About the video

Hi.

This time our assignment was to watch the video of the New Democracy program (or channel, or whatever it is), and to make a sort of connection between one of the issues raised in the video and the article of Zizi Papacharissi that we have recently read.

First of all, I was really surprised by the manner of reporting the news. Basically, the type of the program surprised me. I don’t know whether it is a common thing to create programs like that, I mean, with straight reporting, then interview, with some inserts with videotaped strikes or something. It was quite interesting and in my personal view it may have sort of direct influence in the audience.

I want to focus my writing on the interview that was shown in the video. It was Eli Pariser, the author of the Filter Bubble (what does the internet hide from you). He was talking about all modern internet searching tools, Google mainly and slightly Facebook; how these companies use the Internet to collect the data about its users, all people basically.

Definitely, I was amazed by what this person has said, but here I have to talk about the things that were mentioned in his interview that are connected with the article. Internet is the public sphere, or, mainly networks are the public sphere. They allow people to gather information on any topic and participate in any discussion they want. As, according to the article, public sphere is always shaped and controlled by the elites, Googlel and Facebook do have an access to any information about the users, from where they are and the IP address of the computer, to what preferences do they have in terms of Facebook “likes”, for example.

Also, as the article has mentioned, public sphere has to allow and promote a sort of communication and citizens’ involvement in the political life of the country. The other episodes of the video, apart from the interview, has shown that people do have a chance to get involved in the communication process, whether by making news being a character of the news itself, or simply viewing the news with the help of modern technologies.

Public Sphere in KZ

Hello everybody!

The last weekends were full of events for KIMEP. Different conferences and meetings were held here.Unfortunately, I had no chance to attend any of them, that is why I have found something interesting to share with you. And as always, it relates to PUBLIC SPHERE))))

I have found an interesting website of the Agency for Civil Service Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. I will just briefly describe how it may relate to the public sphere, and for further information you may follow the link  http://www.kyzmet.kz/?lang=en&id_1=52&month=5

The website contains:

• Information about the Agency which may be useful to site users;
• Laws on Civil Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• “A Fighting Corruption” section;
• Information about civil servants of the country;
• and a forum for the users of website.

For sure, civil service is a part of the social life for any community. As the website represents, one of the questions, or issues, of public service is corruption and how to eliminate it. It can be discussed on the site, and people may learn about different action that have been already taken by the agency.

The site allows people to get necessary information on the topic and take part in the discussion by using the forum. As it was written in Habermas’s article, the place where the discussion on “public” topics can be held can be counted as “Public Sphere.”

Besides, the site allows its users to communicate with governmental officials on the topic and ask questions. This, once again according to Habermas, can be counted as an example of public sphere which acts as a mediator between government and society.

It may not be the direct example of public sphere, the website I mean. Still, it has some features of it that were mentioned in the article we all have recently studied.

Public Sphere. Habermas. Part 1.

Hello everybody!

According to the recent assignment, we are now to make a list of key features of the public sphere which were mentioned in the article written by J.Habermas.

First of all, the public sphere is “a realm of the social life.” It is the space which allows public opinion to be formed. It is an arena where the access to every citizen is provided.

According to the article, nowadays newspapers and other means of mass communication can be considered as a public sphere.

Public sphere also allows reaching a discussion about state activities.

“…The expression “public opinion” refers to the tasks of criticism and control which a public body of citizens informally-and, in periodic elections, formally as well practices vis-a-vis the ruling structure organized in the form of a state…”

Secondly, public sphere can be considered as a certain mediator between society and the state. However, the public should necessary be reasoning.

Earlier, in the middle ages public sphere acted as a unique realm distinct from the private sphere. It’s goal was a representation of power. However, at that period PS represented power “before the people” rather than for the people.

Later, PS represented a guarantee of the public autonomy and restriction of public authority to some functions.

“…The idea of the public sphere, preserved in the social welfare state mass democracy, an idea which calls for a rationalization of power through the medium of public discussion among private individuals, threatens to disintegrate with the structural transformation of the public sphere itself…”

Nowadays PS can be represented as a rational reorganization of both social and political powers under the control of certain public organizations that are constantly emerging.

First chapter post

Hello everyone!

I have found some useful links related to our assignment. I have already posted a link to the website that contains a list of political parties in our country http://www.kazakhstan.orexca.com/kazakhstan_political_parties.shtml The site also gives some information about journalists’ rights and protections.

I’ve also found a list of pressure groups with names of the leaders of these groups. Unfortunately, couldn’t find the description of these groups’ activities( http://www.indexmundi.com/en/facts/2003/kazakhstan/political_pressure_groups_and_leaders.html

Hope you guys will help me to learn more about the, let say, situation with political communications in Kazakhstan.

First post on PC class

Hi everybody!My name is Shumilina Olga and I am a 3rd year BAIJ student at KIMEP. Some of you already know my story so I won’t waste your time for all boring details…)

I expect this course to be very interesting and useful not only for my future profession but for my whole future life in general. I am really glad to join the Political Communication class this summer and I hope to get a good grade by the end of the semester. )

My Second Respond to the Work on Articles

This time I have read an interesting article (even though it was required reading 🙂 ) which is called “What’s Old Can Be New Again – Assisted By Digital Media”. The author whose name is Steve Buttry has wrote this article as a story of himself and his professional development.

His story made me think over the former times of journalists and, let say, printing entrepreneurs when the Internet and as a consequence social media networking was not available and so widely used as it is now. I mean, all this stuff like blogging or tweeting is quite new for masses and for journalist reportings. I can imagine what a breakthrough it was when journalists have discovered an opportunity to share fresh news with the wider audience and in just few seconds. Nowadays in our country it still seems quite innovative and unusual to have blogs or to here such phrase as “I am following you on Twitter”. I even feel myself old or just not fashion not using social networking every day. So, for the first article that I have read for this publication, my point is that today being a good journalist or just an educated person (which sometimes may be quite similar) it is vitally important to get acquainted with all new technologies and facilities that are successfully created for us.

 

The second article that I have chosen to read is called “Reporting Relies on Questions: Now They Come From Readers” by Vaughn Hagerty. What basically grabbed my attention in this article is the point how important the participation of the audience in news making process may be. We may and do participate in it via asking questions on such websites as MyReporter.com, for example. Some of questions that are asked may be useful for the wide audience and may provoke journalists and reporters on further investigations.

Thus we may follow the idea of both participatory journalism and social networking, both contributing to the future of the reporters.

About New Readings

This time we were asked to read two more articles related to our course. The first and obligatory for everyone was an article called What is Journalism’s Place in Social Media; and second one we were to choose ourselves. The very first article was kind of brief introduction to make readers think for a while on the topic. I’ve decided not to make things more complicated than they are and have chosen second article from the list which is called Social Media: The Ground Shifts. Here are some thoughts that have been born in my mind while reading the article.

I personally have never ever thought that simple every day social networking may be useful for someone’s journalism skills. As I have read in the article, many journalists, professional or not, often use such social sites as Facebook or Twitter to share some latest news, or discuss hot topics, or even take an interview in short time. I have also never thought that today online journalism develops so fast and becomes even more popular than printed one. Well, of course I thought about the importance of the Internet in our life, but from this particular article I have learned that for learning and practicing journalism skills many American universities develop different programs or internet sites, which have social networking basis as a core. It is quite interesting and deserves special attention.

I also have thought about my personal participation in different social sites. If I were a real journalists I would definitely use Vkontakte or Moy Mir to share basic and interesting information with my friends; I would also use Twitter and Facebook as they are much more widely used by the whole world. We may also use such sites to discuss news that are already posted.

To conclude, social networking sites are vital for journalists nowadays, and soon this sites will be widely used for advertising or any other stuff like this.

 

How Twitter Helps Journalists

Today in our rapidly developing world Internet has become almost the main source of information and communication. We often use it to share information with each other and with the world. And it proposes us various types of websites, or weblogs, or just social networks. But let’s just think for a while how Internet, or particularly social networks, may contribute to the development of modern journalism, and let’s take well developed and popular network Twitter as an example.

I personally think that social network may help journalists to some extent to develop their profession and to share information with the world. What is easy, first of all, in twitter, is it’s simpleness in use. It requires less time from people to post anything they want and it makes Twitter popular (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitter_for_journalists.php). The only problem is small number of characters that can be post at a time (only 140).

Besides, as I have noticed, loads of different sites have connection with Twitter which  allows readers to connect with it in few seconds. It means that any news or information posted by journalist or any other user on Twitter becomes availiable to everyone in few seconds and we can easily subscribe to follow anyone on twitter.

Also another interesting thing that I’ve read on ReadWriteWeb about Twitter is that it makes interviews easyer. Journalists may take interviews from different persons via Twitter and larger network can easily follow those interviews and probably participate in them.

At this website I’ve also read about other advantages of Twitter that may really help journalists. They are quality assuarance and promotion. They are both connected to writer’s ability to post anything and readers ability to read and give a feedback.  Twitter also helps to find easy answers on different questions. Twitter helps journalists in promoting their articles via short twitter sayings. And many other things can be found.

Thus I can assume that even though Twitter was not created for journalists and their publications It does contribute to their professional developement in modern high-tech world.

Working on the Network Logic

Today I’ve been given a task to look through the article Network Logic by Helen McCarthy et. al., basically through the very first chapter of it, and to try to figure out some main concepts mentionned in this chapter. This is the thing that I’m trying to do now.

The first chapter in Network Logic is basically an introduction to the whole article. As it can be seen from the title of the article, it is about different networks. However, these networks are not basically visible. Noone can even touch them. The thing is, that communication between people always happens by using some means of communication, and often time we do not even know that by simple communication we are creating networks between us. So, an introduction of the article mentions that our world combines different tipes of networks, but there is no single language to help us to communicate with one another.

As it was mentioned in the article, nowadays we pay much atention to networking because of high and rapid computarization of the world and it is very important to figure out the ways that make different connections possible. Also as the part of the article that I am working on is just an introductory one, it appears to be more or less general, but it defines many principles that are holding our world interconnected, whether by social networks or technological ones.

Communication. It has moved from broadcast towards conversational model through creating different networks.

Transparency. Access to information has become the main source of power and all information is available now rapidly through the development of technologies.

Knowledge. Open sourse model appears which provide almost open access to any information.

Innovation. New ideas that are really innovative are depending on the environment where they appear and a good mix of minds and skills is needed to develop them.

Regulation. Networks are dependent on how are they regulated and who are the main participants of them.

Accountability. As it was mentioned earlier, it is important to understand how networks are working.

Ownership and Citizenship. Reminds that owners of the networks or means of communication as well as their participants are responsible for what is happening among them.

Power. In some fields the power of networc logic is more accepted than in others.

In conclusion I would like to say that interconnected world, according to the introduction that i”ve read, helps us much in communication, developing, and becomes more suitable for living.

About rulles and participation

I would like to tell about some rulles of participation in the club that I am the part of – Almaty Subaru Club.

First of all I want to describe this club a little. Almaty Subaru Club is an interest club where people who have the Subaru car are involved. This club is relatively young and was created basically to help people with same interests to find each other; to share their experience and to get an advice about their subaru cars. The registration in this club happens on-line, however there are daily meetings when needed near Family Park in Almaty. So, I am in this club since I have my Subaru and now I can tell basically about some participation rulles and main criteria of this club.

Basically, as it is mentioned in the article We Media, people in this club share same interest concerning their cars and they all have an opportunity to create new connections or widen the existing ones. The members of this club always try to help one another by answering questions on the forum on-line and discussing different problems. It is needed for giving and receiving information (just like in article).

It is interesting in terms of  communicating and participating in a network. It is useful in terms of  guiding young members of the club and helping them to keep an eye on their favorite cars. I like this club and feel myself comfortable there.