New Media and Society

e-gov podcast

musingsofafoodlover — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:00:48 +0000

I took park in a conference recently. I can’t say too much about it, but I did a podcast, which is available from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s itunes via this link:

http://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/en/news/110-wilton-park-dialogues/human-rights-democracy/e-government

work experience

musingsofafoodlover — Wed, 04 May 2011 07:00:55 +0000

David Biggins, one of the students who undertook a month-long placement at the BBC has sent me the following link to a story he wrote while working for the online section:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8939000/8939617.stm

He has also provided me with a couple of quotes for a forthcoming prospectus:

“When I began the Practical Media module I had a great interest in journalism, but little experience. Only twelve weeks later, I was confidently interviewing ITV’s former chief political correspondent, Michael Brunson. Thanks to Epic Studio’s fantastic resources, and the wealth of experience belonging to those who teach there, I quickly developed much sought-after skills that have certainly made my CV stand out.”

“My work experience placement at the BBC was dynamic and enjoyable as everyday I was working on multiple exciting projects. One day I was publishing a story online for the Media team, the next I was out on the road operating a boom microphone for a Look East presenter. Although challenging, my time at the BBC focused my career goals and gave me a strong sense of confidence and achievement.”

crowd sourcing

musingsofafoodlover — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:23:24 +0000

I gave a talk recently in Athens alongside a senior government official. One of the most interesting things to come out of the session was the sheer volume of crowd sourcing activities. These were often set up by individuals – what some might call the Big Society. Examples include:

http://www.rdtn.org/ This allows people in Japan to post radiation levels where they live

http://uksnowmap.com/ This searches twitter for people posting about snow in their area and then collates a map. It was found to be much more accurate – and faster – than weather forecasts.

As part of the event I was also asked to participate in a podcast with Theodoros Karounos (Head of E-government in the Prime Minister’s Office) and Diomidis Spinellis (Secretary General of Information Systems, the Ministry of Finance). The podcast is available from the Foreign Office’s iTunes page (http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/foreign-commonwealth-office/id392006693).

The Net and Protest

musingsofafoodlover — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:40:34 +0000

There was an interesting little piece on the Daily Politics today. It has only just been broadcast so check back here:

there is also a very interesting about some of the recent protests, which goes behinds the scenes and shows how they organise them.

Getting Around closure of Net in Egypt

musingsofafoodlover — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:05:25 +0000

Another interesting story on the protests in Egypt. We’ve heard that the authories are turning off Internet and mobile phone networks to disrupt the ability of protesters to organise. However, Google have launched a voice based Twitter system that can overcome these problems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12332850

evocative images – Youtube, social networking and the “revolution” in Egypt

musingsofafoodlover — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:01:23 +0000

There are some amazing images here – interesting commentary about the importance and impact of citizen journalism

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12330773

Child Safety App

musingsofafoodlover — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:29:39 +0000

A very interesting development. Lancaster University have developed an app that helps to identify whether someone who is presenting themselves as a child is actually a child. This is a very interesting approach and development. The tool analyses the text to determine whether the user is a child or not. This actually builds into a stream of literature in the new media and society strand. Lisa Nakamura wrote about the problems of “leaving the meat behind” in her book, Cybertypes. While people can perform other identities, they tend to do this in very obvious stereotypes (she has a particular focus on Asian chatrooms). The software appears to be able differentiate between the two, which would help children, for example, to determine whether the person they are speaking to is who they say they are.

Twitter and Wisdom of Crowds

musingsofafoodlover — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:26:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking through an article on the Downside of Social Networking for some time. This relates to the literature from political and democratic theory. There was interesting case recently, mentioned in a little story in the metro… Someone twittered about a shoot on a shopping street, which was picked up as being a shooting and people being told to say inside and stay safe. It transpires the initial tweet was about a photo shoot! This is another good example of the issues faced with contemporary social media.

Metaphorisation

musingsofafoodlover — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:22:34 +0000

There has been an interesting discussion with staff in the Centre for Digital Citizenship at Leeds, about the what was called the metaphorisation of new media studies. Basically, people like to come up with new metaphors – there is a good reason for this as if they stick, it can lead to your work being referenced greatly. But it raises serious questions: are metaphors banded around too easily? Are they backed up with substantive content/represent reality? In my own work, I have written about what I call “Third Spaces” and I have used the metaphor of a participatory journey in online consultations…. food for thought!

Are Blogs dying out?

musingsofafoodlover — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:34:42 +0000

There has been some speculation that political blogs are dying out – this is unlikely. However, independent blogs have an inherent instability to them; they require significant resouces yet the rewards do not properly match this. Blogging is normally subsidised by some other activity. However, blogging remains a reasonable way for someone to make a name for themselves – Iain Dale and Guido amongst others have come to be recognised commentators on/by the mainstream media. Here are some bloggers who chose to stop in 2010…

http://player.vimeo.com/video/18142564

Political bloggers say goodbye from Political Scrapbook on Vimeo.