Einar Thorsen

Professor of Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University

Publications | Conferences | Teaching | Projects

PGP Public Key
Finger print: 5568 022B F641 362E D18B BCCC 1FC5 CA72 FA67 FDF9
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Phone
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Powered by Genesis

Saddam Hussein vs Osama bin Laden: Announcing the demise of your enemy

2 May, 2011 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

I was rather struck by the tone and manner in which Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden today, and particularly how it contrasted with that of the Bush administration when they captured Saddam Hussein in 2003. See below clips for some interesting rhetorical and stylistic comparisons… [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, iraq, Osama bin Laden, Paul Bremer, Saddam Hussein

Collateral Murder

5 April, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

    Collateral Murder

    "5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.

    Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

    […]

    WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions."

    Del.ici.us tags: iraq reuters murder military journalists war wikileaks

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: iraq, journalists, military, murder, reuters, war, Wikileaks

BBC World Service – Documentaries – Citizen journalism – democracy or chaos?

9 September, 2009 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Michael Buerk talks to bloggers and critics from Sri Lanka, Iran, Burma, and Iraq on BBC World Service.

‘Authenticity’ is what citizen journalists believe they are about, seeing themselves as Davids fighting against Goliaths. But critics point to problems of fakery, manipulation, partisanship, bias, and lack of accountability. Why it should be assumed that ‘the little man’ is necessarily morally superior to ‘the big organisation’?

Yet in countries where freedom of expression is repressed, it is bloggers who are challenging authoritarian regimes in ways traditional journalists cannot. Citizen journalists are enabling the rest of us to read stories and to see pictures that repressive regimes would rather stayed secret.

The critics remain vocal. What has really been achieved? Small victories, perhaps, but no Watergates as yet. And will this phenomenon extend democracy or end in chaos?

[…]

‘What is going on,’ he reports, ‘is a struggle between old power and new technology for the control of cyberspace itself.’”

Listen to part one of the broadcast here:
BBC World Service – Documentaries – Citizen journalism – democracy or chaos?

Filed Under: Citizen Journalism, Links Tagged With: bbc world service, burma, Citizen Journalism, iran, iraq, myanmar, sri lanka