Author Profile

  • Wouter Dijkstra
  • Url: http://ICT4accountability.wordpress.com
  • Posts: 7
  • About the user: I am concerned with ICT for accountability, awareness and transparency. I am doing research on traditional, local and popular communication structures in Uganda and will see how New Media technologies can be used effectively as a tool within these structures. My aim is to find ways in which citizens can take on a more active role within political structures in Uganda and how ICT’s can help in this process.

Author Archive

Master of Media spin-off selected for EU blogging competition TH!NK3

Wouter Dijkstra | 17 March 2010, 4:36 pm | 1 comment

www.ICT4Accountability.wordpress.com , one of the blogs started by a former New Media student of the UvA, is officially selected to compete in the internationally renowned blogging competition’ TH!NK3’. This blogging competition, set up by the European Journalism Centre, will bring together some 100 bloggers, journalists, issue experts and students from the 27 EU member states, as well as neighborhood countries and beyond, to exchange ideas and debate sustainable development and global cooperation topics. Winners of the competition will be awarded with opportunities to travel and report from Asia and Africa.ICT4A_LOGO_vectorized[1] The big prize is a trip to the UN headquarters in New York in September 2010, at the time of the Millennium Development Goals summit.

Social Networking with African Journalists

Wouter Dijkstra | 18 September 2009, 10:58 pm | 2 comments | tags: , , , ,

In the smallest room in the Balie, the Dick Scherpenzeel stichting, in cooperation with a handful of donors, held a debate on the opportunities of new media to link local African reporters with western media. Can Twitter, Facebook, linkedin, Blogs and broadband connections change the face of international correspondence? This was the question that drew a healthy amount of people to the debate in the Balie in Amsterdam. Unfortunately the answers had no prominence in the debate. Only once Facebook was mentioned and the other new media opportunities were left untouched. Most of the time was spend discussing a wider debate on the ethics of journalism.

Ekimeeza, the Peoples Parliament of Uganda on Radio One

Wouter Dijkstra | 21 April 2009, 2:24 pm | tags: , , , , , , ,

I arrived around 2.30 at club Obligato, where the massively popular radio talkshow ‘Ekimeeza’ was about to start. I was welcomed by a series of middle aged men, who directed me to the man sitting at the head of a table. ‘Ekimeeza’ is the Ugandan word for ‘big table’; it is the place where Ugandans can speak their mind about issues concerning social and political issues and where they will be heard by the thousands of people tuned in at radio one. People are accountable only for their individual argument; this is what keeps the show unbiased and thus acceptable for everyone, even for government officials who are often the subject of criticism. It is purely a platform for individuals who are interested in political topics, not an assembly of oppositionists.

Twitter: ‘resistance is futile’

Wouter Dijkstra | 13 October 2008, 12:31 pm | 3 comments | tags: , , , ,

First of all I have to define twitter for myself, I have no clue where this is going to lead me..

To twitter (Dictionary.com):

1. To utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.

2. To talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter

What if we saw every Twitter as a neuron connected by fiberglass axons. On their own these neurons do not have much significance, however, if there could be a central point to decipher all incoming neurons (like the brain) a general action potential could be the result.

My 342 Friends..

Wouter Dijkstra | 12 October 2008, 1:52 pm | tags: ,

In her article ‘RELATIONSHIP: Context, Culture, Power’ Dana Boyd describes the difficulties we have with defining our relationships. Discussions around social software are flawed because these difficulties. She discusses the context of time in which relationships between people change and thus the vocabulary to use in describing this relationship. Also, in real life we describe certain persons according to context.

Google Meets Mark

Wouter Dijkstra | 29 September 2008, 1:10 pm | tags: , ,

Mark Kamau speaking on behalf of Nairobits (project initiated by Butterfly Works)

The most rewarding speech during the ‘Surprising Africa’ special at PICNIC came (according to me) from Mark Kamau.

In a symbolic gesture, Butterfly Works let Mark present their new book ‘Butterfly Paper No. 1‘ to Gisel Hiscock of Google Africa. Who, after Mark had left the stage, contrasted his lively speech with a Corporate overview of the mega projects Google is pursuing on the continent.

Digital Media and Democracy. “Bush Bashing in Academia”

Wouter Dijkstra | 15 September 2008, 10:36 am | tags: , , , , , , , ,

Digital Media and Democracy

Tactics in Hard Times

Edited by Megan Boler
———————————————————————

Structure of the book:

434 Pages/ 19 chapters/ 3 parts

Collection of essays and interviews

Different authors: Scholars, Journalist and business people.

Main question: How does the contemporary media landscape influence the democratic process?

———-

Summary

In this collection of essays and interviews with different media actors, contemporary corporate U.S. media is challenged by upcoming alternatives like new Media, the influence of the internet, citizen journalism and social movements. In the first part the shape of the public is sketched and a history of media in the U.S. is described. The second part deals with the changing face of new media, where the first part is narrowed down to analyze the changes in news production we see today. The third part offers us direct knowledge of how web 2.0 can be used to shape social movements and how one can use web practices and tactical media.