Local news in a course about international news criticism? With the Internet, nothing is local. Everything is accessible everywhere. Well, almost. Internet social networks have put a new spin on what's news and who reports it. Just consider Facebook to which some of you belong. I typed in "Abu Dhabi" to search for groups and came up with over 500 possibilities, including commercial establishments, alumni organizations and sports and music fan clubs. I stopped browsing on Screen 52 with the Abu Dhabi Mar Dragon Boat Team. No, I didn't join any groups, but I can see how useful they could be for journalists or researchers wanting to get a feel for what goes on here or looking for sources. In fact, I used Face Book earlier this fall in interviews for my conference paper on the virtual community of the Coptic diaspora.
There's a ZU-related global group on Facebook, by the way: I was in Abu Dhabi with GlobCom 2008 where memories and photos are being shared.
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4 comments:
I never thought of facebook as a window to journalists before! Its interesting to get to know all that information from one site. But again its not reliable.
I'll make sure I join the Globcom group! I was there!
It is true that everything is accessible now, but I think that there is still local news!
What happened in UAE may not interest people in Japan for example unless it affects them, even if everything is accessible.
Facebook thing gets me frustrated because each link takes you to another different thing, and you might end up getting nothing! I do not see it more than a fun network which I am not interested that much on it.
Thats great, facebook did change our ways of communication. It is easier than any other social network. It also offers a variety of things. I love the idea of creating groups there, it makes it more easier to stay connected with people with same interest.
I think that FB takes one a bit away from the 'professional' mood, it's there for fun, and people spend their free time *if there was* to communicate with their friends from different parts of the world. We can find local people who are well known here, such as famous TV presenters, joining FB and they do communicate with others! It's like a whole different world.
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