SWN Trainer Mark Rendeiro in Georgia

Mark Rendeiro’s Dispatches from Georgia

Earlier this month I went to work at IREX Georgia in Tblisi, on behalf of Small World News, to give workshops for their Gmedia initiative. The workshops were focused on digital advocacy, with participants from many different types of media, NGO’s and even some independent individuals. They all came with a desire to learn more [...]

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Safely and Securely Producing Media: A Training Guide

We’d like to announce that we’ve started producing our first training guide, Small World News’ Guide to Safely and Securely Producing Media. We’ve wanted to produce this guide for a long time now, and we thrilled to finally have the time and the resources to make it happen.  We’re planning to release this free downloadable [...]

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Citizen Media: Accountability for Decision Makers

Previously we’ve written here about how citizen media – the stories of those on the ground – can be used to provide much-needed context for journalists, analysts, and policy makers. Knowing the specifics of what’s happening, and learning it from the locals themselves, ensures better intelligence and therefore better decision making. But what does citizen [...]

Small World News in Georgia

Small World News in Georgia

Mark Rendeiro is in Georgia this week training locals to use new media tools for public campaigns, specifically related to advocacy. He’s blogging about his trip on his website Citizen Reporter. While some nations in the EU curse their governments for not representing them in what is financially a very troubled union, here we find [...]

EgyptiTraffic

Syrian Voices Silenced? Not Quite

From the Wall Street Journal: Syria shut down most of its Internet and mobile data connections early Friday, adopting a strategy used by other governments in the Middle East during critical points of the uprisings. But the attempt to gain an advantage over the opposition groups by unplugging or partially blocking the Internet, which has [...]

Donia Jarrar on the Faces of the Revolution

Alive in Egypt: Donia Jarrar on the Faces of the Revolution

From Donia Jarrar’s blog: On April 8th, 2011 I had the opportunity to give a TEDx Talk as part of TEDxUofM at the historic Michigan Theater in front of a 1700 member audience. I was very lucky to be able to speak as a part of such an inspiring group of people, and that I [...]

A Libyan watches a television broadcast of a speech by President Barack Obama in U.S., at a shop in Benghazi May 19, 2011. Credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

US Commitment To Global Free Expression: What Does It Take?

From President Obama’s speech on the Middle East and North Africa, delivered this morning at the State Department: We will continue to make good on the commitments that I made in Cairo ” to build networks of entrepreneurs, and expand exchanges in education; to foster cooperation in science and technology, and combat disease. Across the [...]

Digital Journalism Camp Unheard Voices

Unheard Voices: Small World News at Digital Journalism Camp 2011

Last weekend, the Small World News team attended Digital Journalism Camp 2011 in downtown Portland. Digital Journalism Camp is about spending the day with the people who are actively changing journalism. You’re going to learn from ” and share with ” the people who have found solutions to the challenges you face, whether you’re a [...]

NatSec staff watches 4-box

Citizen Media: Context for Decision Makers

David Kenner wrote this week about President Obama’s news sources for Foreign Policy‘s Passportblog: With one sentence, the New York Times raised dozens of Middle East pundits’ hopes that their words were reaching the most powerful man in the world. “At night in the family residence…Mr. Obama often surfs the blogs of experts on Arab [...]

The Story of Alive in Libya

The Story of Alive in Libya

In March 2011, Brian Conley and Louis Abelman journeyed to Benghazi to lay the foundation for Alive in Libya. Entering Libya through the Egyptian border in the east, and arriving just three weeks after the revolution began, they set about making contact with local citizens at a media center set up by the opposition movement. [...]