Director’s Blog

By Chrysostomos Agapitos (Polis Summer School student, 2010)

Some years ago, I came up with this naïve idea for a short story. The plot revolved around a group of people being locked up in a room whose walls consist of millions of distorting lenses. I never actually wrote that story down. But, thinking it over through the years, I kept asking the same question over and over again: Could our world be similar to this?

Over the years the globe has become smaller, forcing people like Marshal McLuhan admit that we are all living in a “global village”[1]. The new techniques that have emerged to serve the needs of market economy have affected our perception of two significant dimensions: Time and space compression, is, according to David Harvey, one of the major traits of this era[2].

Telecommunications and media played a major part in this outcome. In their attempt to facilitate capitalistic endeavors, it was media technologies that promoted the transition towards the overcoming of spatial barriers in the first place[3]. As history has shown, changes in technology might result in outcomes  no one could ever have predicted beforehand. (more…)

LSE

This is a paper submitted as part of the Polis Summer School

The limits on freedom of expression in journalism by Rebecca Hales

A western European, when questioned on the subject of freedom of expression, might wave his or her hand in a vague easterly direction and boldly claim the privilege of a comparatively free press and liberal broadcast organisations.

Formally, freedom of expression is considered a universal value but just 17% of world’s population enjoy what is widely considered to be a ‘free press’.[1] This essay will identify and explore the three levels of limitation on free speech that all journalists in the modern world have to negotiate, not just those working in countries historically perceived as being non-democratic or ‘not free’.  (more…)

LSE Summer School

This post is an essay from Polis Summer School student Steffen Horstmannshoff on the idea of objectivity in the age of new media.

Introduction

“If you use social networks for both professional and private activity then use separate accounts.”(1) Such can be read in a manual by the international news agency Reuters that was published on the 10^th of March 2010. For the ones asking “And why exactly should I do that?” Reuters has got an answer as well: “Put simply, we’re expecting you to apply standards to your professional use of social media that will probably differ to those you would use for your personal activity.” (2)

The authors of the manual aren’t clear about what standards exactly they are referring to but implicitly it is quite obvious: They are referring to impartiality and objectivity – two concepts of journalism that are getting increasingly contested in the New Media Environment. This case study sheds light to a rather heated discussion between “old” and “new” media. A discussion that centers around questions like: (more…)

The Ambiguity of Blogging by Polis Summer School Student, Nadine Makarem

An international celebrity “Tweeted” in May 2009:

“Laying in bed this morning contemplating how amazing it would be if somehow Oscar Wilde and Mae West could twitter from the grave”.

The absurdity of this statement makes it comical, but the idea of media providing information from beyond the boundaries of reality is not only significant, but quite common. (more…)

Polis Summer School

If people feel that mainstream media is ignoring alternative politics, then they can now create their own media. But how should traditional journalism respond? Should it change its ideas of impartiality to reflect the real diversity of contemporary politics? This is Polis Summer School student Steven Linett’s course paper that tackles this complex problem, citing media around the rise of US Militia movement.

How impartiality and objectivity in journalism changes in the New Media environment by Steven Linett

The new media environment has helped level the playing field for those outside the mainstream media to publish and disseminate their views to the world.  This environment appears to be a godsend for the participatory models of democracy, which “emphasize the importance of ‘real’ citizens’ participation and their more active involvement in democracy (Barber 1984).  As such, they criticize the radical separation of citizens from power, the elites and democratic institutions through representation” (Bailey, et al. 2008). (more…)

“My son was nearly nineteen years old,” Mohammed said. “He wanted to be a doctor. There’s a photograph of him”-he waved his hand vaguely-“somewhere, wearing a stethoscope.” He made no move to get it, as though already discouraged by the effort. His wife begun to cry again.

“Mysterious are the ways of God,” he said. There had been no warning that his son would join the militants. “He willed it. He did it. That is all. He was a good, silent, obedient boy. He was my son, but, more than that, he was my friend. He was here, dawn to dusk, every day, day and night.”

(The New Yorker, Letter from Kashmir: Between the Mountains, March 11 2002)

This sort of story is sadly not a novel one in journalistic discourse. It is the sort of vivid and humanising picture that the best journalists strive to create. Yet, in all its familiarity, if we are honest with ourselves it can be hard to truly recognise that this prose was written about someone. Nor do most genuinely connect with the idea that it was written by a reporter who sat looking into the eyes of grieving parents in a way none of the consumers ever do. (more…)

Summer @ LSE

One of the joys of the LSE and the Polis Summer School in particular, is seeing different political philosophies collide. Katy Kinney from Iowa is active in one of the heartlands of American democracy, a state famous for its special role in the US elections. So perhaps it’s not surprising that she found it thought-provoking and even challenging when we discussed freedom of speech and the role of Islamism online from different perspectives.

A Test of Democracy by Katy Kinney

A great man, George Washington, once said, “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” Another, David Ben-Gurion, said, “The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.” (more…)

That's Alternative

How do you define Alternative Media in an age when the Internet provides so many alternatives? Hyper-local blog expert Will Perrin came to Polis Summer School to join in a day of debate on that subject. This was the response from Summer School student Fatymatou Dia:

Since the beginning of the course, I have been struggling with definitions  for journalism in the digital age: What is media? What is new media? What is alternative media? What is journalism in the first place? (more…)

LSE Summer School

Kevin Anderson (@KevGlobal) gave a positive history of the virtues of new media journalism in a talk to the Polis Summer School that captivated most students. But as Summer School student Joanna McNurlen reports, social media at its most un-mediated can create profound problems. Do we really want total freedom of digital expression?

When Documentation Becomes Reality

by Joanna McNurlen

Let us begin with a typical college party: music blaring, Solo cups everywhere, drunk people falling over one another… and don’t forget the cameras, capturing it all. You can’t go to a college party without seeing people (usually girls) snapping off rounds of photos to document their presences in the social scene. The next morning (or later that night), these young women upload their photos to Facebook and broadcast their social achievements to their friends and compatriots on Facebook. Comments pour in as users cheer the evening’s tidings or lament their failures to attend. For the picture-takers (who are, in the sense of new media, photojournalists), the purpose of attending the party soon becomes not to interact with people but to document their interactions with people: the documentation of reality becomes reality. (more…)

It's My Show

In this guest blog, my colleague Dr Damian Tambini gives his analysis of how Nick Clegg achieved that break-through for the Lib Dems thanks to last week’s TV debates. A mixture of body language and power games did the trick, but what does it mean for our ability to handle coalition politics? (more…)