Friday, 31 January 2014

Wikileaks...keeping the bastards honest


Up until the 17th Century Royalty controlled the media until the Industrial Revolution bought about changes. From this change activists such as the Puritans and Karl Marx started to emerge.

 These activists provided a necessary social debate where parties argued it out in engaging debates between good and bad. The presses freedom of speech proved to be what was needed to provide a good and ethical government.
Now we jump forward to the 21st century where personal computers and the Internet have provided a new platform for the general public to become involved in media making and partaking in a participatory culture. Wikileaks fuels this participatory culture by providing an outlet for whistleblowers. They are not causing trouble for trouble sake but providing a site to disseminate information.
 
This transparency of information I believe reduces government and corporate corruption by just being there. Knowing there is a body like Wikileaks could make people think twice about their unethical actions.


Henry Jenkins, one of the great brains of our Digital Future said
Powerful institutions and practices (law, religion, education, advertising and politics) are being redefined by a growing recognition of what is being gained through fostering – or at least toleration through participatory cultures.
 As Jenkins said social media is redefining these institutions. These institutions need to rethink their game plan or be honest and upfront. Big Brother is out there or maybe we should call Wikileaks the annoying Little Brother.  Julian Assange is not a criminal, no court of law has convicted him of any criminal act. So I believe both he and Wikileaks are practicing their civil rights as derived by Article 19 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Wikileaks).
everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
P.J Proudon, another 17th Century political / anachist was quoted as saying: To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished ... which is a mammoth task for any government or country. So to have Wikileaks and Julian Assange around now and in the future to provide ethical auditing and to keep the bastards honest is reassuring, long live Freedom of Speech.



REFERENCES
Jenkins H, 2006. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture Author: Henry Jenkins Publication: New York: New York University Press, cop. 2006. Viewed 20 January 2014 <www.uoc.edu/uocpapers/4/dt/eng/jenkins2.html>
Only in America, 2013. Edward Snowdon Julian Assange Do Read. Blogspot. Viewed 20 January 2014.  http://onlyinamericablogging.blogspot.com/2013/11/edward-snowden-julian-assange-do-read.html

 Proudhon PJ, P. J. Proudhon in the Revolution of 1848, Mary B. Allen The Journal of Modern History
Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1952), pp. 1-14, viewed 20 January 2014 <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1871978?uid=3737536&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21103329046911

Wikileaks, 2014. Why Wikileaks and the Media is Important, viewed 20 January 2014 <http://wikileaks.org/About.html>

Friday, 17 January 2014

OIL & WATER = POLITICS & SOCIAL MEDIA


Politics and Social Media is equivalent to Oil and Water. To let the beaucratic, single-minded, egotistical, incompetent leaders of our country loose on social media without any PR filtering is a high risk to the successful future of any political campaign.
 Don’t get me wrong Politicians have a tough job. They are trying to do right by a nation with constant scrutiny from their opposition. Prior to social media Politicians would rely heavily on PR activities to connect to their public. These activities were highly orchestrated to a level where the Politician would be told what to wear, what to say and how to smile. Their responses would be scripted and rehearsed.  
 Introduce Social Media into the mix and the free flowing thoughts of Politicians are fodder for the public. Social media can be a powerful Political tool, which could make or break a campaign.
As explained by the Media Scholar Henry Jenkins - Politicians can use ‘participatory culture’ to be linked to potential voters via social media. Ordinary people can connect or ‘participate’ with politicians via their social media sites. They can consume what the Politicians or their Communications teams are creating and in turn potential voters can contribute directly to the campaigns via social media – feel connected to the campaign. In the case of Barack Obamas 2008 campaign the majority of the campaign was run and won because of social media.  
A survey revealed that 30 percent of registered voters were encouraged to vote for Obama or Romney by friends and family through postings on the social media sites (Kennedy 2012)
 13 million emails, nearly 4 million donors, 2 million members of the My.BarackObama.com social network and tens of thousands of engaged activists changed the American political landscape via its digital activism.
Without the Internet Obama could not have afforded to win the number of voters that he did. As Howard Rheingold explains the power of collaboration;
Cooperation interaction = survival of the fittest in business
Rheingold’s theory relies on the interaction of the people in the communities, Politicians like Obama have had great success in this field and other Politicians can do well by learning from this campaign. 
In order for politicians to be a Social Media success, they don’t need to be young or nice to look at, they need to be genuine, natural and unscripted and know and believe in their Parties policies enough to confidently voice their own opinions. Unlike this babbling response from ‘The Talented Mr Shorten’ LINK

REFERENCES
Kennedy, K 2013, ‘Use it or Lose it: Social Media in the 2012 US Election’ Pulitzer Centre. Viewed 4 January 2014 <http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/social-media-role-young-voters-increase-future-US-elections-Obama-Facebook-Twitter>
Liberal Party TV, 26 April 2012. ‘The Talented Mr Shorten’, You Tube. Viewed 4 January2014 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFELLK8htKM>
Rheingold, H Feb 2008.  TED,  ‘Howard Rheingold - The new power of collaboration’ 1.41, viewed 4 January 2014 <http://www.ted.com/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html>