When we as humans start to change the way we act toward each other we do the first step toward social change. Those reappearing changed actions will over time lead to the transformation of cultural and social institutions which can very likely lead to long-term changes within a society. Social change can strongly be driven by social media.
Dear readers, Thank you for your loyalty throughout these months of our blog posting live from Scotland, Malawi, Australia, Jordan, and Singapore. As with every great story, it needs to reach a (happy?) end. While we are all moving on with our lives, both online and offline, we have decided …
Dear readers, As I am writing this blog a 6-hour power cut has forced me to leave my house and walk to the nearest coffee shop with a power backup. I am lucky to not only live close to such a café (walking isn’t much fun when it’s 37 degrees …
Revolution has started in the rain Dear readers, in the early autumn 2016 on the 3rd of October, rivers of black umbrellas moved through streets of Polish cities and towns. It was a rainy day so an umbrella served a practical role, and soon after became a symbol of a …
Dear readers, in June 2020, one blurry and unsophisticated TikTok video by a 51-year-old #TikTokGrandma (Laupp, 2020; Magid 2020), derailed Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when it went viral and mobilised people to falsely register for the stadium event, leaving a majority of the event’s seats empty. In the …
Dear readers, an investigation from the British Broadcasting Corporation – the BBC – has found that Syrian families have been livestreaming on the popular social media platform TikTok, which has a user count of more than 1 billion in 154 countries (Ruby, 2022), for several hours daily. These families, however, …
Dear readers, it seems like the bad news never stop coming. First, we read them in the newspapers, then on the radio and television, on our computer screens, and in recent years on the display of tiny devices that were promised to bring us so much joy and which should …
Dear readers, it is awfully hot this year in Malawi and though my biggest fear right now may be a sunburn, many Malawians are scared about an extremely dry season, floods, and therefore a bad harvest. The soil is cracking, dry, and hard as stone, and the rainy season is …
Dear readers, I wanted to see if I could find one coherent, up-to-date, interesting, and relevant article/podcast/essay that delves into my topic of choice: fake news/misinformation/digital overload. I didn’t find *one*. Just published in the last month, I found: 3,900,000 results for the term “misinformation” 3,810,000 results for the term …
Dear readers, I’m an experienced broadcast journalist and now a Communications Specialist in the development sector, but never before have I had to invest so much of my identity to produce such brief content as for my 13-second video for this blog (go on, watch and have a giggle). One …
Dear readers, what creates change and why is change necessary? Who are the changemakers and why are they successful? This is what I have dedicated a good portion of the last decade to – and it’s probably something that I will not yet have fully understood in another few decades …
