Citation: Earl, Jennifer, and Alan Schussman. “Contesting Cultural Control: Youth Culture and Online Petitioning." Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. Edited by W. Lance Bennett. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 71–96. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262524827.071 Copyright: c  2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works Unported 3.0 license. Contesting Cultural Control: Youth Culture and Online Petitioning Jennifer Earl University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Sociology Alan Schussman University of Arizona, Department of Sociology To: Sony BMG This petition is to request that the Backstreet Boys come to Asia for a tour. They haven’t been on a tour in Asia (besides China & Japan) in almost 9 years. The Backstreet Boys have numerous fans in Asia, who have been supporting them throughout their haitus [sic] & now, their new album & singles. We are sick of reading about the boys touring Japan only. Yes, we know they toured China too, but that was only late last year. It’s not as if Japan represents the whole of Asia! Please let the Backstreet Boys tour Asia. At least a concert . . . please? Petition number 211 A lot of kids don’t get home from school in time to watch [programs on the Disney Channel]. I would like to start a Web site that would allow viewers to download episodes of the Disney Classics and of the newer Disney Channel shows at an earlier time.... However, I may have to get copyright permission to let viewers download tv shows from my Web site legally. You know what might increase the chances of me getting copyright permission? A lot of people signing this petition. The more signatures I have (especially if I have several hundred or several thousand signatures) the more apt the officials might be to give me copyright permission to let me let viewers download episodes from my Web site. Petition number 79 Introduction The above petition examples are illustrative of an online trend: using traditional social move- ment tactics, such as petitions, on the Internet to support, contest, or otherwise comment on cultural products and celebrities. Other petitions range from those seeking to address perceived problems in massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft to petitions advocating for the open-source release of popular software to still other petitions that call on bands to share their concert recordings with fans. What this broad range of petitions has in common is a central focus on concerns that are important to youth culture and popular culture more broadly. We would like to extend our deep thanks, and a public acknowledgment, to the operators of Peti- tionOnline, particularly Kevin Matthews and Mike Wheeler, who provided us with raw data for use in this chapter. We would also like to thank Lance Bennett and the other volume contributors for their lively exchanges and comments on this chapter.