Democracy in the age of social media: Podcast of radio interview by OAR FM Dunedin

Uncategorized 2 Minutes

Cross posted from ICT4Peace Foundation site.
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Special Advisor at the ICT4Peace Foundation, Sanjana Hattotuwa, in conversation with Marvin Hubbard from OAR FM Dunedin, looking at the issues around social media, hate, peace and democracy in Aotearoa/New Zealand and beyond. Broadcast live on OAR 105.4FM Dunedin on 23 March 2021. Original podcast at Community or Chaos programme’s website / podcast page.

Sanjana touched on the following questions and issues, charted by Marvin, in an hour-long conversation that picked up on the major themes that were discussed at the New Ec(h)o systems: Democracy in the age of social media conference on 16 and 17 March 2021.

  • Briefly what has been your work and experience in Sri Lanka and elsewhere before becoming a student at the Otago National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies?
  • Could you tell us about why you became interested in the present the relationship between Online Social media and Political social crisis?
  • Could you talk about the New Ec(h)o systems: Democracy in the age of social media Conference held recently at Otago University?
  • Could you talk about the view that new technologies often have a disruptive influence on cultures and may benefit those introducing the new technologies more than those receiving the new technologies?
  • Could you talk briefly about journalism and the changes that have occurred in this generation and how we distinguish between facts and falsehood?
  • Social media and online extremism gets talked about a lot but in some ways are they possible scapegoats for avoiding larger real issues such as climate change and growing in inequality?
  • Did the Christchurch Mosque massacre and the New Zealand response have particular relevance to you and your experiences in Sri Lanka?
  • Can you talk about the Christchurch call?
  • Were you surprised that some of the high school aged attendees at the conference seemed unaware of the Christchurch call and how would you account for that?
  • How do young people experience social media compared to people over 40?
  • Some technologies such as automated warfare i.e. killer robots should be banned, how do we decide to keep or use new technologies?
  • How do you see the future and how can we make sure that as new technologies are introduced the harmful effects are minimized and at the same time that we benefit from the positive opportunities?

Published by Sanjana

An Ashoka, Rotary World Peace and TED Fellow, I have since 2002 used, studied and advocated Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen peace, human rights & democratic governance. I founded in 2006 and till June 2020 edited the award-winning Groundviews, Sri Lanka's first civic media website. From 2002-2020 I was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives. I pioneered both the use of social media for activism and online citizen journalism/civic media in Sri Lanka, including setting up South Asia's first Twitter and Facebook accounts for civic media, in 2007. Having started digital security training for human rights activists in 2010, I continue to advise civil society on digital hygiene, mass and personal surveillance, privacy and secure communications to date. I also curate a comprehensive digital archive of material linked to peace and conflict in Sri Lanka, since 2002. I specialise in, advise and train on social media communications strategy, countering-violence extremism online, web-based activism, online advocacy and grounded, context-based, platform-specific social media research. My work experience over two-decades spans five continents. Through the ICT4Peace Foundation and since 2006, I help strengthen information management during crises and work on countering violent extremism online. For over a decade, this included leading the Foundation's work on these lines with the United Nations and other multi-lateral organisations involved in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian affairs. Since 2008, I have worked in South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa, Europe and the Balkans to capture, disseminate and archive inconvenient truths in austere, violent contexts. I completed doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, looking at the symbiotic relationship between offline unrest and online instigation of hate and harm in Sri Lanka and, in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, facilitated by leading research based on New Zealand's first ever Data for Good grant by Twitter.

Published