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212. Policy making in 140 characters or less: NATO and social media
- Author:
- Lucy Leiderman
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- New media, including web marketing, e-business and social media, is a rapidly growing method for organizations to engage with audiences around the world. With reports that e-business will double globally by 2016, the appeal of online products, services and information is increasing. Will these methods be useful for promoting public engagement with organizations like NATO or security policy think tanks? Moreover, are these methods appropriate for high calibre policy and research, or will they denigrate the information produced? And can the message be delivered in Twitter's allowable 140 characters?
- Topic:
- Security, NATO, Science and Technology, and Communications
213. The Challenge of Social Media in Security Policy Institutions: A Note of Caution
- Author:
- LtCol Mario Masdea
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- "New Media," "social media," "followers," and "likers" are words which in recent years have entered the mainstream of communication parlance. Communicators, researchers and academics enthusiastically underline the power of new and social media, as well as the major opportunity they offer to communicate better and reach a wider audience. Institutions everywhere are involved in the trendy use of these tools, in some cases not so much focusing on the specificities of their field of business as simply spreading information and trying to reach as many people as possible.
- Topic:
- NATO, Diplomacy, Science and Technology, Communications, and Governance
214. Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined?
- Author:
- Nelly Lahoud, Stuart Caudill, Liam Collins, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Don Rassler, and Muhammad Al-'Ubaydi
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
- Abstract:
- This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). They consist of electronic letters or draft letters, totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation. The earliest is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011. These internal al-Qa`ida communications were authored by several leaders, most prominently Usama bin Ladin. In contrast to his public statements that focused on the injustice of those he believed to be the “enemies” of Muslims, namely corrupt “apostate” Muslim rulers and their Western “overseers,” the focus of Bin Ladin’s private letters is Muslims’ suffering at the hands of his jihadi “brothers”. He is at pain advising them to abort domestic attacks that cause Muslim civilian casualties and focus on the United States, “our desired goal.” Bin Ladin’s frustration with regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions and public statements is the most compelling story to be told on the basis of the 17 de-classified documents. “Letters from Abbottabad” is an initial exploration and contextualization of 17 documents that will be the grist for future academic debate and discussion.
- Topic:
- Communications, Al Qaeda, Media, and Osama bin Laden
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia
215. Information and Communication Technologies in Areas of Limited Statehood
- Author:
- Gregor Walter-Drop and Steven Livingston
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on governance where the state‘s ability to authoritatively implement and enforce political decisions is weak or functionally absent – areas of limited statehood (AoLS). How do ICTs influence the provision of collective goods in AoLS, especially in policy fields such as security, welfare and the environment? In addressing this question we focus on the emergence of ICT-enabled forms of steering. Virtual organizations such as Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS enable the coordination of collective goods without the same level of hierarchical structure historically associated with traditional forms of governance. The focus lies on quasi-organizational forms that rely on mass collaborative action across electronic networks. The consideration of these questions is supported by fieldwork in Africa in 2011, and on previous research in Afghanistan and various African countries in 2010. The paper concludes with some tentative hypotheses on the interconnection between ICT, statehood and governance.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Communications, Governance, Internet, and Statehood
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Africa
216. Indian Media's Dickensian Age
- Author:
- T. N. Ninan
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for the Advanced Study of India
- Abstract:
- Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I must confess that the title for this lecture was thought up on the spur of the moment. Still, you might wonder which characters in Dickens' novels we can see in the Indian media. I can readily say that many journalists see latter-day versions of Uncle Scrooge; publishers who want to run their empires on shoestring budgets. Publishers, in turn, will say we have our Oliver Twist journalists, who keep asking their employers for more-even when salaries are doubling every four or five years. We have reporters who are Artful Dodgers, especially when it comes to deadlines. We have bankrupt TV moguls who, like Micawber, are forever hoping that something will turn up. And of course, many readers are like Pip, they had great expectations about the media but feel robbed and are disappointed. But when I fixed on the title, of a Dickensian Age for the Indian media, I had none of this in mind. My thought was the more predictable one, that this is a tale not of two cities but two narratives, competing narratives.
- Topic:
- Economics, Communications, and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- South Asia
217. Mapping Digital Media: German Public Service Broadcasting and Online Activity
- Author:
- Johannes Weberling
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Open Society Foundations
- Abstract:
- Few countries support public service broadcasting more enthusiastically than Germany, where the public service broadcasters (PSBs) are seen as more informal, modern, and entertaining than before, without having lost their reputation for quality. The combined budgets of all the PSBs far exceed the combined advertising revenue of private broadcasters. Yet the PSBs face a demographic threat. Around half of their viewers are over 65 years old, while only 5 percent are under 30. If the PSBs are to safeguard their future, they must attract younger audiences. This means developing services online. At the same time, following private-sector complaints, the European Commission decided the license fee was distorting competition. The PSBs responded with a public value test to assess new services. Debate in this context has centered on two crucial questions: whether or not internet portals and online products fall within the remit of public service broadcasting, and whether PSBs should be allowed to compete for advertising with private media. In this paper, Johannes Weberling explains the German search for an equitable balance between public and private media interests online, in the light of European Union concerns over state aid.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Communications, Media, Public Sector, and Digital Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
218. Mapping Digital Media: Online Media and Defamation
- Author:
- Toby Mendel
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Open Society Foundations
- Abstract:
- The internet is fantastically enabling for the news media, creating previously unimagined possibilities in terms of distribution, audience interaction, and archiving. But it also presents new threats, such as in the area of defamation law, already a significant problem for many media outlets. This paper assesses these problems against international guarantees of freedom of expression and comparative national practice, through both law and self-regulation, highlighting solutions that are more protective of free expression, as well as those that are not. It also probes new ideas such as greater reliance on the right of reply—which the internet enables—and the notion that some spaces on the Internet should be protected against any defamation liability.
- Topic:
- Communications, Law, Regulation, Media, News Analysis, and Digital Policy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
219. Internet Must Stay Free of Intergovernmental Control
- Author:
- Ambassador Philip L. Verveer
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- European Affairs
- Institution:
- The European Institute
- Abstract:
- In the space of half a generation, the Internet has become one of the most important mechanisms on the planet. Every human being, whether aware of it or not, depends upon it for material well being and for broader, non-economic benefits in social, cultural, political, and other realms.The Internet's unprecedented growth is not the only unusual thing about it.
- Topic:
- Communications
- Political Geography:
- United States
220. From Innovation to Revolution
- Author:
- Clay Shirky and Malcolm Gladwell
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Foreign Affairs
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- AN ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE Malcolm Gladwell While reading Clay Shirky's "The Political Power of Social Media" (January/February 2010), I was reminded of a trip I took just over ten years ago, during the dot-com bubble. I went to the catalog clothier Lands' End in Wisconsin, determined to write about how the rise of the Internet and e-commerce was transforming retail. What I learned was that it was not. Having a Web site, I was told, was definitely an improvement over being dependent entirely on a paper catalog and a phone bank. But it was not a life-changing event. After all, taking someone's order over the phone is not that much harder than taking it over the Internet. The innovations that companies such as Lands' End really cared about were bar codes and overnight delivery, which utterly revolutionized the back ends of their businesses and which had happened a good ten to 15 years previously.
- Topic:
- Communications
- Political Geography:
- Iran