Global Media News

Global Media News Webcsast #4: February 27, 2014

Global Media News for Thursday, February 27, 2014

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.   We scour the web for news about the world's media.

This week on Global Media News: 

• House of Cards Escapes Censorship in China?
• CCTV Exposes Sex Trade in Dongguan
• Brazilian Facebook Users Leaving for WhatsApp?
• Brazilian App Rates Dates:  Privacy Issues?
• Film Censorship in India
• Syrian Electronic Army Strikes Again!
• Three Deaths in Brazilian Media
• Mexican Social Media and the Drug War

This is our fourth webcast of the season!   See you next week!

Listen to our next webcast from the New Media Newsroom  streaming live on Thursday, March 6 @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, March 6, 2014.

Subscribe Now!

Woman in Spain Convicted for Instilling Fear and Terror on Twitter

    Alba Gonzalez Camacho, 21, posted messages requesting for terrorist organizations to return to Spain and kill politicians.  After these tweets were seen, it did not take much time for her to get arrested and "convicted for inciting terrorism using a social media network."  According to Raphael Minder: 

It was the first verdict of its kind involving Twitter posts in Spain, and the case has touched on issues of where precisely the cultural, political and legal red lines lie in a country that not long ago lived under both the grip of Fascist dictatorship and the threat of leftist terrorism.

    This case has brought attention to social media and what should be limited in what people say on the internet. Camacho, claims she is "unaffiliated with any political organization. " At the same time she was tweeting for the terror organization known as the Grapo to kill conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. According to Minder she wrote, 

I promise to tattoo myself with the face of the person who shoots Rajoy in the neck.

    Although, Grapo no longer is a current threat to Spain, what Camacho did is being seen an act of terrorism and she was sentenced to one year in prison.  Most likely she will avoid jail time with a plea bargain because this is her first offense.  Camacho explains she had no intention of threatening Spanish society that her intention was to,

fight a system in which a minority lives on the back of the death, misery and exploitation of a majority in a country where the euro crisis has sown widespread economic despair.

    Camacho's attorney feels that she was just practicing freedom of expression, but the Spanish Courts believe she went to far and her freedom of expression became threatening 

Working Class Teens Choose Whatsapp Over Facebook In Brazil

Juliano Andrade Spyer wrote an article for the UCL on January 9th about the new popular app called "Whatsapp". Last June and July there was false news about the government in Brazil trying to close down the internet and Facebook users were the majority of people to stand up and protest. This year, working class teens are starting to migrate away from Facebook to join Whatsapp.

Spyer said in his article, "Among my working class informants, Whatsapp is more useful because it works better on their mobile phones, and the mobile phone tends to be more important
for them than the PC." Spyer also explained how a PC is usually shared within a family compared to a moble phone which Juliano explains to be "one person’s exclusive possession".

Before Whatsapp became popular, a moble phone with a camera and a memory card to store music was enough. People are now purchasing new moble smart phones (such as the Android OS) because it is "perceived as the best platform to have Whatsapp running".

Whatsapp is said to run better on an unsteady internet connection and not very powerful smart phones. It loads faster and sends and recieves messages almost instantly, unlike Facebook. Spyer said it is "understood as a sort of Bluetooth solution where people didn’t have to be near each other to exchange files." Music, video clips, voice clips and pictures are what is most commonly exchanged.

Whatsapp is more of a private app where you are either talking to one person, or a specific group. Whatsapp also does not have a "timeline" like Facbook. People are said to feel more at ease to "be themselves" when it comes to sharing private information because they know other people do not have access to their conversations.

People are starting to use Whatsapp for business and work, bizzare humor and sex, entrepreneurship, maintaining a virtual presence, and exchange local information.

Australian TV Host Commits Suicide

According to BBC News, Australian TV star, Charlotte Dawson was found dead at home, on Feb. 22, 2014. Charlotte Dawson, who was 47 years old, lived in  the inner city of Sydney. Dawson was the Australian Television personality who hosted the show "The Contender Australia" and she was also a judge for Australia's "Next Top Model".

Dawson was found dead by a real estate agent who had arrived at her property to inspect it for its upcoming auction. Police say that Dawson had a long history of Depression and there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. In 2012, she was admitted to ST. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney after attempting to commit suicide due to much publicised battle with "Twitter Trolls", on the social media site Twitter; in which she also publicised her suicide attempt by tweeting: 

"Hope this ends the misery... You Win!"

She posted that tweet before taking a cocktail and downing a hand full of prescription pills on August 29th, 2012.

After recovering, the incident fueled Dawson's committed anti-bullying campaigning through her work with charities such as "The Community Brave Foundation" and "Angels Goal". Fox News claims, she made fighting bullying her personal mission, waging an anti bullying campaign on television, magazines, as well as her beloved Twitter. 

The Telegraph reported that Dawson spoke about her former husband Scott Miller, to her close friend Richard Wilkins a day before she was found dead. She hoped he would make a recovery from addiction. She tweeted a week ago:

"Hoping Scott Miller a man I love very much can recover and become a great dad to Jack. So sad @60mins."

Aside from dwelling on her ex-husband, before Dawson's death, she said to be under significant financial pressure, having borrowed up to 80,000 from friends. The strain from that was also showed in her tweets, as well as her depression, which was broad casted on the social site Facebook as well. 

The police are investigating her social media sites to see if she might have received any abusive messages from "cyber trolls". The investigation will also include a toxicology report to see whether she had or had not taking medication. 

Since news of her death, a petition calling for tougher cyber bullying legislation has received more than 42,000 signatures. The proposal legislation has been named "Charlotte's Law". 

 

Political Netflix Drama Excused from Chinese Censorship

Dialogue between two characters of hit show House of Cards raises concerns. Vice President Francis Underwood played by actor Kevin Spacey states "Mao is dead. And so is China", to chinese billionaire Xander Feng played by actor Terry Chen. According to Sinosphere a blog in the New York Times: it's not often one hears a line this politically provocative on a Chinese-state-regulated platform.

China is one of a few countries that are very strict when it comes to censorship in regards to music, radio, internet and television. Sohu one of China's leading internet portals has safely secured the rights to broadcast the House of Cards first three seasons. What would come off as very delicate issues for China, the House of Cards reflects in its show. Issues relating to money manipulation, tension between China and Japan and corrupt lifestyles of Chinese leaders. Even though this television drama has high emphasis on China, the show has yet to be subjected to censorship from the Chinese government.

Its not often you get a U.S program played on Chinese media but with over 27,000,000 views and counting this show has become the trending topic of Chinese media, also grasping the attention of high chinese officials who are actually fans of the show. In this video from Daily Motion, it shows the impact this show is having on a country in a short span. Prior to any release of a show, all shows that are to be aired must be extracted for any political risks by an internal censorship team.

James Bond Film Skyfall released in mainland China earlier this year was requested by censorship team to delete a scene in which Bond kills chinese authority. China's top anti-corruption czar Wang Qishan had confirmed that he is a big fan of House of cards, this may be a lead to why the show did not undergo censorship prior to release. Sohu's founder Charles Zang admitted that when they secured the license for the House of Cards they weren't aware of of the China-related plotline according to Sinosphere, but decided to air the show con-currently with Netflix in the United States.

Not to often does any form of media or news get a pass before the censorship process, but with 27,000,000 views the 1st season and becoming the most watched television show on Sohu for this week, it seems to be alot of support from all angles also ranking this show 13th behind mostly mainland China shows.

Venezuela Can't Afford Paper They Print News On

In an article written by Juan Nagel from The Foreign Policy Group. Nagel discusses how Venezuela's newspaper companies are slowly dying. The problem is not stemming from the market but because of the government. Citizens in Venezuela need their news. I think this is another example of how print is dying and not just in the United States.

Over the years Venezuela has been very critical of the government. multiple television channels, and commercials showed how much they were against President Hugo Chavez. Newspapers were the most difficult thing to calm. the reason why is because one came out every single day and everyone read it. So now the government started limiting advertising space in Venezuelan newspapers, refusing to place certain ads. According to Monitoreo Ciudadano a President named with Non Governmental Organizations in Venezuela

"President Nicolas Maduro has averaged 28 minutes everyday of mandatory simultaneous TV and radio broadcasts, locally known as "cadenas," or chains." -Monitoreo Ciudadano

Citizens of Venezuela believe that the government cut down reporters access to government sources, and have set up pro-government newspapers to compete with established newspapers. This situation is getting worse because now the government is cutting important content out of newspapers. Which means eventually they will just stop the selling of newspapers and when you do not sell papers, you will not have enough money to pay for the paper you print them on. It is not fair to the citizens trying to get their news, and now they are being deprived of that right.

One of the oldest newspapers within Venezuela announced on January 29th that it had to cut down the content in their paper called El Nacional and was a company since 1943. Cutting out content means that soon their will be no content at all. As I see it, it is a warning to the citizens that the government has officially taken control over your newspapers. El Nacional is not the first paper in this domino effect. There is another paper called El Impulso is starting to limit their content as well. Most of the smaller newspaper companies have closed. It is now said that Venezuela's allies in the region frequently put pressure on multiple newspapers.

Not only are newspapers fading away in Venezuela. Internet speeds are at an all time low. Citizens feel that television news does not give them reliable news they need. How are these people going to listen or learn to anything if they have no access to any type of news? Most Venezuelans got there news from newspapers in the first place. This is just another unfortunate story of how a region is getting there freedoms and media taken away from them. It shows in the end that the goverment in any given region has control over everything you hear, and print as we know it may be dead soon.

Woman Tweets After Being Shot in Kiev

Frederik Pleitgen wrote the article on CNN I read, and it was titled "Symbol of Ukraine's uprising emerges from a tweet".  The article talks about a volunteer medic in Kiev, Ukraine named Olyesa Zhukovska who was shot by a sniper. After she was shot she did what no one think is possible, in 140 characters or less. 

    Zhukovska was shot in the neck and had blood dripping down to her hands. Yet she still had the physical and mental strength to get to her phone and tweet to show the world what was going on in Kiev. She tweeted "I'm dying" to her followers, she didn't know if she was going to live let alone have her tweet go viral. 

    Luckily for Zhukovska she lived and will get to tell her story when she is feeling better. As for now she is just walking for the first time. She says in the article that it hurts to speak and eat. She is lucky to have had her Tweet go viral and show what is happening over in the Ukraine, but she is even luckier to be alive.

    The Ukraine government is in the middle of a rapid change. There is really no one in charge and two different forces are trying to take over the government and be in power. Unfortunately they are doing this violently. There hasn’t been any word from the president in days and looks like he left to be safer somewhere else. It is dangerous for everyone in Ukraine as these two sides battle for power as we saw how dangerous it was for Zhukovska. 

    I personally can't believe how powerful social media can be. It is great that this tweet got out and we can see now how bad things really are in Kiev. It shows that everyone can be heard over social media. Twitter is a powerful platform for bad and good but this time it showed how good it could of a platform it can be. Luckily for Zhukovska she gets to live and brought light to the uprising in Kiev, Ukraine. 

    Below is a picture of Zhukovska in the hospital after going through surgery to help her survive the gunshot wound. The picture is courtesy of Mail.com. 

 

Nigerian UBA holds a Social Media summit for Journalists.

“Does One Platform Suit All? What Does It Profit Us?  What Can You Teach Me About Social Media? and Ethics: Why It Matters in Social Networking?” are four questions to be answered at a social media summit being held to increase the usage of social media in Nigerian Journalism according to AllAfrica.com. The one day summit entitled “Functional Social Networking for Nigerian Journalists” was held in Lagos at the Amphitheatre.

Everything Journalism in collaboration with The Journalism Clinic and United Bank for Africa (or UBA) put this event together in hopes of making Nigerian journalists more social media savvy. Phillips Oduoza, a CEO at UBA says the event was put together because they have noticed “the creative disruption happening in the media space.” They would like for all of the journalists in the country to have the ability to properly use social media and also hope for a path way to success to be set for the Nigerian media industry.

According to Vanguardngr.com in his opening address Mr. Taiwo Obe said that there is “urgent need for the Nigerian media to tap into the strengths inherent in social media so as to remain business when the digital revolution is complete…” It is great to see that the country is recognizing their faults and are working toward ensuring that their journalists, current and future, are able to stand next journalists from all over the world and have the same knowledge. If this event is deemed a success hopefully they will continue this to hold this summit in years to come.

The day long event included panel discussions; with a wide variety of panelists including managing online editors, web designers, travel writers, authors, bloggers and online editors all who were there to assist Nigerian journalists in expanding their presence on social media. The event was open to anyone who pre-registered.

 

Saudi Arabia has its First Female Newspaper Editor

Saudi Arabia is  a country that is known to be very conservative and male dominated even in the media industry. Somayya Jabarti has been deputy editor in chief of the Saudi Gazette for a very longtime, she never thought that she would become editor in chief; especially in a country where females have so many restrictions  on them. CNN.com reports that, Somayya has been working under her mentor editor in chief, Khaled Al Maeena.

Khaled appointed Somayya the position due to hardwork and dedication stating that""I've had the goal almost as long of wanting to see a Saudi woman enter the male-dominated bastion of editors-in chief, it was not a question of gender but of merit that decided and earned her this opportunity."She has received a lot of support on social media but is unsure of how the country will react as a whole. Somayya was quoted by CNN saying that ""It is a male-dominated field, like many media in the world," she said. There will be challenges, but there is ground to be broken. This is just the starting point."

According to CNN.com reporters Leone Lekhani and Michael Pearson, Somayya started in 2003 in journalism as a reporter and also a translator for Arab News which Khaled Al Maeena was also in charge of. She became deputy editor in chief at that  newspaper in 2011 then joined the Saudi Gazette with Al Maeena also. I feel that it would be very challenging and rewarding  for Somayya to take on this massive role of expressing the issues of such a conservative country. I think that it would be a challenge because this is a country that is ranked at the bottom when it comes to freedom of the press and  she has the responsibility of writing about sensitive topics that would either have her put in jail or punished.  It is rewarding for her because as a female she was given the opportunity to express herself in ways that majority of females in her country have not. She is doing the impossible in a male dominated society; she was also recognized and respected by her peer who is a male. I believe she is giving hope and inspiration to other females in her country.

 

Global Media News Webcast #3: February 20, 2014

Global Media News for Thursday, February 20, 2014

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.   We scour the web for news about the world's media.

This week on Global Media News: 

• Covering Sochi:  Did Putin Get What He Paid For?
• Ant-Gay Propaganda Laws & the Media
• Turkish Press Censorship
• Social Media in South Africa
• Sensational Coverage of the Amanda Knox Case
• Google vs. France:  Privacy in the Age of Data

This is our third webcast of the season!   See you next week!

Listen to our next webcast from the New Media Newsroom  streaming live on Thursday, February 27 @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, February 27, 2014.

Subscribe Now!