Stories about Media & Journalism from February, 2008
Barbados, Cuba: Castro's Legacy
As David Thompson praises the Castro legacy, Barbados Free Press says: “A damned shame. We had hoped for better from the new Prime Minister.”
Africa: Interrogating the blogosphere
Koluki interrogates the blogosphere by looking at the Globl Voices Online coverage of “Portuguese-speaking African countries”: “The most striking observation from this graph is that OC appears not only, as we have seen before, as the “undisputed champion” of GVO reporting about the “Angolan blogosphere”, but also as the “champion”...
Trinidad & Tobago: Cultural Preservation
“Even as we fret about the loss of our historic architecture, we are losing the architects of our history”: Blogging from Trinidad & Tobago, The Liming House writes about the importance of preserving “our collective memory.”
Japan: Advertisers abandon print, move online
Japanese blogger and journalist Fujishiro Hiroyuki at Gatonews summarizes results [ja] from a report [ja] issued by Japan's largest on ad agency Dentsu on advertising sales in Japan over the year 2007. The figures indicate a shift away from newspapers and magazines and toward online media: compared to figures from...
Jamaica: School's Out
“Jamaican teachers have taken a stand that they will no longer tolerate the impish, rude, violent and classless behaviour which takes place in our schools”: Jamaican Lifestyle blogs about the island's “bad behaving school children.”
Taiwan: Release Netizen!
The Hong Kong sexy photo gate effect has extended to Taiwan. Police has arrested a netizen who shared photos with others under local obscenity censorship law. Portnoy pointed out that the police has no power to define the nature of the photos, and Taiwanese has the right to enjoy pleasure....
Bermuda, Guyana: Government Media
Politics.bm blogs about the implications of state-owned media in Bermuda.
Barbados: Strike on Hold
Barbados Free Press reports that the national strike is on hold, while Notes From The Margin says: “We…always felt that the Union had painted itself into a corner by reaching for the ‘big gun’ prematurely. The lateness of this climb down also has several knock on effects that may be...
French immigration minister: ‘France isn't racist’
Forum Realisance summarizes French immigration minister Brice Hortefeux's recent interview [Fr] with Jeune Afrique in which he discussed DNA testing for immigrants, immigration quotas, expulsion and other controversial issues, finally stating, “No, France is not racist.”
Colombia: New Television Channel Zoom TV
Campus Comunicativo [es] writes about a new university television channel called Zoom TV, and lists some challenges, including how much influence will the government have on the message and content.
China: Political Mistake
Zengying blogs about his experience of making a serious “political mistake” in a local T.V station at the end of the 1990s. It was about a T.V drama which had been shown in the central television station. Eventually he found out that the mistake was the pronunciation of the name...
Afghanistan: Balkh Still Uneasy Over Language
Mohammad reports that university teachers, students, cultural activists, writers, poets, journalists and youths dramatic held a protest rally against the information minister in Balkh, a city in Afghanistan. The protesters said they had staged the demonstration against the official persecution of three journalists for using Persian words in their reports.
Caribbean: Castro – End of an Era?
The buzz in the regional blogosphere for the last 24 hours has undoubtedly been the retirement of Cuban leader Fidel Castro after nearly 50 years at the helm of the socialist republic. The announcement hardly came as a surprise, what with the last couple of years of anti-Castro bloggers closely following reports of the leader's deteriorating health and speculating as to whether or not he was even alive.
Egypt: Young People
The Arabist links to a feature by the New York Times on young people in Egypt.
Bahrain: New Restriction on Media
Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif lashes out at a new “restriction’ on media in the Arab world.
Cuba: Castro Steps Down
Cuban bloggers are abuzz with news of Fidel Castro's retirement: Babalu Blog: “My emotions are in turmoil”; Child of the Revolution: “I know that when it comes to Castro, nothing ever is what it seems”; Review of Cuban-American Blogs: “Nothing has changed for him or Cuba”; 1Click2 Cuba: “Monarchs excepted,...
Barbados: National Strike?
As Barbados seems headed towards a national strike tomorrow, Cheese-on-bread! says: “Well, well. The last time I saw this level of adamance a whole Government fell.” Notes From The Margin adds: “National strikes are like atom bombs, they are great weapons to threaten with, but actually using them makes both...
Uganda: Bloggers tangle with mainstream media
The blogren had their collective eye on Uganda's mainstream media this week. One blogger "treads where the brave dare not go" by posting photos from a tragedy near the capital, while another criticizes the government paper for its seeming support of rapists.
Africa: The Grassroots Reporting Project
Afrigadget has launched a new project, The Grassroots Reporting Project: “A combination of mobile phones and computers will be assigned to individuals in 10 African countries for the purpose of getting more on-the-ground reporting of stories of African ingenuity to the world. An AfriGadget editor will be in charge of...
Tanzania: Paying for electricity without electricity
Pernille writes about media, politics and change in Tanzania: “When the Tanzanians got their electricity bills for January 2008 there was an increase of 30%. Not because they had consumed more electricity, because power is still lacking. When the government ‘bought’ the generator from the Richmond firm, they borrowed 179...
Kazakhstan: Repeated Inter-Ethnic Violence?
Lena B-va reports on the strange incident of an alleged inter-ethnic fight in Kazakhstan between Turks and Kazakhs – the case had been covered by the Turkish press, but omitted in the Kazakhstani media.
