EFDbackup

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Journalism.co.uk

James Ball, special correspondent, BuzzFeed UK, explains how the need to be first is working against accurate information, and in favour of sensationalism and hoaxes

White House Bans CNN, LA Times, NY Times and Politico From Press Conference

Writerswrite.com’s Writer’s Blog

Journalists were stunned today when Press Secretary Sean Spicer blocked CNN, The NY Times and the LA Times from a news gaggle in his office.

Trump White House blocks CNN, New York Times, BuzzFeed, Politico from press briefing

Mashable! by Jason Abbruzzese

In the latest shot fired between the White House and the press corps, the Trump administration reportedly blocked numerous mainstream media outlets from being in on Friday afternoon’s scheduled press briefing.

New York Times, CNN and other media barred from White House press event

Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza

The New York Times reports that it and at least two other media outlets, CNN and Politico, were barred today from a White House press event. Also locked out were the LA Times and Buzzfeed, writes Politico’s Dan Diamond.

Despite monetization concerns, many news orgs are still all-in on platforms, says new Tow Report

Nieman Journalism Lab by Ricardo Bilton

News organizations may differ in how much they’re investing in platform-native publishing, but few if any are pulling out entirely.

During election week (November 7–13, 2016), the Tow Center for Digital Journalism followed the platform publishing activity of 15 big publishers and found that the organizations overall generated 12,120 posts on platforms. While there wasn’t a single narrative linking all the efforts, Tow did notice a few trends in platform publishing activity overall.

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Saturday, March 4, 2017

#Cyberculture agenda: “How cryptocurrency will cripple today’s governments…

http://ift.tt/2mE5MLC

How cryptocurrency will cripple today’s governments – and they won’t see it coming

Falkvinge on Infopolicy – Discussions on information policy and civil liberties by Rick Falkvinge

Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency will cripple governmental ability to collect taxes, and they won’t see it coming. When it’s already happened, expect major changes to take place in how society is organized on a large scale – but also expect governments to act in desperation to retain control.

As bitcoin launched in 2009, most early adopters saw its disruptive potential. While bitcoin has stalled for some time approaching a valid use of the term “stagnation”, cryptocurrency in a larger context is still just as disruptive. In 2011, I stated that bitcoin (cryptocurrency) will do to banks what e-mail did to the postal services. This is not just true, but it will be even more brutal to governments, and by extension, governmental services.

From ‘Boober’ to #DeleteUber, the 12 times Uber disgusted all of us

Mashable! by Kerry Flynn

Uber’s a game-changer for millions of people, providing full-time income (or at least some extra cash) for drivers worldwide, and a (generally) safe, quickly-accessed ride between two points for passengers.

You can help scientists discover new exoplanets in EVE Online

The Next Web by Már Másson Maack

Many of us dream of exploring space and the wonders hidden in the vastness of our galaxy. Entertainment based on space-travel can perhaps give us a glimpse of the experiences future generations might encounter when testing the limits of human discovery.

The automated, invisible revert-wars of Wikipedia’s bot ecosystem

Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

In Even good bots fight, a paper written by Oxford Internet Institute researchers and published in PLOS One, the authors survey the edits and reverts made by Wikipedia’s diverse community of bots, uncovering some curious corners where bots — rate-limited by Wikipedia’s rules for bots —

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#Europe agenda: “Should Germany ban AKP election campaign” while President Erdoğan bids up by claiming: “Germany ‘aids and harbours terror’..

http://ift.tt/2mn7ksz

Debate: Should Germany ban AKP election campaign?

euro|topics

The city of Gaggenau in south-west Germany has cancelled an event at which the Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ was to appear, stressing that this was not a political decision against the campaign for Turkish constitutional reform but a decision based on security concerns. President Erdoğan plans to speak at a rally for his supporters in Cologne in March. This has triggered a debate about banning such appearances. Commentators are sceptical.

Erdogan says Germany ‘aids and harbours terror’

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Ankara and Berlin locked in acrimony as Turkish president lashes out at Germany over cancellation of ministers’ rallies.

German Justice Minister pens letter to Bozdağ over meeting ban

German Justice Minister has penned a letter to Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ over Berlin’s decision to ban Turkish ministers from holding events in two German cities ahead of the April 16 constitutional referendum

Erdogan says Yucel was a PKK plant with German support
Deutsche Welle
In September, Yucel reported on social media trolls in the service of Turkey’s government’s, based in part on emails published by WikiLeaks and the domestic group known as Red Hack. The emails, already publicly available, apparently came from the inbox …
1ST LEAD State news: Erdogan calls arrested journalist Yucel ‘German agent’ By Linda Say and Can Merey, dpaEurope Online Magazine

Turkey’s Erdoğan ‘not welcome’ to campaign in Austria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is “not welcome” to hold campaign events in Austria ahead of the upcoming referendum that will decide whether the current parliamentary system should be shifted into an executive presidency, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said on Feb. 27

No one can prevent us from meeting with citizens, Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu tells Germany, Netherlands

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said that neither Germany nor the Netherlands can prevent the Turkish officials from meeting with citizens

Who is Martin Schulz?

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Why Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz could oust Chancellor Angela Merkel from her post.

Debate: Sweden reintroduces military service

euro|topics

As of July the Swedish government will reintroduce compulsory military service, which had been abolished in 2010. The government justified the step pointing to heightened security risks in the Baltic and the lack of volunteers. All men and women born in or after 1999 must be available, and 4,000 of them will have to do military service each year. Some commentators approve of the move while others cast doubts on its effectiveness.

Dutch election: EU’s most unpredictable vote

EUobserver.com – Headline News

Polls suggest that four or five parties will be needed to form a majority after the 15 March vote. The shrunk size of the establishment parties means that smaller parties may play a role of kingmaker.

Fake News to Be of Major Concern in French Presidential Election Campaign

Global Voices Online by Graham Perra

“Fake News” via Pixabay – Public domain

The dissemination of fake news has been widely blamed for its impact on the 2016 US presidential election, and concerns that such disinformation will also play a role in this year’s French presidential election are being taken very seriously, by both media outlets and candidates’ campaign staff.

City of Paris deploys “anti-refugee boulders” to prevent camping while waiting for space at a humanitarian center

Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

The city of Paris has installed “anti-refugee boulders” beneath a highway overpass in Porte de La Chapelle in a bid to stop Syrian refugees from sleeping in the flyover’s shelter while they wait for space to open up at a nearby humanitarian relief center operated by Emmaus solidarité.

Gallery of London’s urban foxes

Boing Boing by Rob Beschizza

Shot here by Natalie Lowe sunbathing on the roof of its convertible, a fox relaxes before evening’s activities come due. Below, a fox pop takes a trip on the London Underground, as observed by Stephen Ebert. Check out the full gallery at Londonist. A common sight in London, foxes moved in after World War II and have become a symbol of the city. They’re mostly harmless, but the tabloids there love to run fox-ate-my-baby stories.

Podemos emerges from its conference united behind its leader Pablo Iglesias.

ORGANIZED RAGE

Tensions were very high on Friday, with Pablo Iglesias announcing that he would not only renounce the general secretary position if his team and thesis lost, but even his seat in the parliament. An “órdago” (a card move of the most famous Spanish card game Mus, like all-in in poker), to the membership, to make it clear that he would not only leave the party without full control of all its parts, but even abandon any public role in it.

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Friday, March 3, 2017

This semester’s syllabus for my “Theories of New Media (COMM 720)” course

http://ift.tt/2m3HBTs

I have restructured my doctoral course this semester. Renewed most of the readings with the most up to date works I could find. Selection of topic are of course arbitrary to some extent but since I track special issues in relevant journals, the syllabus still offers many of the most current debates. The course is at our PhD program, Communication Sciences, at Istanbul Bilgi University.

Here is the reading and discussion list. Enjoy!

Topics and Reading List

Week 02

The New Media Ecology

Jenkins, H (2016). “Youth Voice, Media, and Political Engagement. Introducing the Core Concepts” in Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S., Gamber-Thompson, L., & Zimmerman, A. By any media necessary: The new youth activism. NYU Press.

Week 03

Rethinking Social Media

Readings from the Social Media bundle.

Week 04

Civic Engagement

Dahlberg, L. (2011). Re-constructing digital democracy: An outline of four ‘positions’. new media & society, 1461444810389569.

Selected readings from the Civic Engagement bundle

Week 05

Digital Archives

Beer, D., & Burrows, R. (2013). Popular culture, digital archives and the new social life of data. Theory, culture & society, 30(4), 47-71.

Selected Readings from the Web’s 25 Years bundle.

Week 06

Standardizations- Protocols

Selected Readings from the Internet Regulation bundle.

Week 07

Open/Free Software

Kelty, C. M. (2008). Two bits: The cultural significance of free software. Duke University Press.

Week 08

The Silicon Valley Ethos

Selected readings from the The Silicon Valley Ethos bundle.

Week 09

Media Ethnography- Virtual Methods

Beaulieu, A. (2004). Mediating ethnography: objectivity and the making of ethnographies of the internet. Social epistemology, 18(2-3), 139-163.

Ruppert, E., Law, J., & Savage, M. (2013). Reassembling social science methods: The challenge of digital devices. Theory, culture & society, 30(4), 22-46.

Boellstorff, T. (2015). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton University Press.

Selected readings from the Studying Social Media- Issues of Methods and Ethics bundle.

Week 10

Hactivism

Dreyfus, S., & Assange, J. (2012). Underground: tales of hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier. Canongate Books.

Meier, P. (2011). Do “liberation technologies” change the balance of power between repressive states and civil society. Unpublished thesis (PhD). The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Available at http://irevolution. files. wordpress. com/2011/11/meier-dissertation-final. pdf [Last accessed 22 October 2013].

Coleman, E. G. (2013). Coding freedom: The ethics and aesthetics of hacking. Princeton University Press.

Week 11

Big Data- Surveillance

Selected readings from the Big Data- Surveillance bundle.

Week 12

Computational Propaganda- Automation, Algorithms, and Politics

Selected readings from the Computational Propaganda bundle.

Week 13

Reclaiming Internet

Selected readings from the Reclaiming Internet bundle.

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#journalism agenda: “The Washington Post’s new slogan is movie-poster worthy”

http://ift.tt/2llDkOb

The Washington Post’s new slogan is movie-poster worthy

Mashable! by Jason Abbruzzese

The Washington Post has a new slogan: Democracy Dies in Darkness.

That’s not just something for its press materials. The words are now right there below the paper’s name on the front page of its website.

Tool for journalists: FotoForensics, for verifying images

Journalism.co.uk

How to check if a photo shared on social media has been digitally altered

Fact-checkers are weapons in the post-truth wars, but they’re not all on one side

World news: Turkey | guardian.co.uk by Jasper Jackson

The practice of spreading facts to counter falsehoods has been hailed as way to counter ‘fake news’, but on the front line the picture is becoming confused

In the frantic battle against falsehoods produced by enterprising Macedonian teenagers, crackpot conspiracy theorists and, with alarming regularity, the White House, the weapon of choice has been facts, and with it the venerated practice of fact-checking.

The Life, Death And Rebirth Of ‘Fake News’ On Reddit

FiveThirtyEight » Features

There’s been a great deal of chatter about “fake news” in the real news lately, but has that chatter carried over to other forms of media? In the video above, Ritchie King uses our recently updated compendium of Reddit comments to find out how “fake news” is resonating on that platform. Plus, a look at how slang terms like “Yolo” have risen and fallen over time.

The New York Times redesigns pages A2 and A3 as “a quick and engaging roundup”

Nieman Journalism Lab by Laura Hazard Owen

The New York Times has seen a lot of success with roundups in digital form: Its Morning and Evening Briefings are “among the most successful products that The Times has launched in recent years,” according to the Times’ recent 2020 Report, while its daily news podcast, The Daily, is No. 3 in iTunes.

.@nytimes moves masthead to print A2, plus adds ‘front of book’/how we do journalism type stuff; anti-#fakenews https://t.co/qoQBJ0CDJU

— Jonathan Make (@makejdm) March 2, 2017

Now it’s trying a version of that strategy inside the print paper with the redesign of pages A2 and A3:

Report: Robot journalism will continue to grow in newsrooms despite its limitations

Journalism.co.uk

Reporters believe automated news lacks the context and creativity of traditional reporting, yet they value the speed it can offer

“Donald Trump Rants and Raves at the Press,” Donald Trump Says, Accurately

The Intercept by Robert Mackey

Donald Trump launched a surprise attack on the news media on Thursday at a press conference in which he mocked and harried the White House press corps for more than an hour.

Trump, ranting and raving about how he’s not ranting and raving. I can’t even. http://pic.twitter.com/MvI9Jqp1vy

— Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) February 16, 2017

Lots of young adults got election news from big national newspapers (but still avoided local sources)

Nieman Journalism Lab by Ricardo Bilton

When it comes to attracting younger readers, the outreach efforts of The New York Times and Washington Post seem to be paying off.

New data from the Pew Research Center finds that adults under age 50 got their election news from national newspapers at rates equal to or greater than those of people over fifty. The trend was particularly clear for big national brands like the The New York Times and Washington Post, which younger adults read at twice the rate of those over fifty. (The same organizations are seeing big bumps in subscription rates post-election.)

Tip: Check out this Facebook group connecting freelancers with celebrities and publicists

Journalism.co.uk

Use this group to secure your next celebrity interview

How BBC Persian is using Instagram and Telegram to get around Iranian censorship

Nieman Journalism Lab by Joseph Lichterman

Last month, a fire tore through an iconic Tehran high-rise building, killing more than 20 firefighters and injuring another 70 people as it collapsed.

The fire made international headlines, but it was a particularly important story for BBC Persian, the British broadcaster’s Persian-language service that targets Farsi speakers in Iran and neighboring countries.

Tip: Remember this advice for creating more engaging Instagram posts

Journalism.co.uk

This list of tips will help you approach your Instagram strategy more efficiently

Fake news. It’s complicated.

First Draft News by Aimee

By now we’ve all agreed the term “fake news” is unhelpful, but without an alternative, we’re left awkwardly using air quotes whenever we utter the phrase. The reason we’re struggling with a replacement is because this is about more than news, it’s about the entire information ecosystem. And the term fake doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of the different types of misinformation(the inadvertent sharing of false information) and disinformation (the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false).

“A threat to society”: Why a German investigative nonprofit signed on to help monitor hoaxes on Facebook

Nieman Journalism Lab by Shan Wang

How much can hoax stories and misinformation influence the political opinions of voters, and how much does debunking a false story change someone’s mind?

The answers to those questions remain somewhat unclear. But even if debunking stories moves the needle only a little for voters, any slight interruption to a chain of the sharing of false information on platforms like Facebook is worth it, David Schraven, cofounder and publisher of the investigative nonprofit Correctiv, told me. The outlet, founded in 2014, is Germany’s first nonprofit investigations-focused newsroom, and has published stories on everything from doping and football to superbugs to the fate of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. It’s also active in involving the interested public directly in its projects.

Newsonomics: Craig Newmark, journalism’s new Six Million Dollar Man

Nieman Journalism Lab by Ken Doctor

Craig Newmark is a creature of the internet. Like Beyoncé, a singular name defines a great brand, one he provided 22 years ago to the eponymous Craigslist. Though long associated with “free,” this organically grown San Francisco-based classifieds provider may produce a billion dollars in annual revenue sooner rather than later. Today, at 64, Newmark is all about the money — but distributing it as much as earning it.

Facebook, Google, and Apple agree they have a role to play in solving the fake news problem (but aren’t totally sure what that role is yet)

Nieman Journalism Lab by Laura Hazard Owen

Recode’s annual media conference, Code Media, took place in California on February 13 and 14, and featured speakers like The Washington Post’s Marty Baron and Stratechery’s Ben Thompson. You can find links to watch video of each of the panels in the posts here, but among the highlights for journalism folks:

Tool for journalists: Trends24, for monitoring popular topics on Twitter

Journalism.co.uk

Stay up to date with what’s trending on Twitter worldwide or zoom in on your city with this free tool

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Thursday, March 2, 2017

Today, Erkan has passed the exam to become an associate professor

http://ift.tt/2miIcn7

Jury members (from left to right): Prof. Halil İbrahim Gürcan (Anadolu U.), Prof. Bünyamin Ayhan (Selçuk U.), Prof. Aslı Gönenç (İstanbul U), Prof. Mehmet Korkmaz Alemdar (Atılım U) and Prof. Erhan Akyazı (Marmara U)

After a two-hour session today at Communication School, Marmara University, the jury members seen in this photo approved that I can have title, Associate Professorship. Jury members are appointed by Higher Education Council according to the field you apply for the title. I got my title on Journalism and Media Studies. Despite my disciplinary transition from Anthropology to Communication Studies, jury members were very helpful and it was a good brainstorming session for future works. I have had the honor to have Prof. Alemdar (R2), who is one of the doyens of journalism studies in Turkey, in my jury.

Not all the past months have passed happily, but i am happy today, I had labored in my work, which I love and I believe I have deserved the result and I am in mood to engage in more academic work in months to come.

A scene of relaxation.

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EFDbackup

Sunday, March 5, 2017

#Journalism agenda: “journalism business models are fuelling the misinformation ecosystem…

Saturday, March 4, 2017

#Cyberculture agenda: “How cryptocurrency will cripple today’s governments…

#Europe agenda: “Should Germany ban AKP election campaign” while President Erdoğan bids up by claiming: “Germany ‘aids and harbours terror’..

Friday, March 3, 2017

This semester’s syllabus for my “Theories of New Media (COMM 720)” course

Topics and Reading List

Week 02

Week 03

Week 04

Week 05

Week 06

Week 07

Week 08

Week 09

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

#journalism agenda: “The Washington Post’s new slogan is movie-poster worthy”

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Today, Erkan has passed the exam to become an associate professor

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

#Journalism agenda: “CrossCheck Newsroom starts fighting false information in France…

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