What has Europe done for us?
My friend Claire from
The London Project sent me a link to this
funny animation. For all the Eurosceptics among you ;)
Also,while you're there,check out the
more info site for,well,more info!
the EU and its image problem...or communication problem?
Another general thing that came to my (and certainly not just to my) attention whilst browsing blogs and other EU-related resources around the EU is what can losely be described as an „image problem“, as well as a communication problem.
Apart from the eternal battlefield of national interests versus federal interests,economic differences and the everlasting ghost of national identity that still somehow outlives all current cultural crises it mainly accounts for - most people are not even aware of the most basic facts and figures around the European Union and very happily jump to conclusions due to one or the other fatalist rumour of how bad the idea and realisation of the European Union really is.
So, fair enough, one might say, Politics is not the most exciting topic in the world, and the representation of the European Union, what it does, what it wants, who represents us on European Level and moreover – the representation of its citizens in the European media. Whilst some of that might be down to a general weariness of political issues, especially with the young, and an even bigger general weariness of really getting into the facts before jumping to conclusions, Public Relations are not rated to highly in the EU institutions.(something
Europhobia mentioned some posts ago. Or it's rather not very „grass-roots“.
A positive example is Swedish EU Commission vide president
Margot Wallstroem who maintains a blog and comunicates with the people (something probably typical of the Swedish „close-to-the-people“ approach to politics) – if they are interested (and to get them interested is the salient point). She also emphasises that „we need to listen more and become more democratic“, whilst
other representatives tell similar stories.
Whilst,as I said, PR is not the only problem of the European Union,it becomes obvious why those legions of anti-EU crusaders could be led to think that the EU is not doing a very democratic job - it does not communicate with its members well enough on the whole. Good to have so many blogs from the people, but what about the representatives? And what about both their commuication?
And then it's always easy to jump to negative conclusions (some examples I remember from
Euromove's "myth" section) or follow those who cling to the old as what seems safe and secure as if that helped with keep up with the cultural, economic and environmental changes that inevitably occur no matter what.
general thoughts on blogs as resources
After researching and reading some of the blogs and EU-related sites listed,there are a few things to keep in mind in respect to their use and importance for Online Journalism in general.
Apart from all I said previously about the meaning and importance of blogging as "citizen journalism" for journalism as such
in my "interlude" post, it is quite obvious that blogs are biased and reflect the personal opinion of its write - due to the lack of any controlling instance censoring information and opinion.
As much of a beneficial characteristic that is,for plurality of opinions,freedom of speech,critical thought and all these wonderful things, using these sources for conventional Journalism means being cautious and aware of their bias (especially with a subject so controversial as politics). Since any journalist and online journalist does in one way or the other subscribe to the ethic of factuality and being unbiased (which is,one could argue,not possible as every guideline and imposed ethic is a bias of some sort towards information), non-mainstream sources cannot be used literally and without critical assessment.
Whilst they are useful to gather different and opposing points of view on issues, get hints on other sources of information and explore topics in-depth, one has to be aware of tinted "news-reporting" and populistic writing when adapting any issues dealt with in blogs and other non-mainstream sources.
All in all though, I consider blogs as a positive and useful contribution to the world of communication and the development of non-mainstream, diverse, user-controlled media.
and some more links...
I was directed to and found some more links for EU-related blogs and resources,which I'll post before I divert my attention to other work (ahem).
A fistful of Euros, and
European Tribune, which have a more pro-european attitude.
And furthermore,
European Policy Portal,and an
EU Livejournal community!
some more EU blogs and links
Well,it's actually just two to be precise. That's a depressingly meagre result,but I'll post them anyway:
A blog that enthusiastically welcomes the
advent and existance of the Euro; and a
French blog about France and its position in Europe. Sadly enough my French is not good enough to figure out what precisely its position towards the whole issue really is...
For the lack of blogs,some more resources in some way related to the EU and not as pessimistic as in previous postings - everything from critial to positivist to the intention to reform.
The
Brussels Journal for "news and opinion not fit to print",and
EuroSoc "for a democratic Europe".
A pro-european British movement and its online platform at
this address.
EDIT:
Thanks to
nosemonkey I discovered a fatal mistake in labelling his EU blog
Europhobia europhobic - which it is clearly not. That's what you get from not reading enough - I suppose I had reached the saturation point for reading anything anti-EU and was immediately put off by the title.Shame on me!
In other news though,
nosemonkey was as nice as to recommend some more links to EU-related links!Thanks a lot!
interlude: general thoughts on weblogging,internet,"democracy" and power of the user
The original type of weblog is a personal news site; linking to other sites it refers to within the text. Depending on its topic, a weblog could contain the latest news, comments or criticism on technology, popular music, fine arts, or news generated by professional media institutions, as well politics and society.
The significant difference to other, non-weblog publishing is the blogger’s personal attitude and point of view in his writings, which does not have to serve any interest than his own and does not require editing or control by a person or institution other than the writer.
There are a large number of sites offering their users to use the blogging software for personal publishing, which allows them to post on the web in a very easy way without much technical knowledge being required. In fact every weblog is in a way tinted by the viewpoint of the person writing it, these blogs are rather a form of diary or journals.
Another aspect that makes internet publishing so powerful and at the same time hard to regulate is the fact that nation-state control loses its meaning for a medium that acts beyond national borders and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
See: Slevin 2000: 214-5The Internet is a truly global medium and might in some way seem like the realisation of what McLuhan lined out as the “Global Village” in the 1960s, displaying an image of a world where media transcend space and time and connect its audience totally.
Time' has ceased, 'space' has vanished. We now live in a global village...a simultaneous happening." [...] "Electric circuitry profoundly involves men with one another.
McLuhan 1967: 63
In relation to McLuhan’ s idea of the “Global Village”, the community of weblogs seem like the cyberspace realisation of the transcendence of time and space and the ultimate involvement of people from anywhere on the world with each other, catching a glimpse on each other’s lives, interacting and influencing each other’s lives.
Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended
Our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned.
McLuhan 1963: 3
Internet publishing, and weblog publishing specifically as it is not controlled by any institution having an interest in state policies or economics that could affect the opinion uttered, which holds the possibility of offering the internet audience an alternative view on events and centre-based opinions.
For example, since the Iraq war started, there have been a fair number of so-called “war-blogs” on the net which are written by normal inhabitants of Baghdad writing about their life and situation, which offers readers an alternative view on what is shown and printed in Western news.
Salam Pax blogSimon Garfield writes in
his article on the The Guardian website:
An alternative journalism sprang up and the news agenda shifted a little from the one imposed by the traditional media to whatever was hot in the blogosphere. In the United States, criticism of Bush and the war in Iraq was solidified in weblogs long before the mass media risked being 'unpatriotic', while in Iraq, Salam Pax, the pseudonymous gay Baghdad Blogger, maintained a powerful insider's voice throughout the conflict.
Examples like these foster the initial idea of internet enthusiasts who envisioned this new medium as the most democratic of them all, offering access to unlimited information just “one click away”, involvement and unimpeded right to publishing freedom as well as a wider audience having the chance to grow together as a community, let the world become a “global village”.
Whilst one can by no means deny that the internet has the ability to change the perception of a user than any other medium, as it functions transnationally and offers space for the commoner to have a say, and not solely large institutions in power, there are nevertheless contradictory views on these pro-internet visions.
Firstly, the emphasis is on the possibility of accessing a wide range of information and opinions, rather than on the actual realisation of this ideal – many users actually prefer to search for like-minded people and information they are due to their attitude interested in. In other words, a pre-selection of information by the audience takes place in favour of their individual taste, so “there is reason to think that the Internet is more likely to increase social fragmentation than it is likely to promote social consensus.” (Graham 1999: 83)
Secondly, the democracy theory leaves us with the question of what is actually so democratic about the Internet and Internet publishing and thus primarily leads to the question what defines democracy. Democracy generally constitutes a form of government under which the citizens can indirectly or directly alter the legislation and take part in the ruling of the state. Transferred to internet publishing though we may find that this is not quite the case – everyone is free to publish almost whatever one wants, but the salient point not being fulfilled remains the fact that noone can change anything by that. Information is published, people can agree or disagree, but it does not contain the possibility to control or rule what is written or what happens.
See: de Havilland, 2003One could however argue that, based on Francis Bacon’s formula “knowledge is power” and “the more one knows, the more one will be able to control events”, the internet provides its users with the power of unlimited always accessible and constantly stored knowledge, like a giant global library of ideas and images, and seems therefore like a democratic medium in the sense of knowledge being available for everyone and hardly regulated.
However, what is provided by Internet publishing such as Weblogging is less knowledge, but more information that its reader can accumulate if they choose to.
Whilst knowledge is
the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning and is thus the process of acquireing a skill of use, a “how-to-do”, information is rather a body communicated facts, a message or a “what it is” which does not mean it is any useful to its obtainer.
This argument can lead to reason that information spread by publishing on the internet is actually nothing more than a useless accumulation of random information that does not acquire its receiver with a skill or knowledge, and is therefore not of any value or providing them with any control.
Furthermore can the internet just for one simple reason hardly be the medium of global democratic distribution of information, that is the fact that
only 12,7 percent of the world’s population has access to the internet, more than half of them consist of Europe and North-America, which therefore take the lead in the providing of information available on the net, alongside Asia with an internet access rate of 31 percent. Technologically under-developed continents such as Africa and Latin-America do thus – despite their relatively big population – not get a share in the right to obtain information off the internet or publish themselves.
From this perspective, the internet can hardly be regarded as the democratic medium it is claimed to be,but surely as a medium offering different and more possibilities for the spread of information and giving more people the opportunity to publish their views than other media does.
United in diversity...?
Finally I can present some blogs that deal with EU-related topics in some way or the other! (I also added them to the link list on the right under "EU-related blogs" for future reference)
As I already outlined in my previous entry,the EU and related issues many heated debates,and not too much applause in many places. The following blogs have a critical (and that's an euphemism - full of scepticism,if not aversion close to paranoia) attitude towards EU-related issues and belong into some of the anti-EU categories/labels I mentioned before.
EU Realist and
Eurorealist Files by one and the same author.
EU Referendum is a very critical blog about the EU Referndum (as the title suggests...).
Road to Euro Serfdom is - how surprising - also an anti-EU blog that takes its name from the 1944 cartoon
The Road to Serfdom by F.A.Hayek - which is also interestingly enough referred to in External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten's speech
"Who do they think we are?Being British." (about 2/3 down the page if you don't want to read it all - even though I think it's worth read.)
Speaking of Chris Patten - a
critical review of a critical review of his new book
Cousin and Strangers - America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century promises a slightly more balanced view on EU issues.
But really,I am still desperately searching for any Pro-EU blogs.However much important it is to have a critical attitude towards any state-like apparatus that has the possiblity to obtain too much control and it's good to have some very informed differenciated critical thought - they have to exist: the positive happy non-paranoid Europeans, or at least the positivist realists...somewhere? I suppose my search and its results have mainly been UK blogs - and just as a neutral factual observation:there is a lot of euroscepticism going on in the UK. Dutch
Huib Riethof has none of that conspiracy-atitude in his writings (at least the one in English),but c'mon - there has to be more to give it a bit of a balance. Or is this the why-should-I-write-about-it-if-everything's-fine-syndrome?
United in diversity then? Not sure about unity nor diversity as far as public opinion is concerned,if you take blogs to be representative. Apropos Public Opinion - check out the
Eurobarometer Interactive Search System for everything about the attitudes of "EU citizens".
To be continued...
the good,the bad and the ugly
And here comes another post - suppose that's the way it goes when you start posting two days before your deadline. In my defence though,I have to say that it was not (only) down to procrastination,but the rather dauntingly complex specialist topic I have set myself to explore.
If you wonder why I chose it in the first place - well,to explore it,and this is just as well a disclaimer that I am by no means an authority in the field of European Politics,nor informed enough on a topic so broad and complex to have a well-formed wholly justifiable opinion on the whole subject, or the general philosophy of the EU and its character,history,future,anything! (but then,who has...)
And opinions are certainly a salient point when it comes to blogging (and possibly any exchange of communication) on the European Union,they couldn't be further apart or more polemic at times. I found myself in some arguments in my personal journal over the matter in the past few days,so it goes with politics and opinions.
Of course one can expect arguments over an an institution trying to unite so many different interests at once, and even more so in Europe that despite its common ground (literally and figuratively) has just as many inequalities of various character (economically mainly,to name a main source of disagreement),and centuries of war history that are still preferably used in arguments about National Identity (if that's not an out of date concept anyway) and cultural differences, to name just the top of the iceberg.
A discussion in Margot Wallstroem's blog gives you and idea...Before I digress into what I wanted to avoid due to lack of background knowledge - a philosophical discussion about the EU with myself - I think a brief introduction to the types of opinions/attitudes prevalent in the discussion around the EU is needed before introducing any blogs around the topic.
As it happens with labelling groups of people - you generalise - but I found wikipedia's distinctions of positions towards the EU quite useful to give an idea about "what is out there" ;)
Euroscepticism to begin with - which obviously speaks for itself, and is hardly to be distinguished from
so-called Eurorealism,aka moderate Euroscepticism - other similar labels are Anti-European and Europhobes,all describing various degrees of an antomony to the following:
People broadly defined as
Pro-Europeans - yet again in all their varying labels and degrees from Euro-Optimists to Europhiles.
To sum up their opposed positions in a (simplified) nutshell, Eurosceptics see their National sovereignty (economically,culturally etc) threatened by the European Union and regard the federal EU system as another step away from democracy towards a centrally controlled system that works in favour of global economics and bureaucracy; whereas Pro-Europeans think of a unite Europe as a stronger competitor in the global market,as well as, more idealistically, a sharing and exchanging society of people with common ground.
Hope that provided a bit of insight before I progress to list some blogs (I keep promising that,I know...everything at its time!)
P.S.:Check out my EU Observer newsticker on the right - very proud I found that (and managed to include it in my template)!
Official Sources
Apart from news websites,newsletters and press reviews of second parties, there are direct resources for journalists and the public:
European Commission press releases
EUROPA press room
Tips and advice at EU 4 Journalists
European Parliament news
And a semi-official read: European Commission Vice President Margot Wallstroem's blog
Resources for European Politics
For researching my specialist topic European Politics,I first of all looked at all the major news websites, as well as news websites with their sole focus on the EU.
Of course,
The Guardian,as well as
the BBC website have background and in-depth coverage about EU issues.
More specific EU news websites are
EuroNews.net,website of broadcast channel Euronews,therefore providing a lot of online video journalism;
EU Observer,which provides news on all European Union issues,the agenda and press reviews of EU press coverage.The site also offers a daily newsletter for the EU headlines of the day.
Speaking of press reviews - I discovered something very useful on the website of the
Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung (Central Office for Political Education),that provides a
daily EU press review service by newsletter in English,French or German of all main European newspapers with links to original articles. Particularily useful if you don't feel too confident with all languages spoken within the European Union. You can also read the press reviews and more reflections and articles around European topics, as well as a complete media index of all European newspapers
on their new website.
Another site dedicated to EU news is the alledgedly "independent",
EuropeanVoice which provides some news for free,but wants readers to subscribe and pay for background information.
More on blogs around EU issues and related opinions and controversies in the next post. As I got myself a new layout,I can also eventually post all mentioned links in the link list on the right.
European Union-related Image Maps...
As I mentioned previously, my specialist topic will be European Politics - but before I post my findings on that, some nice image maps to introduce yourself to the heavy topic of politics:
Who is actually part of the EU...it could be you?
...and some more key figures...
Where does the money go - always a popular concern
EU enlargement
some more examples of image maps...
Due to popular request, some more desperately needed examples - I spent my day on the BBCi website which I think makes brilliant use of image maps in all variations for all kinds of different purposes.
BBC Music - Where I live : another actual map example
Ladybirds in England - more animated map
additional map for feature on African Music
How the brain works...
Rugby positions - for people like me who never understood Rugby...not that I understand it now,but oh well!
I hope these were some enjoyable examples of image maps - in the next post, more on my future specialist subject European Politics...
Negative aspects...
After outlining all the positive aspects of using image maps within Online Journalism, there are of course some downsides to image maps and visual information in general. Generally, it is important to try and convey information by different means of communication - not just visually or interactively.
Working with images and image maps forces the journalist to restrict the information contained to a format and amount that can easily be included in an image map and does not require that much background and depth.
If we have another look at the
image map of Iraq that illustrates different aspects about different locations in Iraq,it becomes clear that this interactive image map is a useful tool to add information to an user's knowledge and to show spatial aspects, but would not be helpful without in-depth background readings about the issue related to the situation in Iraq. Therefore,image maps and interactives should be add-ons to existing information, rather than the sole source of information.
Why Image Maps?
As we can see in the examples posted below, image maps are mainly used for topics and issues related to space within Online Journalism. They are therefore important additional tools for relating information to the audience – we have already learnt that people read and perceive information and texts on the screen differently from print.
In details, that means:
- They read slower
-They have a reduced attention span
- Reduced loyalty
Thus, Online Journalists have to offer information that is organized in a way that is appropriate for an online audience – make the text scannable, shorter and more concise, and add visual interactivity and more choices to the text in order to make most use of the online medium and to attract audiences using their websites.
One of these tools are Image Maps – they clarify locations, distances and processes related to time or space whilst providing additional textual information and offering the recipient individual choices about what to click/chose next. By this, they enable the recipient of information to not simply be a “recipient”, but a “user” – to put his or her own focus on the information obtained, which is a general characteristic of the internet that has often also been claimed as its advantage: freedom of choice and user-control.
In conclusion, Image Maps are a means to live up to the expected freedom to individual choice propagated within the spheres of the internet, as they offer users to actually “use” them and determine which information to access. Additionally of course, they work as a tool to illustrate information more efficiently on screen and help the user to grasp any issues more easily and memorably than by just reading a text online – which, as we have learnt, is more difficult to understand online than in print format.
For example, this map of
How the Bird Flu has spread not only allows the user to only view some of the spatial information (depending on whether you tick “Bird Flu Outbreaks”, “Human Cases” or “Bird migration zones”) in relation to the temporal information (time-line from Jan 2004 to Jan 2006), but also helps to understand the impact of the issue more efficiently than by just a text explaining the same.
Since one aspect, especially with the Bird Flu, is always how a topic relates to the users themselves, it illustrates the impact and closeness of the disease better than a text talking about an outbreak in Thailand then and then. Users are also able to immediately work with this visual information and it is therefore easier to understand than a coherent text.
