TEDxSMU Tuesday 3.8.11
Media and the Middle East
Report: Egypt Shut Down Net With Big Switch, Not Phone Calls, Wired, February 10, 2011
The Egyptian government shut down most of its country’s internet not by phoning ISPs one at a time, but by simply throwing a switch in a crucial data center in Cairo.
Middle East Uprising: Facebook’s Secret Role in Egypt, The Daily Beast
As unlikely protests swept across Egypt on January 25, an administrator from the Facebook page that was helping to drive the uprisings emailed a top official of the social network, asking for help.
Andy Carvin: The Middle East revolutions one tweet at a time, The Washington Post blog, March 7, 2011
The Middle East uprisings have seen a flood of information like never before spill out over the networks of the world. Wading through all of that information has been Andy Carvin, the head of social media at NPR who has attempted to tell the story through Twitter.
Libyan Internet service cut again: monitors, Yahoo!News, March 4, 2011
Internet service has been completely severed in violence-torn Libya for the second time in two weeks, US online traffic monitoring firms said Friday.
American Media
Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America? The New York Times, August 15, 2008
… a study this year from the [Pew Research Center for the People and the Press]’s Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded that “ ‘The Daily Show’ is clearly impacting American dialogue” and “getting people to think critically about the public square.
- Jon Stewart: The Most Trusted Name In Fake News, NPR
- Time Poll 2010
Anderson Cooper, The Daily Show, February 22, 2011
Anderson Cooper finds it weird that he caused drama in the world of journalism by calling Hosni Mubarak a liar.
WatchingAmerica.com
WatchingAmerica reflects global opinion about the United States, helping Americans and non-Americans alike understand what the world thinks of current issues that involve the U.S. This is done by providing news and views about the United States published in other countries.
Internet/Cyber Safety
How Do You Shut Down the Internet in a Whole Country? TechNews Daily, January 28, 2011
According to David Clark, an MIT computer scientist whose research focuses on Internet architecture and development, a government’s ability to control the Internet depends on its control of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the private sector companies that grant Internet access to customers.
Pentagon says “aware” of China Internet rerouting, Reuters, November 19, 2010
The Defense Department is aware that Internet traffic was rerouted briefly through China earlier this year, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday, referring to what a congressionally appointed panel has described as a hijack.
- Massive Chinese Net Reroute Exposes Web’s Achilles’ Heel, TechNewsWorld
Israel launches covert war against Iran, The Telegraph, February 16, 2009
Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran’s nuclear programme, US intelligence sources have revealed.
- David Albright, The Colbert Report, February 15, 2011
David Albright, Institute for Science and International Security, explains why no one will take credit for setting back the Iranian nuclear program with Stuxnet.
Related TED Talks
Wael Ghonim: Inside the Egyptian revolution, TED 2011
Wael Ghonim is the Google executive who helped jumpstart Egypt’s democratic revolution … with a Facebook page memorializing a victim of the regime’s violence. Speaking at TEDxCairo, he tells the inside story of the past two months, when everyday Egyptians showed that “the power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”
Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story, TEDGlobal 2009
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to global voices, TEDGlobal 2010
Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don’t even know.
Erik Hersman on reporting crisis via texting, TED 2009
At TEDU 2009, Erik Hersman presents the remarkable story of Ushahidi, a GoogleMap mashup that allowed Kenyans to report and track violence via cell phone texts following the 2008 elections, and has evolved to continue saving lives in other countries.
Sasa Vucinic invests in free press, TEDGlobal 2005
A free press — papers, magazines, radio, TV, blogs — is the backbone of any true democracy (and a vital watchdog on business). Sasa Vucinic, a journalist from Belgrade, talks about his new fund, which supports media by selling “free press bonds.”
Alisa Miller shares the news about the news, TED 2009
Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why — though we want to know more about the world than ever — the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.
More talks from TED 2011 will be added weekly. Stay tuned to TED.com for more uploads. You can also view a list of TEDster Jack Myers’ favorite talks from TED 2011 here.