New article published in SAGE Research Methods Cases: Ethical approaches towards study of YouTube comments

My article ‘The ‘Battle of Stokes Croft: The Development of an ethical stance towards the study of online comments’ has recently been published in SAGE Research Methods Cases.

The article can be accessed here: http://srmo.sagepub.com/view/methods-case-studies-2013/n89.xml . If you cannot access this content please drop me an email (pr93@le.ac.uk) for a preprint copy.

New British Academy project on YouTube, sousveillance and the policing of flag protests in Northern Ireland

My British Academy funded project entitled YouTube, sousveillance, and the policing of flag protests in Northern Ireland’ will start early next month. I will be recruiting two research assistants to work on the project over the next few months (I will post details of these posts in July).

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The University of Leicester has issued a press release about the project:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2014/may/youtube-footage-of-northern-irish-protests-to-be-explored

If you have any questions about the project please feel free to contact me via email (pr93@le.ac.uk)

 

One week to go: PT Research Associate to be recruited for EU FP7 project

Aside

I am currently looking for a Part-Time Research Associate for my EU FP7 project ‘CascEff: Modelling of dependencies and cascading effects for emergency management in crisis situations.’

The closing date is next Monday (19 May 2014) and more information about the position can be found here:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIQ440/research-associate/

If you have any queries about the post then please feel free to drop me an email on pr93@le.ac.uk

Please share- 2 weeks left to apply for Part-Time Research Associate position on EU FP7 project

Aside

I am currently looking for a Part-Time Research Associate for my EU FP7 project ‘CascEff: Modelling of dependencies and cascading effects for emergency management in crisis situations.’

The closing date is 19 May 2014 and more information about the position can be found here:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AIQ440/research-associate/

If you have any queries about the post then please feel free to drop me an email on pr93@le.ac.uk

Media for Social Change unconference

Yesterday I participated in the Media for Social Change unconference organised by Dima Saber and colleagues at Birmingham City University. It was an excellent day and hopefully the first of many such events in the Midlands.

The unconference had these four main themes:

Citizen Reporting & Social Change

How can we begin to re-think the relationship between new information and communication technologies and social change in the MENA region?

Language Mediation

How can we enhance the creation of better Arabic content online? What are the main technical barriers facing Arab activists in terms of access to online tools and media literacy skills?

Media in times of conflict

How can new media tools be used by activists to organise humanitarian aid in situations of political unrest?

Video for social change

To what extent does the democratised nature of video production and distribution in the digital age make it a powerful tool for social change?

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There were a number of other themes that emerged during the day but these three stood out for me:

1) What mechanisms should we (academics, activists, and journalists) use to verify online sources?

2) How should we correct misinformation and rumour online?

3) How can we understand protests that are mediated online without speaking to those responsible for producing such content?

There were few simple answers to these questions and I was left with many more questions about how social media in could be leveraged for social change in not only the MENA region but also elsewhere.

I hope to explore some of these issues during CascEff and will blog about the results of the study in due course.

Dave Harte has written a very insightful blog on the unconference here: http://daveharte.com/social-media/gazing-at-media-for-social-change/

I have also archived the tweets from the day on Storify here: https://storify.com/PaulJReilly/media-for-social-change-unconference-birmingham-ci

 

PSA Blog on ethical challenges associated with study of online comments

I have written a blogpost on the ethical stance I developed for my study of YouTube, sousveillance and the Stokes Croft riot. It can be accessed on the Political Studies Association site here: http://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/blog/battle-stokes-croft-youtube-ethical-challenges-associated-study-online-comments