social media

As IREX launches its Promoting New Media and Media Convergence in Russia program, examples of how new media is changing the nature of communications and media continually appear. The new generation of Russians is completely entrenched in new media and is now learning how to influence public opinion (both in good and not so good ways) in the country. A recent scandal surrounding President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Moscow University School of Journalism offers proof of this evolving environment.

What’s changed and what hasn’t changed since my first foray more than 20 years ago into international education as a high school student on a friendship tour in the USSR?  As I reflect on the field of International Education this week along with colleagues from around the world, the word shrinking comes to mind in positive and negative ways – a shrinking world, shrinking resources, and shrinking time.

A recent report from News Group International analyzed trends in social media around the Arab Spring, specifically looking at the footprint and characteristics of online discussions immediately before and during the political uprising in Egypt. It highlighted a trend in the online discussions that demonstrated the inter-connected nature of economic frustration and political upheaval, even highlighting a tipping point in January 2011 when the demands of political defiance overtook the discussion of economic frustration.

On behalf of IREX, I am pleased to announce that 22 diligent Azerbaijani students and their mentors won netbooks and flipcameras in a recent national contest for the ‘Best Research Essays Using Internet.' One hundred and sixty nine candidates entered from all over the country, notably Sumgait, Guba, Shirvan, Imishli, Ganja, Gazakh, Sheki, Zagatala, Ismayilli and Mingachevir. Plagiarism was penalised, with positive results.

As we approach World Press Freedom Day on May 3 and consider its theme of 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers, our thoughts naturally turn to the Middle East. Over the last four months, citizens there took to the streets to demand change. We saw two seemingly entrenched regimes toppled. We see several others on the edge of collapse. And we see how news and information has broken free of the control of these regimes.

News coverage in the immediate aftermath of the bombing at Domodedovo airport came not from the television, but from blogs and tweets. Television news was slow to react to the terrorist attack. However, it did eventually switch to live coverage which dependended heavily on using YouTube footage and twitter feeds as primary source material.

In a world where —according to tech-guru Richard Graves— “mobile phones are king,” how do practitioners engage youth in the social, economic, and political development necessary for lasting reform?