media & the net

From Big Brother to Mr. Murdoch to Mr. Burns, the media saturate our lives. Here, we decode, explain and debate the media we rely upon for democracy - and entertainment.

Saturday 28th January

Jimmy Wales or Kim Dotcom - is anti-SOPA about fundamental principles or competing commercial interests?

Tony Curzon Price and Albert Wenger, 28 January 2012

In this podcast, Tony Curzon Price talks to Albert Wenger, partner at Union Square Ventures, the venture capital fund behind a lot of the most innovative and visible web companies of today, to try to understand: is anti-SOPA activism more about principle or about the competing interests of big Tech vs. big Entertainment

Tuesday 25th October

Intellectuals against the public sphere: how to do debate better than Evgeny Morozov's tear-down

Jeff Jarvis, 25 October 2011

Evgeny Morozov, an engaging thinker whom we have enjoyed publishing on openDemocracy, produced an intemperate review of a peer's book. Here, that peer responds in an exemplary way. An attempt to shut down conversation has, in the best sort of Streisand effect, back-fired and opened it up.

Monday 10th October

Unruly politics: atomised movements, activist individuals and clientilism

Jenny Morgan, 10 October 2011

Do new social media create new forms of citizen action? Jenny Morgan reports on a knowledge exchange conference in the Hague

Tuesday 6th September

The net of hatred: after Utøya

Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 6 September 2011

The public debate in Norway following the massacre of 22 July 2011 is taking shape. A key focus is the obsessional and hate-filled language that pervades and dominates online discussion, says Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

Monday 18th July

A democracy of journalists

Neal Ascherson, 18 July 2011

The stramash over abuse of power and standards at Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp should reinvigorate the idea of journalists’ self-regulation, says Neal Ascherson.

Friday 17th June

The foreign correspondent: James Cameron, 1911-85

David Hayes, 17 June 2011

A voice of wry observation and quiet authority that made humane sense of distant events to a domestic public helped James Cameron become the most respected international journalist in post-1945 Britain. But is there room for his world-reporting craft in a very different media age, asks David Hayes.

Tuesday 5th April

Liberation technology: dreams, politics, history

Armine Ishkanian, 5 April 2011

The doctrinal commitment to new cyber and social technologies as a means of solving political problems needs to learn from the past and take a more realistic view, says Armine Ishkanian.

Tuesday 29th March

The freedom cloud

Becky Hogge, 29 March 2011

The tools that help Arab democracy protesters also extend the reach of three United States corporations. The power of Facebook, Google, and Twitter represents an appropriation of the hacker-utopian ideals of the early internet, says Becky Hogge. The challenge to those who still uphold these ideals is to recover a true freedom path.

Thursday 2nd December

Is it time for Murdoch's empire to be reined in?: A fascinating debate on News Corp's bid to take over BSkyB

Niki Seth-Smith, 2 December 2010

Is this the moment to halt the expansion of Richard Murdoch's media empire in the UK? An OurKingdom post, which presents the media mogul's bid for full ownership of the country's most powerful commercial broadcaster as a threat to our democracy, has sparked an urgent debate between the author, Oliver Huitson, and David Elstein, an influential figure in the British media industry.

Friday 26th November

Egyptian blogs: reporting the news unfit to print

Bijan Kafi, 26 November 2010

The Egyptian blogosphere has gained real influence in the political process

Wednesday 17th November

Red lenses on a rainbow of revolutions

Cynthia Boaz, 17 November 2010

Given continued strikes in Iran and the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, neither the Burmese nor Iranian struggle for democracy is a story that should be characterized as an example of a failed movement and successful repression. But it is up to us - the global audience - to understand our responsibility in this dynamic.

Monday 11th October

20, 2000 and 2: the three shadows of Facebook

Luis de Miranda, 11 October 2010

The eternal campus of the global middle class; the solution to the injunction to love ones fellow; a riskless replacement to reality. You could not have designed Facebook better to opiate 21st Century occidentals

Tuesday 14th September

A free media: Tasneem Khalil’s project

Timothy Sowula and David Hayes, 14 September 2010

The work of a Bangladeshi journalist offers a different perspective on some of the professional and ethical dilemmas raised by the WikiLeaks project, say Timothy Sowula & David Hayes.

Friday 20th August

Austria after Hans Dichand

Anton Pelinka, 20 August 2010

The death of a powerful media patriarch is also the end of an era in Austrian politics. After Hans Dichand, the spell of his flagship newspaper may no longer work, says Anton Pelinka.

Friday 9th July

Shaking the Foundations of Tabloid Journalism

Ryan Gallagher, 9 July 2010

Tuesday 6th April

Forums and flame wars in Georgia

Bijan Kafi, 6 April 2010

During the war with Russia in 2008, Georgians turned to online media in a big way. But with Western funding declining, the future is less certain. While social networking has taken off, Georgians show signs of preferring face-to-face communication

Friday 22nd January

Google vs China: capitalist model, virtual wall

Johnny Ryan and Stefan Halper, 22 January 2010

The breach between a corporate behemoth of the new-media age and an emerging state superpower defines the struggle for the world’s information future, say Johnny Ryan & Stefan Halper.

Wednesday 13th January

A Manchester of the mind

Christopher Harvie, 13 January 2010

The Guardian newspaper has its intellectual and moral roots in the northern English city of Manchester. The distance it has travelled - and the condition of the country it has left behind - is measured in the character of its online "Comment is Free" forum, says Christopher Harvie.

Friday 18th December