Media & Society: 13

Twitter and the Arab Spring

New media, new politics? How has the arrival of ‘social media’ changed political communication and reporting?

Slides

Reading

Chapter 5, Couldry, N. (2012) Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity Press, Cambridge; Malden MA.

NB - this is a bit on the long side so if you’re stuck for time, read from the section on p119 “Digital Media, Political and Social Transformation”

Download PDF

Other material

Series of article on illicit attempts to influence elections around the world through manipulation of social media (Feb 2023)
The Guardian, original article ↗️

Series of articles on Electoral Campaigning, Social Media and Smartphone Use in UK 2019 Elections (Dec 2019)
The Guardian, original article ↗️

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

by Richard Brautigan

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

Undersea cable news

Not really ‘internet and politics’ except in a slightly tangential way but this is important if we want to think about the role of technology in politics; and, in this case, the role of ‘simple’ things like internet infrastructure in international relations.

“Dictators can blog too”

Freedom House has - along with its regular ‘press freedom’ survey - a useful explanation of the tools that authoritarian regimes are using to restrain the press.