The concept of a “digital native” is an interesting one. It has been described thus: “While I groan whenever the buzzword ”˜digital native’ is jockeyed about, I also know that there is salience to this term. It is not a term that demarcates a generation, but a state of experience. The term is referencing those…
Showing all posts tagged blogging
Sorry is the hardest word
Yahoo! finally comes (nearly) clean: A top executive at Yahoo Inc. has apologized for failing to inform U.S. lawmakers about the circumstances under which the Internet company gave the Chinese government information on one of its users. Michael Callahan, executive vice president and general counsel at Yahoo, told a House Foreign Relations panel in February…
Blocking the fly-over
Internet censorship exists in Morocco, including the blocking of Google Earth. Once again, we find Western multinationals, in this case Vivendi, involved in the process:
Why can’t we hear them?
The Walkley Magazine is Australia’s leading media publication discussing trends, issues and controversies. In the latest edition, I have an article that highlights the rise of blogging around the world and the tendency of Western media to avoid highlighting these new voices because of racism and ignorance:
What the authorities don’t like
My Iranian blogger comrade, Kamangir, lives in Canada and writes almost daily on the repression suffered by many of his countrymen and women back home. For this “crime”, he has now been slammed by conservative forces in Iran, surely a sign he is having an effect. In solidarity.
Just try and stop us
The recent crackdown in Burma continues to reverberate around the world. The bravery of the monks and the general population is a testament to the will of the human spirit. The internet was a key factor in the dissemination of information. A new report from OpenNet Initiative, a leading group tasked to monitor web filtering…
The changing media landscape
Bloggers beware: Disgruntled fans of Sheffield Wednesday who vented their dissatisfaction with the football club’s bigwigs in anonymous internet postings may face expensive libel claims after the chairman, chief executive and five directors won a high-court ruling last week forcing the owner of a website to reveal their identity. The case, featuring the website owlstalk.co.uk,…
Protect us
Decent bloggers are finding it increasingly difficult to do their job, namely challenge the powerful in society: When a billionaire born in Uzbekistan and an outspoken former British ambassador clashed over a scorching blog, the first outcome was the Internet equivalent of a smackdown. The daily Web log, or blog, of the former U.K. ambassador…
Repression inc.
Global advocacy group Reporters Without Borders is regularly criticised for its alleged bias against countries not friendly to the US. It’s often a fair call, but nonetheless, the group still produces, in my opinion, important studies about repression of journalists in non-democratic countries. Its 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index has just been released. Australia is…
Liberation next time
The war in Afghanistan is allegedly the “good war” – a term that liberal interventionists use to justify the invasion and ongoing occupation of the impoverished nation – but the country is suffering. One Afghan blogger has some harsh words for US-backed President Hamid Karzai: On September 29, 2007, a suicide bomber attacked an army…