Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
We have heard lots recently about social media. Things like Facebook and Twitter which weren’t around 10 years ago are now powerful forces in the world. Experts have been particularly interested in how social media has impacted the changing Middle East.
One of these experts is Zeynep Tufekci. She has particular interest in”the social impacts of technology and social media.” She has made numerous media appearances discussing these issues as they pertain to the Middle East.
We at USDemocrazy had the good fortune to interview her recently (See above).
This interview is the first of a series we are offering in conjunction with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Talking Heads blog.
Check out the video and give us your thoughts.
The guy behind the @MayorEmanuel poetry is revealed!
We get boycotting the Olympics to protest the Soviet war in Afghanistan and stuff… but boycotting over a logo? Leave it to Iran!
Will these big stars give away the money they got from Gaddafi?
This? Just go with it:
What would we do without gloopy newborn baby pictures? One Maryland hospital is banning cameras during childbirth.
Being less cynical as a new year’s resolution? Ha, as if that would even work.
Watch the new Congress unfold and look at the little nervous freshers!
And in must-see videos of the day… Josh Groban puts into song the tweets of the Great Kanye West:
And who says tweets aren’t powerful? See the ones with the most influence here.
Can’t flirt in person? See how to do it best, at least online.
BIG NEWS!!! More airline fees!
Thanks to Wikicommons and Gimp
As the great sage Shakespeare once wrote: “To Tweet or not to Tweet? that is the question”.
Yes, since the Sixteenth century pundits have argued the value of social media. But today the discussion seems to have reached a new level.
As the US imposes sanctions on Iranian officials for their violent crackdown in the aftermath of Iran’s presidential elections some are questioning the hero of those protests, Twitter. Is it really a good weapon for today’s trendy revolutionary?
Malcolm Gladwell, in an article for the New Yorker hits hard against social media as a revolutionary tool as it recruits lazy revolutionaries:
Social networks are effective at increasing participation—by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.
In a deeper blow to Tweeters, Gladwell draws on history noting
If Martin Luther King, Jr., had tried to do a wiki-boycott in Montgomery, he would have been steamrollered by the white power structure.
Asia
North Korea recently joined YouTube and Twitter, using the social media platforms to mock South Korea and the United States. Interestingly, the messages are aimed at South Koreans, not at North Koreans, who are denied access to websites like YouTube and Twitter.
Europe
Ladies of Italy, rejoice! Venice is soon going to see its first female gondolier! Until recently, the trade has been limited to men due to the tradition of fathers training their sons to become gondoliers. Now, there is a course in becoming a gondolier and more women can try their hand at the profession.
Middle East
There’s another controversy involving Facebook! An Israeli soldier posted pictures of herself smiling and posing next to blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian prisoners, causing an uproar among Palestinian groups. The Israeli Defense Force has released a statement disapproving the picture, but the soldier sees nothing wrong with her actions.
What the Tweet? from GOOD.is on Vimeo.
We love infographics – especially ones about media. Watch the video above, but make sure it’s full screen. There is a ton of information to catch.
GOOD and Part & Parcel put this animation together to show the breakdown of tweets. Despite a large amount of people sharing information through Twitter, most of that information is coming from old media sources like newspapers Maybe what they found isn’t shocking, but it’s interesting to consider.
We’ve heard over and over again that print media is dead, that nobody reads newspapers, and that nobody listens to the radio.
However, this information paints a different picture. People are consuming old types of media. The difference is not that old media is dying, it’s that the way humans interact with that media is changing.
Sending links to news articles or radio broadcast through tweet is a great way to peak the interest of followers. Interestingly enough, most of the tweeting is about technology.
To see a comprehensive still image of the information covered in the video, look here.
How to answer a sad question from a little girl whose mom could face deportment? See video above.
“Hey guys, wanna go chill at McDonald’s?” The company behind the golden arches wants to get you to “linger.”
Bee kind! Save our honey bees, eh?
Is ur Twitter accnt ruining ur vocab? Beware the effects!
Is Putin re-building the Union? How a common currency could instigate Soviet memories…
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed terrorist? “Jihad Jane” helped target cartoonist.
Colleen LaRose … was “the weird, weird, weird lady who lived across the hall,” neighbor Eric Newell tells the Allentown, Pa., Morning Call. ”We always called her the crazy lady.”
Thanks, Wikicommons
We here at USDemocrazy are taking time to reflect. We would much rather do that then listen to our editors!
This week features a look back at 2009, and today reflection will be political in nature.
Seeing that we are in the season of giving, how about the ten perfect gifts for the politicians in your life? …read more.
SHOCKING NEWS!!! OBAMA DOESN’T TWEET!
That’s right! We’ve learned all those messages on your Twitter feed from the President are really written by his staff. But don’t worry…all US Democrazy tweets are entirely written by us (at least until we can afford a staff).
Now that that is taken care of…. lets talk about the important news, like the comments President Obama made during his current visit to China (No offense to Tweeters but I am limited only 140 characters on stories related to Twitter).
The actual news is that Obama announced he is opposed to China’s “Great Firewall”. This firewall blocks Internet traffic such as Youtube and Twitter reaching Chinese citizens.
via the Associated Press
Not in my Back Prison Yard! :With all the talk of Gitmo closing soon, an Illinois prison may be in line to take “a limited number” of terror suspects. Some local politicians are suspect of these suspects.
Collateral damage: Although we tend to see war in terms of deaths, economic costs, and physical destruction, a new study on birth defects in Iraq may have discovered new unintended outgrowths of modern warfare.
Tweet to Space: Tomorrow’s Space shuttle launch will have a new interactive twist. For the first 100 to sign up, NASA will use Twitter to give people a first-hand look at the launch.
Ooops… The New York Times has uncovered compromising emails sent by lobbyists for Big Pharma company Genentech to members of Congress. What’s the big deal? Some legislators have taken these emails’ talking points and inserted them word-for-word into speeches and statements.
Michael Steele laughs at Arlen Specter on T.V. Did we just hear a collective “Awwwww…” from the left?
I’ve search your person, you pockets, and your luggage. Now may I have your D.O.B. to make sure you’re not lethal?
Hey Google! Thanks for saving our butts! Love, Twitter.
“Russian Vodka Consumption Shocks Even Russians.” We believe that is enough said.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
The newest on the highest bench. Sotomayor confirmed by the US Senate.
NOT TWITTER!!! Twitter gets taken down by black hats.
Already hard at work. New NASA satellite checks out far away planets.
Lee and Ling, pardoned in North Korea
In recent weeks, months, and years (millenia?) there’s been a lot to say about North Korea.
Whether it’s running jokes about North Korea’s leader on late-night TV…or a professor of international relations stressing out on the radio about the DPRK’s nuclear tests , or anything in between, we here at USDemocrazy have heard it all.
Surely you’ve heard of the imprisoned American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling (pictured above) and their release from a hard labor camp in North Korea. (If not, that’s ok… It was on our “What’zup today?” page yesterday!)
The two had been working along the border of North Korea and China, when they were arrested (for spying) and have been held in prison for the past five months, until yesterday.
The two were employed by Current TV, a news channel founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Big Al expressed his joy at a news conference iat the airport where the two landed safely in the United States. Gore mentioned:
It speaks well of our country that when two American citizens are in harm’s way that so many people would just put things aside and just go to work to make sure that this has had a happy ending.
Gore is referring to the outreach from (mostly online) movements to free the two. The site www.lauraandeuna.com and the very active Twitter page tried to raise awareness about the two women’s plight.
Much has been said, too, about just how the pardons from leader Kim Jong-Il came about.
It’s widely known that former President Bill Clinton took a trip to Pyongyang to work his southern charm on the other side of the world.
Politico wanted to know how Bill Clinton got the gig as negotiator for the non-Obama-administration affiliated mission:
In a mid-July phone call to their families from captivity, the two journalists passed along an astonishing offer: North Korea would be willing to grant amnesty and release them, if Bill Clinton would agree to come to Pyongyang as an envoy and seek their release.
Clinton is now being hailed by many as the reason the journalists saw U.S. soil so soon.
However, the Obama administration was sure to mention at every opportunity there was no message whatsoever from their administration to the naughty rogue Kim administration.
Still…Obama was, however, pretty happy with the job Clinton (and Gore) did.
Of course, in true American fashion, not everyone was wholly happy with the “Mr. Clinton goes to Pyongyang” situation. Former ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, John Bolton, said in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered:
The symbolism of a former president going to meet with Kim Jong Il I think is something that benefits Kim Jong Il a lot more than the United States, and it only encourages others to do the same thing.
Bolton is sure that Iran is watching this concession: Act up, hold Americans hostage, or otherwise, and you might get some diplomatic talks out of the situation. (And Bolton isn’t the only skeptic on the situation, either.)
Even people in Seoul, South Korea are a little befuddled about the talks with Mr. Clinton, and how they could affect future North Korea/world politics.
So, what’s left to be seen is a lot: What will this mean for six-party nuclear talks? Will North Korea be more willing to engage in diplomatic talks anytime soon? How will the U.S. proceed in its relationship with the DPRK? What will Bill Clinton do next?
Thoughts?
