-
nizations across the United States. In its first issue, Executive

3. Director of the Family
Violence Prevention Fund Esta Soler and Anne Menard,
Director of the National
Resource Center on Domestic Violence, presented a vision of
what the newsletter
would accomplish:
Corresponding author: Carrie A. Rentschler; e-mail:
[email protected]
182 Communication, Culture & Critique 8 (2015) 182 – 198 ©
2014 International Communication Association
C. A. Rentschler Distributed Activism
[From reviewing] national and regional media coverage of
domestic violence,
provid[ing] updates on research and new developments from
government and
private sources, track[ing] the “backlash” among those who are
trying to
minimize the epidemic, includ[ing] fact sheets and easily
accessible data, and
much more. (Speaking Up, November 7, 1994, p. 1).

4. “Every issue,” they promised, “would provide … media tips
and/or material” and
“open up communication channels linking each of you with
others in the commu-
nity” (Speaking Up, November 7, 1994, p. 1). Speaking Up
represented both a feminist
activist network and a media advocacy tool (1 October 1995 and
22 December 1998
issues, respectively).
By working with public relations specialists, the Family
Violence Prevention Fund
became a centralized hub of information within a network of
feminist organizations
working to end domestic abuse. The Fund and PR