YouTube
Is Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign baloney?
With over one hundred million ‘views’ the Kony 2012 video has started a far-reaching debate on the aims and value of a production seen by many as an over-simplification of complex situation.
FULLY BOOKED First Wednesday: KONY 2012 – A force for good?
The recent KONY 2012 campaign video has been met with strong criticism, but nobody can question its effectiveness in reaching a mass audience.
Despite its inaccuracies this campaign has created wider awareness about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) than any news report or campaign that has come before it, so what can be learned? Join us for April’s First Wednesday as we debate whether the KONY 2012 campaign is a force for good or a worrying development in campaigning.
Taliban take questions using online forum
Reuters is reporting that the Taliban have started answering queries submitted to an online forum on their website. Questions have been asked on topics ranging from the Taliban’s negotiations with the United States to their position on educating girls. The Taliban banned girls from schools while they were in power, although there were reports in […]
Behind the scenes: social media at the Israel Defence Forces
This is an extended news report on the Israel Defence Forces’ social media activities including interviews with the soldiers updating the various IDFSpokesperson accounts. The video is a year old, but I’ve been looking for this sort of material for a while. The IDF started with a blog and a YouTube channel in 2008 during Operation Cast […]
Just for YOU: NATO launches WE-NATO social media platform
NATO has launched a new interactive social media platform called WE-NATO. It’s primarily a WordPress blog which will attempt to encourage an "eye level conversation with netizens out there in the web". WE-NATO also wants to livestream a series of talks and conduct video interviews in the run up to the NATO summit in Chicago […]
Social media from the front line
Major Paul Smyth is one of the people responsible for changing the Ministry of Defence’s approach to social media particularly in the context of front line operations. I’ve spoken to him previously for the Frontline Club about his Frontline bloggers project. In this interview with David Bailey, Maj. Smyth talks in some detail about how […]
Footage from Pakistan plane crash site posted to YouTube
Earlier today a plane crashed in Pakistan killing all 152 people that were on board. The Airblue aircraft came down in hills north of the capital, Islamabad. Footage from the scene of the aftermath was posted to YouTube and highlighted by the CitizenTube blog. In June, CitizenTube said it would increase its focus on finding […]
CitizenTube highlights plight of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan
CitizenTube, run by YouTube, recently announced that it would be providing a breaking news feed of video that is uploaded to its website. It has ‘dallied’ with news videos in the past around the Iran election protests last year and the Los Angeles wildfires but says it will be increasing its "focus significantly" over the […]
Reporting the Moscow Metro bombings
ПоÑмотреть на ЯндекÑ.Фотках (Link to Tatiana Krasnova’s album) Two female suicide bombers were believed to be responsible for the deaths of 38 commuters in Moscow at rush hour this morning. Russian officials say that 60 people were also injured in the attacks at Lubyanka and Park Kultury Metro stations. There are more details here […]
2 Rifles firefight in Afghanistan
Here’s a very short video of a recent firefight in Helmand province courtesy of Michael Yon’s recent embed with the British Army. I seem to have slipped into videoblogging these days. I’ll write something soon…promise. Maybe you prefer the videos anyway.
Iran Election: links on media coverage 2
The same deal as yesterday but today instead: Al Jazeera English Journalist uses Twitter to get commentary on Iran. BBC Changing the website to green was NOT a gesture of support to the protesters. Director of Global News says UGC offers authenticity to BBC coverage. Have Your Say team interact with Twitterer. Jon […]
How the IDF fell off the social media bandwagon
I’ve been thinking for a while about how the Israeli Defence Force used social media during the conflict in Gaza and I’m not at all convinced the campaign was successful. Yes, the IDF was right to engage with the Internet and social media. But the way they went about it was questionable. I have two […]
Inside Out – December 06
It was vintage Marie Colvin. It was 19 October and the Frontline Club was heaving, jammed with journalists and human rights activists gathered to pay tribute to the Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya had been murdered in the lift of her apartment building in Moscow six days earlier. Emotions were running high in the Forum, […]
Stream on
The online video invasion has been promised for over a decade but in 2006 it finally arrived. High broadband penetration, reduced bandwidth costs, social networking sites like MySpace and easy to use video-sharing websites such as YouTube, Google Video and Guba have all contributed to explosive growth. And while the business models of the video […]