Social media
Matt Baggott on flag protests, Boston tapes, G8 summit, drones & social media
Tweet It’s all looking a bit fraught. We need a recovery plan. The words of the Chief Constable Matt Baggott describing the fortunes of his football club rather than the PSNI’s response to the flags crisis. Though the words must echo what went through the PSNI senior officers’ minds when the flags crisis didn’t abate [...] more »
Grillo’s 25% demonstrates the extent Italy’s disbelief in Politics…
Tweet So, those of you who have just finished sniggering at Gerry’s tweets, listen up to the news from Italy. Berlusconis has not gone, and the left have not arrived. In fact the big ‘clown’ is in control of the Senate. Still not laughing I hope? Well, Demos have some research that gives us some [...] more »
Coming to terms with the Internet will not entail switching it off, but facing and evaluating fears
Tweet Gavan Titley has it about right. Moral panic is about the best way to describe the latest outbreak of social media bashing in the Republic. The first political party in the south to take to the business of engaging online was Labour, as this report from Damien Mulley outlines. The first Twitter storm I [...] more »
PSNI told Asda bosses: Don’t remove tributes to sectarian killer
Tweet In today’s Irish News*, Connla Young reports that it was the PSNI that advised Asda not to remove tributes to UVF man Billy Hunter from outside their Shore Road store: Seaneen McErlane, a daughter of John’s, says her family have no objections to ordinary tributes and cards left in memory of Hunter. She said she [...] more »
Twitter v #NOTW: the growing power of social media?
Tweet Over on the BBC, Rory Cellan-Jones has some background on an interesting aspect of the News of the World story. For a while now, traditional news outlets have been in competition (of sorts) with social media to feed a developed appetite for rolling news. However, as Cellan-Jones has flagged, this story appears to be bringing the print and [...] more »
Social Media and the Assembly Election
Tweet A number of people have referred to this week’s Assembly Election as the “Twitter Election”. This can be looked at in a number of ways: the number of politicians and parties on Twitter/Facebook, the number of journalists now using social media, as well as members of the public discussing politics and election through these [...] more »
Take that (Mulley makes a bad call?)
Tweet As the north of Ireland’s twitterati attempt to trend #notinmyname the undisputed king of Irish social media says: Ah yes, a hashtag on twitter, take that Omagh murderers more »
Social media fuels protests across political divide
Tweet Yesterday it was the turn of hundreds of school children demonstrating outside Parliament to save their playing fields and delivering a petition signed by 500,000″ organised by 17 year old Debbie Foote from Grantham , Lincs.” Last Saturday, TopShop at Oxford Circus, the shopping mecca for metro youth, was forced to close as hundreds [...] more »
Ócáid phoiblí: Speak Irish on Facebook Day
Tweet An mbeidh foireann margaíochta sásta le 36,942 daoine ag freastail ar ócáid phoiblí ar an gréasán meáin sóisialta Facebook? Bhuel, sin an méid cuairteoirí atá ag ‘Speak Irish on Facebook Day’, tosaíodh ar an gréasán meáin sóisialta sin ag beirt déagóirí ógá ó Béal Feirste (as tuaisceart an chathair, fósta). Bhunaigh Ruairí Ó hÉigeartaigh agus [...] more »
Facebook hate site targeting Gregory Campbell removed
Tweet Last week saw incredible scenes of human and political theatre as the relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims found some degree of closure over the killing of their loved ones… But there was also a pretty nasty backdraft against some public figures who dared to asked questions of the public consensus not least around [...] more »
The plurality of blogs and how they dig into context…
Tweet Blogs: exposing the hidden contextsThe Irish Times have published my piece on blogging, written originally in response to Brian Boyd’s article on how blogs can give a biased and misleading view of the events they purport to give witness to. Also at my own site.Blogs: exposing the hidden contexts Blogging is dangerous, radical and [...] more »
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Books
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The ANC, the IRA and the rise of influence of the left within Sinn Fein…
Tweet World by Storm has a nice piece up on the IRA’s role in helping MK, the armed wing of the ANC, in the 1980s. In particular he sees a strange alchemy at work there: …if one can think of a clearly legitimate contemporary struggle it was that against apartheid and it is to the [...] read our review »
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“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
Tweet I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did [...] read our review » -
At the current rate of progress, gender equality of MLAs at Stormont will only take another 65 years
Tweet Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation [reviewed yesterday] examines women’s political participation points to limited progress in addressing the gender balance of political institutions. The proportion of councillors who are female rose to 24 per cent in 2011 from 14 per cent in [...] read our review »
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