Why political posts on Facebook will always be polarizing.
The very nature of Facebook makes in antithetical to political debate.
Politics
Journalism and politics are inescapably inter-twined.
Social Media
What will the next generation of social media-savvy politicians look like?
An attempt to mock Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for dancing in a video when she was a student opens up the question of how social media will impact the next generation of politicians.
culture
Even in the depths of the social media backlash, there’s reason for hope
At the end of a session at LCC [http://www.arts.ac.uk/lcc/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-journalism/] today — I’m doing a small series of workshops on social media in journalism for the 2nd year undergraduates there under the auspices of Russell Merryman [http://www.arts.ac.uk/lcc/people/
It's not just journalism, it's politics too
Jim Waterson writing for BuzzFeed UK [https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/labour-tories-facebook-campaigns]: > Tory and Labour digital strategists have told BuzzFeed News that their ability to reach millions of ordinary voters could be under threat as a result of Zuckerberg’s tweak. Senior staff at both leading parties have raised
espionage
Chinese intelligence services using fake social media profiles to gather data
Reuters [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security-china/german-intelligence-unmasks-alleged-covert-chinese-social-media-profiles-idUSKBN1E40CA] : > Germany’s intelligence service has published the details of social network profiles which it says are fronts faked by Chinese intelligence to gather personal information about German officials and politicians. I think it’s fair to say that social networks have
Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Sullivan on the danger of self-righteousness
Andrew Sullivan on absolute fire [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/the-danger-of-knowing-youre-on-the-right-side-of-history.html] in his weekly column for New York Magazine: > No party, no cause, no struggle, however worthy, is ever free from evil. No earthly cause is entirely good. And to believe with absolute certainty that you
fake news
Social platforms: perfect propaganda delivery tools
This post by JP Rangaswami resonated with me, because it summed up one of the areas digital seems to have gone wrong [http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2017/10/30/on-platforms-and-sustainability/]: > So is that it? Back to seats and eyeballs, channelled not connected, “audiences” sucking up linear “content”? Back to a
encryption
Amber Rudd is unfit to regulate technology
It’s not often I make a statement as bald as the one in the headline of this post, but this is appalling [https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/amber-is-alert]: > Asked by a party member whether members of her government actually understood how encryption worked and the difficulties in forcing
cyberattacks
An early sign of Russia’s infowars
I think we can safely file this 2016 New York Times piece [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/world/europe/russia-finland-nato-trolls.html] under the “we should have taken this more seriously” category: > But pro-Russian voices have become such a noisy and disruptive presence that both NATO and the
Facebook just doesn't care. And yet we've handed it the keys to our civilisation
Nearly a month ago, The London Review of Books – of all places – published the most eviscerating attack on Facebook [https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n16/john-lanchester/you-are-the-product] I’ve yet seen. And the more you read, the more you find yourself nodding along in a mixture of agreement and
digital culture
Underestimating the digital power of Russia's intelligence operations
Buzzfeed [https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/some-in-congress-dont-get-the-gravity-of-russian-election] : > In an internal memo to CIA employees last December, CIA Director John Brennan complained that some members of Congress he had briefed about the agency’s assessment that Russia interfered in the US presidential election did not “understand and appreciate the importance
anonymity
When A Trump Troll Is Outed
Talking of trolling, the New Yorker published an interesting piece by Adrian Chen, looking at what happened when a pro-Trump Reddit-dwelling troll was suddenly brought into the glare of publicity when his Gif went viral — and his true identity was established. [https://i1.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/