COMMENT BLOG
A remark, a critique, an opinion…
Holding video streaming services to account
In 2001, Jack G. Shaheen published Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. In an analysis of over 900 films with Arab and Muslim characters from 1896 to 2000, he showed how moviemakers represented Arabs as heartless, uncivilized, religious fanatics akin to...
The Global Digital Compact: A step in the right direction
In one part of the world, in Nairobi, Kenya, street vendors are doing booming business with “art” generated by artificial intelligence whose pricing matches or is even higher than real art. What constitutes “art” may be in the eyes of the beholder, but it seems no...
Summit of a Future for All?
“Summit of the Future” sounds a bit like an Avengers movie. It is in fact a much-anticipated (and much-hyped) United Nations event on 22–23 September that aims to address the critical issues that are increasingly transforming lives – issues such as climate change,...
Why we must convene local actors to tackle the climate emergency: The case of Radio Ideal
The climate emergency is a challenge of such magnitude that we tend to forget that solutions are often found at the local level and in unexpected places. Such is the case of Radio Stereo Ideal 98.9 FM, a community radio station based in Tena, in Ecuador’s Amazon...
Far-right conspiracies and extremist ideologies depend on social media
How to regulate social media platforms effectively has become the quest of liberal and illiberal governments alike. The one to eradicate hate speech, and the other to control rebellious populations. The UN defines hate speech as “any kind of communication in speech,...
Reclaiming the rings: Why Olympic broadcasting rights need a rethink
The 2024 Summer Olympics – or the XXXIII Olympiad – are finally here! Whether you, or I, get to watch any of the games, livestreamed and in full, is a separate issue. Those of us old enough to remember will recall a time when the Olympics were readily accessible...
Football, free expression, and the defeat of fascism
Football (soccer), the world’s most popular—and we would argue most beautiful—sport, has become a multi-million-dollar industry marked by astronomical salaries, stadiums that look like spaceships, and billion-dollar sponsorship and television deals. The sport is...
Digitalization should carry a planetary health warning
A large part of the world can no longer function without data centres. These are the networked computing and storage facilities that enable the delivery of software applications and data. They are vital to the daily functioning of governments, societies, and users...
It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm
June 18 is the International Day for Countering Hate Speech and June 20 is World Refugee Day. With migrants and refugees often targeted by hate, it can be natural – and even useful – to mark the days together. Certainly WACC Europe, after their 2017 media monitoring...
#GenerationRestoration: Recognizing media on World Environment Day
This year alone has seen devastating floods in Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, China, Dubai, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar. Wildfires broke out in western Canada and Texas. Cyclones swept islands and nations along the Indian Ocean. News reports informed audiences that...
Last chance for a just digital future?
Over the past 20 years, the many structural issues in the world’s communication and information ecosystem tackled by the 2003 and 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) have become more complex, entrenched, and detrimental to democracy and communication...
He who pays the piper calls the tune
The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event to be held in Geneva 27-31 May 2024 will mark twenty years of progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, which took place in two phases – Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005. The...
PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance