Global Development

Uncharted homeland territory

31st October 2017 in Global Development, Media and Politics, Media Watch, Power, Trump Watch

Disrupted: The politics of belonging David Brooks, in the New York Times this morning – October 31st, 2018: “What you see is good people desperately trying to connect in an America where bonds are attenuated — without stable families, tight communities, stable careers, ethnic roots or an enveloping moral culture. There’s just a whirl of changing stepfathers, changing homes, changing phone distractions, changing pop-culture references, financial stress and chronic drinking, which make it harder to sink down roots into something, or to even have a spiritual narrative that gives meaning

The Planet and the Donald

22nd April 2017 in Current issues, Global Development, Global Economy, Media Watch, The Global Economy, Trump Watch, Watching the Donald

A New York Times opinion editorial, April 20th 2017: Will we recover from the Trump presidency? Perhaps not: The thing with climate change is we don´t have much time, and not much is happening — so what happens when what little is happening gets reversed? “President Trump’s environmental onslaught will have immediate, dangerous effects. He has vowed to reopen coal mines and moved to keep the dirtiest power plants open for many years into the future. Dirty air, the kind you get around coal-fired power plants, kills people. It’s much the same as

Fresh Air Radio — on a Saturday

19th November 2016 in Economic growth, Global Development, Journalism, Media Watch, Opinions, Stupid!, Trump Watch, Watching the Donald

It´s the economy, stupid: Bill said it–did Hillary listen?Sometimes you wish Bill was back, but there´s another story I have in mind right here: Not the story of how Hillary Clinton failed to take Bill Clinton´s most important piece of insight with her into her own presidential bid. Not, the story of how her failing to address the fundamentals of economic inequality in a convincing manner, led to the election of a president and subsequently a cabinet with far more of a racist inclination than what is the case with

A lecture on global journalism

28th September 2016 in Global Development, Global journalism

Connecting journalism to global development Journalism is undergoing changes spurred by media technologies. Media ubiquity is reshaping much of our thinking about cultural and political development. From this point ov view we may want to revisit some of the classics in the study of the media and modernizaton — that is the confluding thought in this particular lecture. A lecture coming up this morning on globalization, media development and journalism prompts the following question: What is the connection, or whether there is one in particular? How does one unite these

Leaning on a class to make sense

3rd September 2016 in Global Development, Global journalism, Media and terrorism, Media Watch, Notes from the classroom

Every fall semester I teach one of my classes in English, with about 20-30 foreign students visiting our university for a semester. We had our first meeting yesterday. And as always I wonder before class starts whether there is enough in the chosen lecture theme to get them out there on the floor, debating. They need to. A class with 55-60 students total and where no one talks for an entire semester is a failure. Have I hit the right buttons in my preparations? I was thinking that question to

The future and the future of journalism

7th August 2016 in Global Development, Global journalism, Innovation, Internet, Journalism, Journalism's digital future, Media Watch

Understanding the globalization of journalism entails reflection on a wide range of factors – not just factors shaping journalism as such, like the coming of social media and the so-called “sharing economy”, with Google stealing alle the advertising with a smarter scheme. Discussions are found everywhere concerning these aspects of the future of journalism and how journalism is being affected by new technologies – disrupting established practices and financial models. Now, what about climate change as a phenomenon, escalating cultural and civilizational conflicts, the interlocking of the world into one

Terrorism, attention and the media

6th August 2016 in Current issues, Global Development, Global journalism, Journalism, Media and terrorism, Media Watch

What determines news coverage and how does it apply to terrorism? The idea that terrorism is PR and journalism has a dramaturgical quality is an idea with a long history, but also a history made extraordinarily relevant with the attacks in the US on September 11th 2001, resulting in the epic, metaphorical – and also – fall of the Twin Towers on Manhattan, New York. Dramaturgy implies drama, but also staging. This having been said, we are reminded every day that the relationship between the media and terrorist organizations is

Globalization – a challenge for journalism

2nd August 2016 in Global Development, Global journalism, Journalism, Journalism's digital future, Media Freedom, Media Watch, New media

What is the idea of global journalism and the critical discussion all about? Why spend time researching and critiquing something that seems both inevitable and general, vast complex and subject to a myriad of interpretations? Journalism has been going global for centuries – it has been in the DNA since invention: Yet, it seems like the invention of the internet and the world wide web om key respects completely changes the point with the discussion concerning global journalism. Below are some reflections and resources for studying and reflecting on the

On the life and death of innovation

2nd August 2016 in Economic growth, Global Development, Innovation

Listen to Robert Gordon talk about the future of growth and innovation – or the lack of it. This TedTalk, from February 2013, presents an argument that the US economy has been expanding wildly for two centuries, but is now slowing to a halt, if not a stop. Are we witnessing the end of growth? Economist Robert Gordon presents and explains factors like epidemic debt and growing inequality, which could move the US into a period of stasis we can’t innovate our way out of. The talk begins with a