Media & communications - openDemocracy (Page 116)

A clear-eyed look at mass surveillance

The Snowden revelations on mass surveillance practices, especially by the US and UK, have triggered a global struggle over the right to privacy—and a report by the outgoing UN human-rights commissioner has set the terrain for the next phase.

By Cynthia Wong

/ 25 Jul 2014

Protest and social movements: a sine qua non for democracy

Laurence Cox interviews Cristina Flesher Fominaya about her new book, Social Movements and Globalization: How Protests, Occupations and Uprisings are Changing the World - on the mutual impact of social movements and globalisation, the ongoing influence of nation states, the rise of the autonomous

By Laurence Cox and Cristina Flesher Fominaya

/ 23 Jul 2014

Writing the truth in the People’s Republic of Donetsk

Some journalists in Donetsk are brave enough to tell the truth about what is going on there. But there are consequences… на русском языке

By Aleksey Matsuka

/ 18 Jul 2014

To be or not to be – Diana Coyle as the next BBC Trust Chair?

Diana Coyle has the brains and clear-sightedness to be what the BBC needs next.

By Lis Howell

/ 8 Jul 2014

1914 versus 1938: how anniversaries make history

Drop into any of the big bookstores in London or Berlin and discover that they are literally occupied by books about the Great War. But how does this affect European attitudes to Russia’s involvement in Ukraine today?

By Ivan Krastev

/ 7 Jul 2014

The embedded power of algorithms

The recent revelations surrounding the manipulation of Facebook news feeds to affect the emotional state of users should not be understood as an isolated social experiment, but rather as one point within a far broader setting in which algorithms are powerful forces in everyday life.

By David Beer

/ 3 Jul 2014

Twenty-first century protest: social media and surveillance

The internet is a two-edged sword—a vehicle for mass surveillance on the one hand and the organisation of civil-society protest on the other.

By Ciana-Marie Pegus

/ 29 Jun 2014

Song under fire

From battle softened veterans to adrenaline junkies, a new song theatre production celebrates the work of war correspondents worldwide.

By Helen Chadwick

/ 20 Jun 2014

Only in Egypt’s media: women raped because the “guys were having a good time”

A long battle lies ahead. People need to start taking responsibility and stop trying to find scapegoats, whether the Muslim Brotherhood, the culture, women’s clothing’s, etc… We all need to stand side by side and make Egypt's streets safer for women.

By Ahmed Magdy Youssef

/ 13 Jun 2014

Live from Lampedusa: The Freedom of Movement

Nicholas De Genova introduces The Charter of Lampedusa.

By Nicholas de Genova

/ 9 Jun 2014

“We had to wait for Snowden for proof”, an exchange with NSA whistleblower William Binney

The NSA preferred a much more expensive system of bulk collection of foreign data. That was a fatal choice as it deprived the NSA of understanding what it was monitoring and this permitted the planning of 9/11 to escape them, not to mention the surveilling of American citizens, which is unconstitu

By Anthony Barnett and William Binney

/ 5 Jun 2014

Syria on our minds – fear of youth radicalisation across the European Union

Counterterrorist and counter-radicalisation policies not only have the potential to undermine the democratic principles, institutions, and processes they seek to preserve but also to produce unintended consequences.

By Didier Bigo, Francesco Ragazzi, Laurent Bonelli and Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet

/ 4 Jun 2014