Media & communications - openDemocracy (Page 145)

Japan, the earthquake and the media

The worst disaster in Japan since the second world war hit the country's north-east coastal region on 11 March 2011. The combination of tsunami and nuclear crisis presented the media with great practical problems and ethical concerns. Wataru Sawamura, an experienced journalist with the leading new

By Wataru Sawamura

/ 11 Feb 2012

Localism and the web: a new era for England's democracy?

Local English democracy may look endangered, but new technologies are revolutionising the way we perceive our communities and take collective decisions.

By Gavin Barker

/ 10 Feb 2012

Whose network?

Reflections on Paul Mason's new book, 'Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere'.

By James Butler

/ 10 Feb 2012

‘Epic Win’ for Anonymous? Hacktivism and the 99%

The Anonymous 'V for Vendetta' mask is an icon of the Occupy movement. But how does this band of deviant web pirates fit with the Occupiers ethics of responsibility, transparency and democracy? Cole Stryker's new book goes some way to deconstruct the generalisations.

By Jamie Mackay

/ 2 Feb 2012

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

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 Tec

By Tony Curzon Price and Albert Wenger

/ 28 Jan 2012

One to Another: the Occupy movement challenges the media

The Occupy movement challenges the deflection tactics of current media circumambulations: social media and sheer numbers will eventually triumph over the current status quo.

By John Wilson

/ 23 Jan 2012

Is new US pro-copyright Internet legislation the Trojan horse of a controlling state?

SOPA - the US's Stop Online Piracy Act - proposes to shift the balance of online power from technology and platform providers to traditional copyright holders. The dangers of this move are that it will limit innovation, silence free speech and put in place the machinery that is needed to censor th

By Joichi Ito and Ethan Zuckerman

/ 15 Jan 2012

No news from Wukan: protests are far from an isolated anomaly

The riots that erupted in the southern Chinese village in December, following the death in custody of a peaceful protester, are representative of a wider trend – and not the unique uprising the story is being sold as

By Evelyn Chan

/ 12 Jan 2012

Dilbert's presidential bid: is technocracy dressed up as libertarianism the natural political home of the engineer?

All rights reservedThe definitive U.S. comic strip of the last two decades features workplace alienation, managerial dysfunction, and socio-economic stratification. Last month its creator announced he's running for President as an independent. His candidacy may not be serious, but how about his po

By James Warner

/ 2 Jan 2012

The Long and the Quick of Revolution

This is the Raymond Williams Annual Lecture for 2011, coinciding with the publication of a new 50th anniversary edition of Raymond Williams’ The Long Revolution by Parthian Books, for which Anthony Barnett has written the foreword, also published here this week. In the lecture, he considers the po

By Anthony Barnett

/ 16 Dec 2011

Russia’s virtual: the new reality?

Russia's blogosphere has until recently been largely written off as a politically blunt parallel space. The Facebook mobilisation of 50,000 protestors has challenged such assumptions, writes Julien Nocetti.

By Julien Nocetti

/ 14 Dec 2011

Mutualising the media: the answer to UK press ownership?

What would employee-owned or co-operative media models look like? Could they allow for genuine public interest journalism?

By Dave Boyle

/ 28 Nov 2011