Lidia Naskova — 2 comments
27
Oct 15

Online environmental activism– does it work or not?

By Lidia Naskova

“You can send a press release, and it’s maybe not something media outlets will pursue as a story. But when six million people have seen it, they’ll cover it”

(Travis Nichols, Arctic communications manager at Greenpeace in The Columbia Journalism Review, November, 2014).

The benefits of using media activism online are many nowadays and I found two very interesting examples of where smart online media strategies may help social movement organizations to get messages rapidly out to the public, alter the public opinion about a matter or raise awareness, and consequently changing decisions with the help from the pressure from consumers.

In 2014, the environmental organization Greenpeace launched a YouTube video that was part of a campaign set out to pressure the company Lego to dissociate them from a partnership with the oil-company Shell that had been going on since the 1960s. Greenpeace targeted Lego as a part of a viral protest against Shell’s plans to drill after oil in the Arctic, and in the video, Lego characters were demonstratively placed in a Lego-built Arctic getting slowly covered with oil, along with the slogan that “Lego: everything is NOT awesome”. Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 2 comments
26
Oct 15

Māori people: Can the new media make their heritage immortal?

by Christos Mavraganis

If you visit govt.nz and go to the “History, culture and heritage” section, there is a folder, called “Māori language, culture and heritage”. Sometimes there is neither a need for fancy words, nor jazzy introductions to prove how much a country appreciates the historical importance of its heritage. Sometimes just 17 simple words can do the job: “Māori culture is a big part of NZ’s identity, so respecting, preserving and promoting it is vital”.

maori1

Photo by newzealand.com

For those who are not familiar, Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, who as the website describes, “came to Aotearoa (the most widely known and accepted Māori name for the entire country) from Polynesia in the 13th century and created a new language and culture”. Continue reading →

Lidia Naskova — Comments Off on Anonymous video blogging as a tool for freedom of speech on the Internet – what role can participatory media projects play today and in the future?
26
Oct 15

Anonymous video blogging as a tool for freedom of speech on the Internet – what role can participatory media projects play today and in the future?

By Lidia Naskova

Communicating through blogs is a relatively new phenomenon; however, today many people are becoming more and more accustomed to read and comment on various blogs on a daily basis. Being an academic blogger since 2000, Walker Rettberg (2008) discuss the essence of blogging, of how people most commonly blog today, of how media relations looked like before blogging became a common practice as today, and how possible developments of communicating through blogs in the future may look like, among other things. According to Walker Rettberg (ibid):

“[b]logs are part of a fundamental shift in how we communicate. Just a few decades ago, our media culture was dominated by a small number of media producers who distributed their publication and broadcast to large, relatively passive audiences. Today, newspapers and television stations have to adapt to a new reality, where ordinary people create media and share their creations online. We have moved from a culture domination by mass media, using one-to-many communication, to one where participatory media, using many-to-many communication, is becoming the norm” (31). Continue reading →

Lidia Naskova — Comments Off on New media activism within the context of war
26
Oct 15

New media activism within the context of war

By Lidia Naskova

After my first blog post about participatory journalism and new media that are used to increase societal discussions within countries that has a restricted and rather controlled media climate such as Angola, new questions were raised about how new types of medias are used, and for what purposes they are used under even more restricted conditions, such as, for example; during war.

How does new media activism look like during contemporary war in the information age and is war reporting different in the new media landscape from when countries are in peace? As well, does the use of new media provide further civil participation for certain groups in societies, or do they solely challenge mainstream media outputs? This blog post will attempt to put some light on these issues. Continue reading →

Muhammad Al Waeli — 3 comments
20
Oct 15

Reflections on the Future of ComDev and Social Action

by Muhammad Al-Waeli

In the 15th Anniversary ComDev seminar that was held from 18-19 of September in Malmö, lot of important points and reflections were made. Tobias Denskus made an interesting talk about the future of ComDev, as a field and as a practice. This post completes the ideas and comments that were made in the Q&A session after the talk.

In general, all experts in the field of ComDev seem to agree that there are no clear boundaries for the field and that what ever could be counted as a boundary, is in fact constantly moving.

Continue reading →

david / David Leeming — 1 comment
20
Oct 15

The DNA of Connective Action

by David Leeming

Here is a photo of my Dad, Peter Leeming. At age 83, he is very fit and well, currently participating in a meeting in Germany of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.

Peter Leeming, 2014

Peter Leeming, 2014

The Quakers have been associated with the peace and anti-war movements since their foundation during the Enlightenment as one of the “historic peace churches” Their faith is built on principles of non-violence and pacifism. Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 1 comment
19
Oct 15

Social m-INDIA

by Christos Mavraganis

Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is going… social and he proved that during his trip at the ‘mecca of technology’, Silicon Valley.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speak on stage during a town hall at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California

Narendra Modi with Mark Zuckerberg – Reuters

On September 29th 2015, Modi became the first Indian head of state who visited California since Indira Ghandi in 1982 and he had a meeting with Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the headquarters of the world’s most powerful social network.  Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 2 comments
04
Oct 15

Around the world with a suitcase full of debt – Can endless loans and development coexist?

by Christos Mavraganis 

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister and president of SYRIZA, which is a left-wind party, has attended the 70th session of the UN’s General Assembly, in the 27th of September 2015, representing his country.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses attendees during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York

Alexis Tsipras during his UN speech – Reuters

The Greek Prime Minister gave a speech during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. This speech could have been the epitome of his political program, but only before he came on power, in January 25th, 2015. Continue reading →

David Leeming — 1 comment
26
Sep 15

Tweeting for West Papua during the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum

by David Leeming

Coverage by Radio New Zealand International

Coverage by Radio New Zealand International

West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea, is a disputed territory which was annexed by Indonesia from the Netherlands in 1968. West Papua is now a province of Indonesia, and its history parallels that of neighbouring Timor Leste which was also annexed by Indonesia a few years later, but which won independence in 2000 following an epic campaign of resistance during which at least 100,000 people were killed. For West Papua, the struggle continues with worrying incidents reported as recently as March 2015. Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 2 comments
26
Sep 15

The borders of human dignity

by Christos Mavraganis

aylan1

Aylan Kurdi as an angel – Reuters

The historians of the future will probably refer to the year 2015 as the outburst of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The war in Syria is in full swing and as a result thousands of Syrian citizens are playing -on a daily basis- the ‘russian roulette’ of escaping the country, mostly by boats. Italy and Greece are the first destinations, before the big dream of the so called developed Europe. This phenomenon, which is related to multiple development issues, is not of course something new. Continue reading →

← Older Entries