The Occupy Wall Street movement is rapidly going global with protests from NYC to Sydney and beyond.
This image spotted by Annalise Friend suggests turning off the news to find out what’s really going on. Can you figure out why?
For more details check out http://www.negotiationisover.net/2011/10/04/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/
An example of Al Jazeera reporting on Australia … in this case the High Court decision on the ‘Malaysia Solution’ policy on asylumn seekers
Check the story out and ask yourself - is this a contra flow? Is there a value in seeing how Australia is reported internationally?
In Syria and Iran, among other places, social media users are lulled into a dangerously false sense of security ….
A great clip reflecting on the hype around social media and the ‘Arab Spring’ … and reminding us that the centuries-old communication traditions of the mosque also played a significant role …
Thanks to Rob Carr for sharing.
A bold experiment from SBS TV, this program aimed to look at the global isuse of asylumn seekers in a different way … using teachniques from reality TV, documentary and more.
Here’s a few interesting resources providing critical analysis of the role of social media in the recent uprisings in the Arab world …
Digital Media and the Arab Spring
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/02/16/digital-media-and-the-arab-spring/
Arab Spring - the Ultimate Social Media Guide
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/508/003/Arab_Spring_-_The_Ultimate_Social_Media_Guide.html
Arab Spring - and the Long Winter Ahead
http://www.yhumanrightsblog.com/blog/2011/08/17/arab-spring-and-the-long-winter-ahead/
Arab Social Media Report
http://www.dsg.ae/NEWSANDEVENTS/UpcomingEvents/ASMROverview2.aspx
A summon search on contra flows or Al-Jazeera will find lots of further readings, and Thussu (2010) discusses contra flows.
Here’s a few extra suggestions …
Mortensen, M. 2011, “When citizen photojournalism sets the news agenda: Neda Agha Soltan as a Web 2.0 icon of post-election unrest in Iran”, Global Media and Communication, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 4-16.
el-Nawawy, M. & Powers, S. 2010, “Al-Jazeera English: A conciliatory medium in a conflict-driven environment?”, Global Media and Communication, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 61-84.
Joye, S. 2010, “Reflections on Inter Press Service: Evaluating the importance of an alternative news voice”, Global Media and Communication, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 121-125.
Mattelart, T. 2009, “Audio-visual piracy: towards a study of the underground networks of cultural globalization”, Global Media and Communication, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 308-326.
From the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt and the Arab world uprisings in the spring (Bahrain, Yemen, Syria), to the devastating Japan earthquake and the recent British riots, citizen media has not only reported on many of the past year’s major news stories, but also been integral to some stories themselves.
Global Voices is proud to be partnering with Ashoka Changemakers this year in its ’Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition‘, which is supported by Google. With prizes including US $5,000 grants for citizen media projects, if making a difference through media is what you’re about, we want to hear from you.
Click on the link for more …
Internet entrepreneur Graeme Wood has again entered the realm of public debate, emerging as the key bankroller of Monica Attard’s new online journalism venture.
His ambitions for The Global Mail are, unsurprisingly, global: ”The initial focus will be Australian; we’ve got some presence in the marketplace. But we’ll expand fairly quickly, maybe towards Asia. Initially it will be reporting on Australian issues from a global context.”
Full story ….
http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/11/wotif-com-founder-re-emerges-to-fund-attards-global-mail/
Many, many thanks to Annalise for sharing updates from accessnow.org, who campaign on information equality and technological democracy. For further details check their website …
A few recent highlights from accessnow.org:
Last week, we attended Vodafone’s annual shareholder meeting in London where, with the endorsement of over 8,000 Access members, we publicly challenged Vodafone’s Board to reform their policies so as to never again cede control of their networks to regimes. See the video of Vodafone’s response here (at 29:59) along with international media coverage about our 5-point Telco Action Plan.
We’ve been active on the international stage. At the OECD’s (a group of the world’s most developed countries) high-level meeting about internet policy, we supported civil society’s decision to decline to endorse the official communique, and used this meeting as an opportunity to deliver a draft of our whitepaper laying out a roadmap to smart regulation of the internet. While at the OECD we also participated in a working group on new guidelines for multinational corporations.
Earlier in the year, at the eG8, we staged a press conference before the world’s media where we delivered a petition signed by nearly 20,000 of you and issued a statement signed by over 40 leading civil society NGOs demanding protection of an open and secure internet.
Access held its second Access LIVE web symposium on internet regulation, which featured representatives from Microsoft, the European Parliament, and grass roots activists from Thailand and Chile.
The latest version of the practical digital security guide is now being translated into 15 languages and is being used by citizens all over the world to protect their security and identity. The updated version is also in Arabic on our site. A new Access alert about Man in the Middle attacks is available here too.
Campaigns:
After thousands of you wrote to world leaders asking them to watch the incredible videos of the bravery and brutality occurring in Syria’s streets, even more of you took action to support the Syrian people by uploading photos of yourselves. Take a look! Our voices have joined with others to push the international community to finally condemn this ongoing tragedy.
Access’ Global Movement swung into action during a recent election in Malaysia raising thousands of dollars to help the digital activists working around the clock to keep these websites online and to build a firewall to defend against attacks.
During the Egyptian Revolution, we asked for your support to help build the Tor network, which helps citizens around the world to securely browse the open internet. Your impact is still being felt as digital technology and social media tools have proven to be an integral part of the slow change we are witnessing.
Together we rallied in support of the new UN Report on Freedom of Expression Online. Your messages of support were sent directly to over 50 UN missions, demanding our right to the internet.
Where we’re going:
This week, the Access Tech team is off to Berlin, where we’re organizing a village at the 5-day Chaos Communication Camp for leaders working on blackout resilient technology, advocating for your privacy rights online here and arguing the business case of human rights here.
Access is also in the midst of a learning and listening tour with digital activists throughout Asia, meeting with partners in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and elsewhere.
Access is hard at work planning the first ever Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference, which will take place in San Francisco, California on October 25th and 26th. It’s the first major conference dedicated to examining and exploring how the high-tech industry can better plan for and manage the emerging human rights implications of their technologies and has the support of Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Skype, and Mozilla. We’ll let you know how Access members can attend shortly, stay tuned!
