Einar Thorsen

Professor of Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University

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Twitter, Facebook, and social activism

October 1, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

Malcolm Gladwell:

The evangelists of social media don’t understand this distinction; they seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend and that signing up for a donor registry in Silicon Valley today is activism in the same sense as sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960. “Social networks are particularly effective at increasing motivation,” Aaker and Smith write. But that’s not true. Social networks are effective at increasing participation—by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires. […] In other words, Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. We are a long way from the lunch counters of Greensboro.

Source

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: activism, culture, Facebook, malcolmgladwell, media, politics, socialmedia, twitter

General election reinvigorates the power of the press – The Guardian

May 10, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

    Peter Wilby:

    "The cognoscenti's verdict on the campaign was that, since voters could now directly compare the party leaders for 270 minutes on TV, catching every nuance in their voices, watching every twitch of their facial muscles, press power would drain away. Its partisanship, many judged, would look increasingly irrelevant against the calm, controlled format and inbuilt balance of the TV debates. But the newspapers weren't listening. Most ended the campaign more partisan, more hysterical, less balanced than ever. And after what happened to Clegg, who can say they were wrong?"

    External link

    Del.ici.us tags: election2010 media newspapers tvdebates

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: election2010, media, newspapers, tvdebates

The influence of television on the general election – The Guardian

May 10, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

    Peter Bazalgette:

    "Such sudden excitements and their equally rapid evaporation are characteristic of the internet era. This is indeed the "last-minute" generation who turn up in their hundreds to vote at the thirteenth hour and find that they can't get a ballot paper.

    […]

    Tellingly, Cameron said last week that he wanted to forget the tyranny of 24-hour news bites and concentrate calmly and rationally on the business of government.

    Is that going to be possible, particularly when an election, the TV debates and the rest may come our way again as soon as this autumn? If so, a key paradox will be exposed once more. While a mass audience listen to the candidates spar, they then split into a thousand postmodern splinter groups to vote. So remember the classic Riepl's law: innovations in media add to what went before rather than replacing it. We've now got the mass and the micro audience … but we've yet to learn how to maximise them."

    External link

    Del.ici.us tags: peterbazalgette election2010 media tvdebates newmedia socialmedia

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: election2010, media, newmedia, peterbazalgette, socialmedia, tvdebates

Election 2010: who gets the media vote? – The Guardian

April 19, 2010 by Einar Thorsen Leave a Comment

    Election 2010: who gets the media vote? – The Guardian

    Great overview by Mark Sweney on key changes to the BBC, broadcasting, advertising, media regulators and libel promised by the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem manifestos.

    Del.ici.us tags: marksweney election2010 policy media bbc libel regulator advertising

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: advertising, BBC, election2010, libel, marksweney, media, policy, regulator