Archive for August, 2004
Tuesday, August 31st, 2004
The first meeting of the reading group on participatory media will take place on 10th September, 2004, at 6pm. [Venue TBA shortly].
This meeting will provide an opportunity for students and others to present their works in progress. In particular, it will provide a 'dry-run' for those presenting at AoIR (Association ...
Posted in IPRH | Comments Off on Meeting: 10th Sept., 6pm
Monday, August 30th, 2004
There is, in Ireland, a branch of the state responsible for making any official or public document available to the public. You can buy many useful things (including Irish language dictionaries, maps, statutory instruments, etc.) from them. Your task - find it.
This should be easy, you would think. This is ...
Posted in Online communication | Comments Off on A State of Disconnect
Sunday, August 29th, 2004
I've just heard - via the rebroadcast of the audio feed from the anti-RNC protests that Stephen Marshall of GNN is amongst those arrested today. Seemingly he was filming a documentary about social protest close to, but not on the parade route.
Update (2004-08-30-1609): He was directing a fictional movie about ...
Posted in Alternative Media | Comments Off on Live from New York…
Wednesday, August 25th, 2004
I haven't yet seen anything from US media sources about Cheney's statement that he opposes the call for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the US, though he accepts Bush's addition of it to the policy platform. That's a weak form of opposition then, and a farily obvious ...
Posted in Society and culture | Comments Off on Cheney opposes opposition to gay marriage
Tuesday, August 24th, 2004
Wondering why some of us believe that the 'liberal' radio format is no substitute for participatory media forms?
Posted in Corporate media | Comments Off on Clear Channel goes ‘progressive’
Tuesday, August 24th, 2004
Following on from my last post on the topic, it seems that tension is rising in Kenya:A 70-year-old Maasai farmer has been shot dead in Kenya as tension mounts over tribal land rights. Police killed the man in Nanyuki, 40 kilometres north of the capital, Nairobi, as he attempted ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off on More on Land Reform
Monday, August 23rd, 2004
Jack Shafer's spirited attack on Ben Bagdikian in Slate makes fascinating reading. It relies however on some fairly obvious logical flaws. The most striking of these is a presumption that since Bagdikian names the five predominant firms in media ownership, if you can find smaller corporations who own a sizeable ...
Posted in Corporate media | Comments Off on Shafer on the Media monopoly
Sunday, August 22nd, 2004
I'm very sympathetic towards the Olympic athletes who have been muzzled by the IOC. Notwithstanding the centrality of television revenues to modern games, I find the concept of ownership of information on results - and especially the stretching of that concept to include people's narratives of their own experiences, which ...
Posted in Freedom of the press | Comments Off on OK, I’ll bite
Saturday, August 21st, 2004
The Irish Times had an interesting piece by the academic Lincoln Allison, in which he advocated for the use of drugs in sport. I was fascinated. I felt there was something problematic about it - especially his contemplation of corporate (drug company) sponsorship of athletes, as walking billboards - but ...
Posted in Rowing, Tobacco and drugs | Comments Off on Drugs and sport
Wednesday, August 18th, 2004
A new Pew report claims that 53% of Americans believe torture should rarely or never be used 'to gain important information.' So the other 47% see torture as something to be used more than 'rarely? Well, the devil is in the detail - only 43% believe that (the other 4% ...
Posted in International Affairs | 1 Comment »