Citizen Media and the Perils of Technology Shifts

Ivan Sigal, Executive Director, Global Voices

Tuesday, 1st March 2016 at 4pm in Rm 0.14, Bute Building

Commercial social media platforms and their shaping of online speech now dominate citizen media, and shift how we write, speak and make images. The concomitant decline of the single-author blog points to a shift away from coherent online writing and toward fragmented online speech, visual conversation and increasingly, closed group conversations not accessible by search. We will examine the implications for social media reporting and public conversation, and consider possible future directions for this tech shift.

Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society: UK State-Media-Citizen Relations after the Snowden Leaks

Arne Hintz and Lina Dencik, Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society project

Wednesday, 2nd March 2016 at 4pm in Rm 0.05, Bute Building

The 18-month ESRC-funded research project Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society has explored the nature, opportunities and challenges of digital citizenship in light of the governmental surveillance measures revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Four research teams investigated the responses to the Snowden leaks in the areas of policy, technology, civil society and news media, and they analysed implications for civil rights, the public understanding of surveillance, the accountability of government, the security of technical infrastructure, and the roles and responsibilities of journalists. The project’s investigators will present final results.