Global Development

Artificial Intelligence; a journalism issue

13th May 2016 in Current issues, Global Development, Global journalism, Journalism's digital future, Media Freedom, Media Watch, New media

•• MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. “In its quest to maintain a United States military advantage, the Pentagon is aggressively turning to Silicon Valley’s hottest technology — artificial intelligence.” This is how an article in the New York Times begins, on May 13th 2016. And there is a lesson here, for those of us with an interest in global journalism. But first – the story continues: “On Wednesday, Secretary of Defence Ashton B. Carter made his fourth trip to the tech industry’s heartland since being named to his post last year. Before that, it

What is global journalism?

10th May 2016 in Global Development, Global journalism, Journalism's digital future

A few years back, there was much talk about global journalism. Academic programs came to life, and they looked like one another: There were references to a new globalist mentality. There were references to the rise of new social media. There were, in short, a signal of some sort of change to come. And in that reflection, founding both academic papers and more professional accounts, was the idea that the concept of “global journalism” deserved attention as a particular kind of approach to doing journalism and learning about journalism. Me,

Arthur C. Clarke on Education

6th December 2015 in Books reviewed, Education & Technology, Global Development, New media, Notes from the classroom

There is a university that most of us have never heard of, unless you have reason to, or come from a place near by; it is called the University of Moratuwa. At one point in time it was known as the Ceylon College of Technology. If from Sri Lanka, certainly if from Sri Lanka, you will know of the many prizes students from this university have won in international competitions organised by the likes of Google and Microsoft. And one reason for it is Arthur C Clarke, who was the

Disappearing worlds

2nd December 2015 in Global Development, Global journalism

[fb_button] As the Paris talks on climate change receives global media attention, I am reminded by the New York Times this morning of how powerful a news narrative can be once the global frame of reference is melded with the personal accounts of people hit by consequences.In this particular NYT story, three features stand out, one obviously being the theme of climate change itself. The second theme is the way the New York Times breaks new ground as a US newspaper by following the unfolding of a post-Barack Obama political

We are the world, right?

2nd October 2015 in Education & Technology, Global Development, Notes from the classroom, Pop Culture, This week

Notes from the classroom: The importance of being there A lecture with my international students sums up this week, for me. I teach a course in global political communication. I have about eight different nationalities in my class. And this week we were to talk about how the international media frame and cultivate the theme of “global survival issues”; like poverty, climate change, ethnic class division and locked-in despair. Does it matter how the news media report on these challenges? Europe is on fire with refugee challenges. We all sort of tend