Journalism

What is political communication?

Big question, simple explanation Following up on a previous post explaining the reasons and formats for these ‘concept videos’, a few more will follow. In this particular video I reflect over the concept of political communication. Where does the concept come from? How relevant are classical theories and models today? Why ought students of social science today to know something about the origins of political communication as an academic theme and a scholarly field? To provide an example of whyt we should ask, one might consider the book in the

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What is global journalism?

Big question, simple explanation In this video I go though basic issues and questions related to the concept of ‘global journalism’ – what it means, and how it is being used. Should we understand ‘global journalism’ as a particular style of news reporting? Or do we concentrate on the political economy of globalization? These questions are raised for a simple reason: ‘Global journalism’ has become a term, used generally and also particularly to refer to university&college degree programs. All of thich begs the question: What is it, really all about?

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Fresh Air Radio — on a Saturday

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

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Rhetoric and propaganda in journalism

Notes from a lecture: The main change since my first time doing this lecture, is the ways in which these concepts now have become commonplace in journalism critique. They did not use to be. But anyway — what is propaganda? And how does it relate to the study of rhetoric? A group of smart MA students meeting tomorrow to discuss the matter. By way of an illustration, here is one of those old-time Hollywood propaganda stunts — propaganda is not a new phenomenon, and neither is good propaganda. But again —

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A lecture on 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

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Freedom, justice, and the news; the question of Snowden

A conference on democracy and religion, migration, power money A few days back, Edward Snowden joined the 2016 Athens conference on democracy, hosted by the New York Times, in the company of Ken Roth who is the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. The close to one hour long interview was conducted by Steven Erlanger – the New York Times Bureau Chief in London. And it is most definitely worth a watch. Mr. Erlanger starts by asking why Mr. Snowden does not come home to face the charges and risk the

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Leaning on a class to make sense

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

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The future and the future of journalism

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

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