THINK of spectacular popular protests, of the kind that make clever use of technology to mobilise support, flummox the authorities and disseminate facts and images. In many countries, that sort of approach has been well used by political opposition movements, bent on overturning regimes or reversing electoral fraud.

But more recently, both lone dissidents and bigger campaigns have been employing the latest “people power” techniques in a different way: challenging bad environmental decisions, especially the sort that result from corrupt or non-existent governance. Eco-protest may lead, in time, to political change, but the focus is narrower. …

THINK of spectacular popular protests, of the kind that make clever use of technology to mobilise support, flummox the authorities and disseminate facts and images. In many countries, that sort of approach has been well used by political opposition movements, bent on overturning regimes or reversing electoral fraud.

But more recently, both lone dissidents and bigger campaigns have been employing the latest “people power” techniques in a different way: challenging bad environmental decisions, especially the sort that result from corrupt or non-existent governance. Eco-protest may lead, in time, to political change, but the focus is narrower. …

THINK of spectacular popular protests, of the kind that make clever use of technology to mobilise support, flummox the authorities and disseminate facts and images. In many countries, that sort of approach has been well used by political opposition movements, bent on overturning regimes or reversing electoral fraud.

But more recently, both lone dissidents and bigger campaigns have been employing the latest “people power” techniques in a different way: challenging bad environmental decisions, especially the sort that result from corrupt or non-existent governance. Eco-protest may lead, in time, to political change, but the focus is narrower. …

JUDY MCGRATH believes that “change has to be in everyone’s DNA, personally and professionally.” As the chief executive of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, an American media group, she was still sad to see one of MTV’s longest-running programmes, “Total Request Live”, come to an end this week. The ten-year-old television show, which played music videos, was an MTV staple. But in recent years the show began to seem outdated, given that viewers could easily find the same videos online. On November 16th Ms McGrath joined celebrities and MTV staff at the firm’s Times Square studio for the show’s nostalgic finale—a three-hour long tribute, in effect, to MTV’s old way of doing things. Ms McGrath’s job is to make sure that MTV continues to find new ways of doing things.

The company where she has spent her career is no stranger to change. MTV Networks oversees 150 television channels, including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, and 390 websites. The firm began in 1981 as a channel that screened music videos and has since evolved into one of America’s most powerful media companies. It has emerged as the standard-bearer for popular culture. It continues to show music videos, but these days MTV Networks also offers comedy, reality television, children’s programmes, cartoons, online virtual worlds and video games. …

JERRY YANG of Yahoo!, one of the world’s largest internet companies, appeared at an industry conference in San Francisco in early November to explain how it had all gone so wrong. This has been a “pretty amazing year”, he said with understatement. But he couldn’t quite bring himself to admit that he had made a mistake in June 2007 by taking over as chief executive of the firm that he and his friend David Filo had founded in 1994, at which they had since held only the tongue-in-cheek titles of “chief Yahoos”. Yet a mistake it clearly was and, on Monday November 17th, Mr Yang at last faced that fact and announced that he would step down as soon as a suitable replacement could be found.

Mr Yang had thought that he could, through sheer passion for his creation, revive the ailing company. He had been one of those who, during the dotcom depression, invited a Hollywood mogul, Terry Semel, to run Yahoo! and turn it into a media company. Both Mr Semel and Mr Yang, however, missed the significance of a new rival, Google, even though Messrs Yang and Filo had helped Google’s two founders—all four had been graduate students at Stanford—to get started only a few years earlier. …