Dubai Twitter Treasure Hunt

Emirates Business 24/7 reports that international hotel chains are using social network sites and blogs more and more in marketing. Cost factor but also an amazing way to connect directly with clients. The micro-blog Twitter "is generating communication traffic around the globe, providing another platform where Internet users can voice their opinions and companies can listen to them." And it's happening here in the Emirates. The InterContinental and Crown Plaza in Dubai are offering prizes totaling Dh100,000 in a Twitter Treasure Hunt , "one of the largest ever giveaways over Twitter." What do you think of the promotion?

What's In A Name?

The new flu strain, which surfaced in Mexico, threatens to turn into a pandemic . It has already turned into a major international news story. What to call it "has taken on political, economic and diplomatic overtones," says a story today in The New York Times . It has a scientific name of course -- H1N1 virus -- but what the man on the street and headline writers call it is something else. Here is a great case study in crisis management for PR students. Why?

Covering Conflicts

War makes headlines, but today's conflicts are getting harder and harder for journalists to cover as we've been discussing. Last week's handout in class pointed to the difficulties of reporting on what is going on in northwest Pakistan and the Swat Valley . Yesterday I shared Mark McDonald's story (NYT/IHT), dateline Hong Kong, reporting at considerable distance about what's going on in yet another human tragedy in Sri Lanka. A dateline, by the way, indicates "place of writing."

Class assignment was to consider the attribution in McDonald's story. In other words, what were the sources of the reporter's information? I also shared a NYTimes story about how satellite imaging is being used to estimate how many people are trapped behind combat lines. All those little dots. An amazing reporting tool, satellite imaging, but how much more powerful a story with quotes from real people who can be identified by name and photography that shows humans, not dots. Compare today's story in the NYTimes From Sandy Stip of Sri Lanka, Tales of Suffering as War Traps Thousands to the class handouts.

Why Time & Newsweek Will Never Be The Economist

The American news weeklies Time and Newsweek used to be what everyone in the U.S. read to keep up on the news. Their international editions have long been popular overseas. But they just aren't what they used to be. Now there's talk that they want to be more more like the British-based Economist . Just won't happen, says this media report from Vanity Fair magazine. "There are only so many Americans who actually care about international news."

A global problem?

Big Social Network News

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the founders of MySpace,"the pioneering website that made social networking a mainstream phenomenon" are leaving the company, which Murdoch (remember him?) bought four years ago to add to his News Corp. empire. According to the WSJ, News Corp. wants "to show that a large conglomerate, with a portfolio that includes many old-media properties including newspapers" can success in generating serious revenues and earnings. Even the most popular social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook haven't done this so far. Will News Corp.'s synergy work?

Founded in 2003, MySpace imitated Friendster, a popular site at the time, but let users customize profile pages and create any identity they wanted. It still is the main social-networking site in the U.S. though not all that popular here. Facebook surpassed McSpace's world-wide audience last year, according to the WSJ. Facebook has come in with its own innovative features, including having third-party software developers write applications for Facebook. Have you run across this news elsewhere?

Lots to discuss here. Who wants to start?

Great Dance Routine: James Cagney and Bob Hope

Movies have always been a form of public diplomacy, winning friends, influencing people and indirectly building a nation's "brand name." Here's a classic scene from an American movie in 1955. The U.S., Egypt, France, Japan, China and now India are among the nations whose films have had international impact. What do you think new push for Emirati films will do for the image of the UAE around the world? Enjoy the song and dance of this YouTube clip.

The Pirate Economy

The Somalian pirates, who have been capturing headlines as well as ships, seem to appear out of nowhere in small boats and then disappear with their prizes, but go deeper to understand what's happening off the Horn of Africa . The same Internet that gives us Twitter also makes it easier to find out what's behind the headlines. You can goggle or sign up for free news alerts from magazines like Foreign Policy , which just posted The Pirate Economy.

The recently relaunched daily online magazine, an off-shoot of the print magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel Huntington and Warren Demian Manshelis, is a good place to go for international news and analysis.
Check out Foreign Policy's Morning Brief blog to keep up with major international news stories.

Pardon My Obsession

Of course I am not alone in following this long running drama happening off the coast of Somalia. It has all the elements of a great news story -- or great movie -- action, conflict, heroes. But who are the villains? Look behind that twitter or instant news update and what is going on here? Who are these "pirates," why are they taking on international naval powers and why have they been so successful? Through an Associated Press news story, posted 46 minutes ago, I just learned that Undeterred Somalian pirates highjack 3 more ships "in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway at the center of the world's fight against piracy." Two of the "ships" were Egyptian fishing boats! So what's the profit in that? Dinner? More importantly, the AP story supplies this background: the three pirates who were picked off by Navy snipers in the rescue were between 17 and 19 years old. That grabs me. What does it take for an international news story to "grab" you?

Do You Twitter?

Suddenly I'm receiving emails telling me that people I barely know -- in one case, someone I have never met -- is following me on Twitter, a social network based on one-line messages which started only three years ago and now is right up there behind Facebook and My Space. Last month alone it nearly doubled the number of new users! Whether from your computer or your mobile, you can let people know your every move -- and mood. But that's just the beginning of what Twitter can do. It has amazing applications in medicine, news gathering, customer relations, research as The New York Times explains in Putting Twitter's World to Use . To see who's twittering, check out We Follow , a "user powered twitter directory." Nearly 3 million people are twittering news, nearly a million of them through CNN.

What's Behind One-Minute News

If you're one of those people who couldn't care less about what goes on in the world, maybe you should check out the BBC's one-minute world news updated 24 hours a day. But you'd be missing the really good stuff BBC has to offer like a behind-the-headlines piece headlined Could 19th Century plan stop piracy? It's all about a 19th century British Prime Minister who advocated gunboat diplomacy and Commodore Stephen Decatur, who made short work of the Barbary pirates off North Africa in 1815, and how things have changed. By the way, the US Navy just pulled off a daring rescue of the American sea captain. You could be following this story online, but maybe you'd rather wait for the movie. Who would play Capt. Richard Phillips?

Just the Good News, Please

Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights organization, doesn't think much of the U.A.E. proposed press law. Look for a report next week entitled "Just the Good News, Please, U.A.E. Media Law Continues to Stifle Press." According to a HRW e-mail statement, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the law would "restrict free expression and interfere with the media's ability to report on sensitive subjects." International analysts say the new law could make the U.A.E. less attractive to international media companies and could endanger UAE aspirations of becoming a media hub in the Middle East.