There’s a couple of nice quotes from my colleague Ben Scott, policy director at the media reform group Free Press, in a Salon.com story on Net Neutrality entitled "The Telecom Slayers": In his Capitol Hill office, Scott keeps a small framed photo from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." It is the famous scene where…
Category: Politics
Media Shift asks “Can human rights videos go viral?”
Mark Glaser, on the PBS-sponsored blog "Media Shift," recently posted about the new WITNESS "Human Rights Video Hub". Mark asks "so what if you could take videos shot by citizens of human rights violations, such as police brutality or torture, and got them to go viral, bringing more attention to the crimes?" He quotes from…
Correlation between griefing and violent game play?
The excellent Game Politics blog recently did a little investigating of claims by Louisiana attorney general Jack Johnson and other anti-game violence politicians. Apparently Johnson has been touting an American Psychological Association study that he said had found that violent video game play causes real world violent acts. I happen to know the current chair…
Human Rights Video Hub launches – fighting impunity with technology
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the human rights group WITNESS is piloting a new "Human Rights Video Hub" in association with international blog aggregator Global Voices Online. Their first efforts focus on a police shooting in Malaysia and a series of protests in China. After participating in some of the initial consultations on…
Chinese protestors take to YouTube: You can’t stop the signal!
Global Voices Online reports that the Chinese police recently cracked down hard on a large protest in Rui’an, spurred by the mysterious death of a young school teacher ruled a suicide by authorities. Nothing new there: Chinese citizens protest, they get a beat-down. The twist is that now cameraphones are common accessories among Chinese citizens,…
Joystiq on Gov Warner virtual campaigning
Dennis McCauley in his latest column on Joystiq has a nice summary of the Second Life virtual campaign stop of Governor Mark Warner. He makes the important point that Warner’s visit was good for the reputation of online gamerz everywhere: For the online game community, the former Virginia governor’s Second Life stop was a definite…
Last word on Gov. Warner’s SL appearance: Would you vote for this avatar?
After a restful weekend up in Vermont, I come back to find out that there has been a good bit of media coverage on former Virginia Governor Mark Warner‘s appearance in Second Life last week. Notably, the Washington Post has a humorous piece on some of the confusion and griefing at the event. Hamlet Au…
Short video of Governor Warner’s SL appearance
Presidential hopeful Governor Mark Warner appeared in Second Life today for an interview with Hamlet Au of New World Notes. To give you an idea of what the event was like click on the image for the You Tube video, or here’s a downloadable quicktime version (17 Megs). I’m sure Millions of Us will be…
Governor Warner speaks on Iraq, Democratic Party, Abortion in Second Life
As some predicted, it wasn’t more than a publicity stunt, but Governor Mark Warner’s appearance in virtual form in Second Life still was a historic occasion. When a possible contendor for the US Presidency makes a pit stop in a virtual world, you have to think that something new is in the air. Others, particularly…
Governor Warner brings real world politics into the virtual world
The blogarati and the media are abuzz about the Second Life appearance of Mark Warner in Second Life this afternoon. Getting boingboing‘ed doesn’t hurt, of course. My buddy Hamlet Au at New World Notes made a very last minute announcement yesterday night that he will be interviewing possible presidential candidate Mark Warner, the former governor…