Image courtesy The Telegraph I first wrote about the purported abduction of Amina Abdallah Arraf The ‘abduction’ of a gay activist in Syria: A cautionary tale for media. In what can only be called a bizarre twist, the author of A Gay Girl in Damascus turns out to be a Tom MacMaster, an American 40-year-old graduate student. The New York’s Times […]
Tag Archives: Web
3 day training course on new media
I recently conducted a 3 day course on new media for students, coming from academia as well as mainstream journalism, at the Sri Lanka College of Journalism. In 2010, I did a similar course for the SLCJ Faculty and senior administration staff to build internal capacity to engage with new media. Though this outline gives […]
Groundviews for iPad: Lessons for online media
One of the advantages of using a robust and recognised content management system for an online media initiative, such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, is that unlike a custom tailored solution, it is able to leverage the innovation of third party developers. Onswipe is a key example of this. Developed for and now available on […]
Sri Lanka inside-out: Cyberspace and the mediated geographies of political engagement
Save for the treatment of Tamilnet in Mark Whitaker’s book on Sivaram, I know of no other Sri Lankan website other than Groundviews that has inspired rigorous academic study. From as early as 2007, content on Groundviews has been studied and quoted in academic journals, books and media reports. Today I was forwarded Sri Lanka inside-out: Cyberspace […]
It’s ok for government to infiltrate online privacy of Sri Lankan citizens?
A wide-ranging interview published in the Daily Mirror with Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, also the brother of the President, addresses the issue of internet and web surveillance. The relevant excerpt follows: As an IT expert, do you think that it is ethical for a government to infiltrate into the online privacy of Sri […]
New media: The pros and cons
Texts Without Context on the NY Times is an excellent round up and review of books on the qualitative nature, reach and growth of new media, and its implications for the way we produce, consume and understand news. From the infidelity of Tiger Woods to the death of Michael Jackson, the highest peaks of traffic […]
Online Research and Media Ethics
A presentation that I delivered to Young Asia Television today on how to use Google services more efficiently and effectively for web research, how to ascertain the veracity of information online and existing media ethics that frame the publication of and references to online sources.
Intercepting mobile communications: A cogent case for truth-seeking and slow news?
Even if most of us are powerless to completely evade it completely, the pitfalls of mobile phone intercepts are well documented and known. However, two articles recently published on the web can be read as somewhat justifying the use of material thus collected for truth seeking after an act of terrorism. Whether such use justifies […]
From community radio to Internet radio, mobiles and narrow-casting: New models for enduring needs
For more images of Saru Praja radio and the training we conducted, click here. In May this year, a colleague and I went to Nissankamallapura, Pollonnaruwa to strengthen online journalism capacities of a group trained in community radio production and had a decent production studio conveniently adjacent to an ICTA Nenasala. This groups was very […]
IGP now wants to “suspend licenses” of porn websites in Sri Lanka
An order by the Inspector General of Police in Sri Lanka, the same chowderhead who once said women could record themselves getting raped through mobile phones, now wants to the Director General of Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to suspend the licenses of 12 websites which were exhibiting nude photographs. Firstly, none of the websites the IGP […]
