PeaceTech Roundup
Weekly News Highlights, October 23-29, 2014
Technology and Science
Media and Social Media
ISIS Attempting To Show 'Softer, Gentler' Side In New Video: Media Scholar
A propaganda video released this week showing a U.K. hostage acting as a news reporter for ISIS is a sign that the extremist group may be shifting its media strategy. With its aerial shots, graphics and animations, the video marks a visual departure from previously released ISIS propaganda. The old tactics of beheadings really horrified a lot of people, and there may be a sense that the violence that ISIS is proclaiming may not be the best recruiting tactic, so they may be switching to another way to attract people.
See the full article (CTV News, 10/29/14, Marlene Leung)
Click to read "The Parochial Web" an Olive Branch Post by Anand Varghese.
[Return to top]
Vast Majority of Russians Think Foreign Media Criticize Putin to Weaken Russia
The role of foreign media has been thrust into the spotlight in recent months amid the ongoing Ukraine crisis, a conflict that analysts say has relied more heavily on information warfare than previous conflicts. Western media outlets have repeatedly accused their Russian counterparts of unethical, inaccurate reporting, and at times flat-out propaganda. Russia has hit back and accused foreign journalists of the same. At the same time, however, more Russians were found to rely on foreign media today than was the case five years ago.
See the full article (The Moscow Times, 10/29/14, Allison Quinn)
[Return to top]
Echoes Of Patty Hearst In Kobani
A propaganda video released on Monday by Islamic State militants in Syria, recorded in the besieged city of Kobani and narrated by a hostage, has forced news organizations to grapple once again with the ethical question of whether to broadcast material produced by kidnappers. What made that decision particularly difficult was that the militants' video was produced in the form of a news report, narrated by a British hostage, John Cantlie, who speaks directly to the camera in the familiar style of a war correspondent.
See the full article (New York Times, 10/28/14, Robert Mackey) *New York Times subscription may be required to read this article
[Return to top]
Silenced By Airstrikes, Radicals Return To Blitz Social Media
Australian fighters and supporters of Islamic State are slowly returning to social media, with at least one who appears to have been in a town targeted by US airstrikes making several posts. Many social media accounts of Australian fighters and Islamic State supporters have been dormant in the wake of coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, and following anti-terror raids in three Australian states in recent weeks.
See the full article (The Australian, 10/27/14, Mark Schliebs) *The Australian subscription is required to read this article
[Return to top]
A Congolese Mother Of Six Is Honored For Her Death-Defying Journalism
Journalism is my calling, the print media is my struggle and independence is my motto," says 42-year-old Solange Lusiku Nsimire, a Congolese editor and mother of six. And it's hard to imagine a more difficult place to be a journalist than the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). At least a dozen journalists have been killed since 1992 and there were 90 attacks on journalists in 2012 alone. She won a Courage in Journalism award from the International Women's Media Foundation last week.
See the full article (NPR, 10/27/14, Eleanor Klibanoff)
[Return to top]
Inside The Online World Of Three Teens Who Allegedly Wanted To Join ISIS
The three Colorado teenagers who were detained earlier this month as they were reportedly headed to Syria interacted with ISIS members online. Officials believe that the teenage girls were recruited online to join ISIS. An examination of the three girls' (now-deleted) social media accounts point to this possibility.
See the full article (Buzzfeed, 10/27/14, Ellie Hall)
[Return to top]
Egyptian Media To Limit Criticism Of Government
A group of Egyptian newspaper editors pledged Sunday to limit their criticism of state institutions, a day after Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, warned of a "conspiracy" behind a militant attack last week that killed at least 31 soldiers. The statement raised the likelihood of growing limits on dissent, and appeared to be an attempt to please Mr. Sisi, who drastically sharpened his own tone on Saturday in dealing with the simmering Islamist insurgency centered in the Sinai Peninsula that escalated after the military takeover in July 2013.
See the full article (New York Times, 10/26/14, David D. Kirkpatrick and Merna Thomas) *New York Times subscription may be required to read this article
Click to read "The Crackdown on Media in Syria, Egypt and Turkey" an Olive Branch Post by Christine Mosher.
[Return to top]
Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel
Cluster Bombs In Potato Fields And Tripwires On The Cow Path by Alec Luhn
After five months of war in eastern Ukraine, both sides have taken advantage of a rocky cease-fire declared on Sept. 5 to begin destroying unexploded ordnance. Unexploded ordnance and land mines are a common problem in post-conflict zones around the world, where they become ticking time bombs waiting for an unlucky farmer or inquisitive child. The U.K.-based mine-clearing charity Mines Advisory Group (MAG) estimates that these weapons kill or severely injure 10 people every day.
See the full article
[Return to top]
Technology and Science
A Disagreement Over Climate-Conflict Link Heats Up
At issue is the question of whether the hotter temperatures and chaotic weather produced by climate change are causing higher rates of violence. A new analysis refutes earlier research that found a link, and the two lead researchers are exchanging some pointed remarks. Last year, a team of U.S. researchers reported a robust connection between climate and violence in Science. But in a critique published online yesterday in Climatic Change, a team of mostly European researchers dismissed the connection as "inconclusive."
See the full article (Science Mag, 10/28/14, John Bohannon)
[Return to top]
Protesters In Hong Kong On Edge As Police Track Their Online Footprints
People are worried that the police are watching closely and they would get in trouble posting messages. It is a crime in Hong Kong to post messages calling on people to attend the protests. The warning, along with a refusal to disclose more information about the case, has heightened fear that the authorities in this former British colony have begun to police the Internet using methods more often associated with the security forces in mainland China, where web censorship is routine and a crackdown on online dissent has been underway for more than a year.
See the full article (New York Times, 10/28/14, Michael Forsythe and Alan Wong) *New York Times subscription may be required to read this article
[Return to top]
ISIS Drones Show Us the Future Of War
In recent years, U.S. military planners have been considering an uncomfortable scenario: What happens as more countries acquire drones? How will warfare change when the skies are filled with vehicles controlled remotely by enemies? We're getting a preview right now in the Middle East.
See the full article (i09, 10/28/14, Mark Strauss)
[Return to top]
U.S. Unveils 'Information Coalition' Against Islamic State Militants
The United States on October 27 unveiled what it called an information coalition with Muslim and Western nations to counter online efforts by Islamic State militants to recruit fighters and stoke sectarian hatred. U.S. officials told delegates from European and Arab countries at a meeting in Kuwait that the effort should complement parallel campaigns against the militant group on the battlefield and in the world of finance.
See the full article (Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 10/27/14)
[Return to top]
Google's New Skybox For Good Program Gives Real-Time Satellite Imagery To Nonprofits
Google and Skybox have announced the Skybox for Good program, which will provide real-time satellite imagery to organizations and programs that save lives, protect the environment, promote education and positively impact humanity, according to the official blog post. This will allow organizations like HALO to help them verify images of a Northern Sri Lanka village called Nagarkovil so they could that the area was safe, after previously removing land mines.
See the full article (TechCrunch, 10/25/14, Jordan Crook)
[Return to top]
Can This Drone Bring Peace to Ukraine?
A special drone is about to take flight over Ukraine - a peace drone. The unmanned aircraft will monitor movements of pro-Russian separatists and Russian forces, working to ensure that they are living up to commitments made in the Sept. 5 Minsk ceasefire agreement. If the drone's operators like what they see through their eyes in the sky, the situation in Ukraine could begin to look a lot brighter in the months and years ahead.
See the full article (Defense One, 10/24/14, Patrick Tucker)
[Return to top]
No comments:
Post a Comment