Techno-media
French book attempts sex, loyalty, internet definition of 'generation y'
Are they pretentious, or just ambitious? Unfaithful to their company, or just looking for a way to unite their professional and personal lives? Riddled with nuances, this is a portrait of generation Y as viewed from France
techno-media, precarity, internet, technology, economical crisis, society
Shitstorm
What do an elephant hunted by an outed Spanish king and a poem critical of Israel by a German nobel prizewinner have in common? The German internet world called them ‘shitstorms’ of current news situations, picking up on a stateside phrase whose usage doesn’t seem to have spread across the EU
World radio day 2012: tuning into a decade of mass medium Europe
As the first unesco-organised ‘world radio day’ takes place on 13 February, we trawl through our archives to see which radio-related news marked EU member states on our citizen media pages over the last ten years. When Poland and Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, two quite different radio programmes defined their societies: the haughty ‘Radio Maryja’ being a catholic radio programme supporting right-wing ideology in Poland, whilst the happy-go-lucky ‘Radio May’ was a successful bilingual Greek-Turkish Cypriot station. To this day, radio has continued to make political airwaves in Serbia, Hungary and Kosovo. Radio also marks an evolving cultural trend: by 2007 we were listening to pan-European online radio programmes, which led a year later to a music revolution. Read the special edition (Image: (cc) u2canreed/ Flickr)
- Read the special edition World radio day 2012: tuning into a decade of mass medium Europe
- Fired public radio satirists - 'Berlusconisation France'?
- 'Prishtinali': urban faces in a raw capital
- Hungary: Klubradio’s silence
- Radio Maryja: piety and xenophobia on Poland’s short-wave
- Interview: the success of Greek-Turkish Cypriot Radio May
ACTA, megaupload and kopimism: it'll all be e-right, just don't click download
The internet is looking pixelised. In the course of just a few months, the online community has downloaded an all-encompassing anger. The closure of megaupload marked the launch of an attack against piracy by various opaque laws and international treaties. The children of the internet are now searching desperately for the link which will take them to their favourite TV series, which form part of their virtual culture. The protests of citizens unable to find a balance between their rights and their responsibilities continue, expressing fear of the end of a system where ‘everything is free’. In times of uncertainty, some people worship the god of ‘copy’, others worry about the huge bill which they will have to pay when everything changes and others still envision the birth of e-rights. None of them are willing to lift their hands from the keyboard just because the authorities say so.
- Read the special edition ACTA, megaupload and kopimism: it'll all be e-right, just don't click download
- A future post 'consumption', that deadly 21st century internet disease
- Isak Gerson, founder of kopimist church: 'File-sharing' is not 'stealing'
- Megaupload vs Sopa and Pipa: it'll be e-right on the night
- Megaupload, FBI, anonymous: internet battle over copyright
- Are you confiscating my ipod? EU citizens against ‘Acta’ treaty
Political husbands' and wives' circus in Europe
On 24 January the wife of disgraced former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Anne Sinclair, made her debut as the editor of the first European version of the American news website Huffington Post. Our French, Spanish, Polish, German, Italian and British editors react on the choice
techno-media, arianna huffington, dominique strauss-kahn, opinion, citizen journalism, society
Itanglish: new Italian dialect?
With their trendy gossip over social media, sometimes in a chat live online, Italians have integrated English words into their common vocabulary to a surprising extent. Does Italy still speak Italian? Or has the country switched to Itanglish, the new Anglo-Italian hybrid dialect?
techno-media, italy, tower of babel, society, multilingualism, language
Peace in 2011: 'solutions to conflicts do exist’
From democratic aspirations to the transformation of the media game, Cathy Van Dorslaer, a Belgian psychologist specialising in the prevention of conflicts, explains why she believes 2011 stood under the sign of peace
techno-media, josé luis rodríguez zapatero, democratisation, egypt, psychology, europe, yemen
Paul Lewis: call him ‘special projects editor’
At The Guardian, the award-winning British-Spanish journalist, 30, handles investigative news in an innovative method via social networks and micro-blogging sites – it even helped him crack stories about two murders. Interview
techno-media, brunch, london, journalism, internet, riots, guardian
GPS: taking directions from a woman
Most satellite navigation devices predominantly use female voices – and German BMW drivers can’t cope with them. Is this sexism or science fiction?
techno-media, feminism, germany, gps, best of cafebabel.com, men and women, consumers
French caricaturist on satire magazine petrol bombing
On 2 November the Paris HQ of Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly satire magazine, were completely burnt in a Molotov cocktail attack at the next day's planned release of the paper called 'Charia Hebdo', dedicated to Tunisia's moderate islamist election victory. One French cartoonist replies
techno-media, controversy, newspaper, islamophobia, islamic terrorism, news, society
Elections 2012: glimpses of social network Putin-bashing
On 7 October, the 59th birthday of Vladimir Putin, one pro-kremlin activist composed a couplet with a nod to a soviet-era poem, ending with the words ‘thanks for this Putin’. The rhyme provoked a deluge of tweeted criticism levelled at the Russian prime minister. Could this be the beginning of a protest wave?
techno-media, russian federation, dmitry medvedev, internet, vladimir putin, facebook, twitter
Spanish user describes 'big bad twitter'
‘21st Century Agora’, the ‘New Public Sphere’ and the ‘Fifth Power’ - the micro-blogging service has been labelled many things since its launch in 2006, some of which seem grandiose and others which don’t sound right at all. Labels for twitter are a variation of the following three themes: that it is a place, a medium and a tool
techno-media, culture, technology, libya, democracy, 'indignant citizens' movement, egypt
Environment: the maggot in Steve Jobs’ apple
While tributes to its CEO Steve Jobs flood the web, don't forget Apple’s lack of green credentials
techno-media, apple, capitalism, death, internet, consumers, media
