“How can we best explain the differences between altruists and the paradigmatic self-interested individuals who exist at the heart of disciplines as wide-ranging as psychology, evolutionary biology, economics, and rational actor theory? The most important and consistent difference centers on systematic similarities in perspective. All altruists have a particular way of seeing the world, and especially themselves in relation to others. All the altruists I interviewed saw themselves as individuals strongly linked to others through a shared humanity.”

In Kristen Renwick Monroe, The Heart of Altruism: Perceptions of a Common Humanity, 1996. page 213.

What explains ethical political action? Why do certain people do things for other people? The important insight Monroe gives us is that self-interest and reason are unable to give us a comprehensive answer to why people perform acts of altruism. This is not an insignificant finding, since a wide range of scholarly disciplines have as a fundamental starting point that humans are rational actors, and act out of self-interest (economics, political science, etc). Instead of self-interest, she proposes to consider perspective as a crucial variable for explaining altruism. Perspective, as one’s self in relation to others, not merely one’s sense of self.

One can then proceed to ask how journalism contributes to a larger understanding of the world; in other words, what role does journalism play in forming and shaping the view we have of the world, of ourselves, of others, and of ourselves in relation to others? What does it mean for perspective formation that objectivity is the main guiding principle for news making? Herbert Gans has long advocated for a “multiperspectival” approach to news making, rather than objectivity. How are alternative and citizen media different in this regard, and what potential might they offer for changing and improving our perspectives?

The Hyperlinked Society book I helped edit can now be read online for free, it’s searchable and .. hyperlinked!

I’m reading Fraser and it’s really good. Quote on page 64:

Subordinate groups sometimes cannot find the right voice or words to express their thoughts, and when they do, they discover they are not heard. [They] are silenced, encouraged to keep their wants inchoate, and heard to say ‘yes’ when what they have said is ‘no.’ [..] many of these feminist insights into ways in which deliberation can serve as a mask for domination extend beyond gender to other kinds of unequal relations, like those based on class or ethnicity. They alert us to the ways in which social inequalities can infect deliberation, even in the absence of any formal exclusions.

Reading her quote reminds us how access alone often is not enough for equal communication. Access, of course, is a first prerequisite that is a necessary but not sufficient condition. In this light, one can think about to what degree citizen media empowers or emancipates; that is to say, how being able to blog alone is not enough, one also has to be heard in a voice that does justice to the speaker - a proper voice. This problem gets only more challenging in a global context, where not just social inequalities but also linguistic and cultural, not to mention basic human rights to freedom of speech, are often an immense barrier to any remote possibility for a healthy conversation between different people, groups, cultures in an age of growing interdependence.

In: Nancy Fraser, Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy, Social Text, No. 25/26 (1990), pp. 56-80.

Let me mention another super exciting thing: I will be a visiting fellow at the Berkman Center for 9 months, starting in September. I plan to write my dissertation there, and benefit from the expertise at Berkman, while also be making hopefully useful contributions to the many exciting projects at the Center, such as Media Republic.

I also found a place to stay at in Boston, signed the lease, and will move there around mid August. Looking forward to share my research with the people at Berkman and if you are around in Boston and want to grab a coffee together, drop me a note.

An update of what I have been doing lately is due, I think.

The Hyperlinked Society, the book that I co-edited with Dr. Joseph Turow is published and for sale. It came out of the similar named conference that we held two years ago. The book looks great, has a great collection of articles written by impressive scholars (self not included), and it’s my first book! Needless to say, I’m pretty proud and thankful for this wonderful opportunity Dr. Turow and the Annenberg School has given me. If you mail me, I might be able to get you a digital copy (although of course, I’d prefer you buy a paper copy)

Last month, I also presented a paper titled “The Great Firewall as Iron Curtain 2.0″ at the sixth Chinese Internet Research conference held at Hong Kong University. It got quite some attention and was blogged by the Wall Street Journal, by Rebecca MacKinnon, Chez Say, and the Internet & Democracy project at the Berkman Center.

I also attended the Global Voices summit in Budapest, which was simply, one word, awesome. Out of the conversations that followed this summit, I was suggested to start a research hub for scholars who are interested in researching Global Voices. Feel free to join!

Finally, right now, I am busy preparing my dissertation proposal. Wish me luck!

I did the Dutch translation for this video that introduces Rising Voices, an amazing project spearheaded by my friend David Sasaki that “aims to bring new voices to the global conversation”.

Let me know if you find any errors in my translation. You can also watch the original video in any other language besides Dutch. If you know a language that this video hasn’t been translated in, feel free to contribute (dotsub makes it real easy to translate)!

Currently attending the Global Voices Summit 2008 held in Budapest, Hungary. It’s an amazing happening so far, with over 200 bloggers all sitting in one room (scarcity of power strips!). The first day so far has been focusing on all the different kinds of problems bloggers worldwide face, an issue the Economist also recently wrote about. It’s a bit overwhelming, imagine hearing all the different forms of censorship practices worldwide in one day and it only reinforces the importance of open spaces online. Sometimes the discussion about censorship can become quite abstract - but the discussions today ground us back into reality again.

Follow the Summit on twitter, irc (#globalvoices on freenode), liveblog, video stream, facebook, flickr, and slideshare (I am sure I am still missing some!).

irc channel of the conference on freenode #circ. and woohoo, even twitter is up again.

Dave Lyons is undertaking a Herculean effort and being immensely helpful in blogging the conference!

Just arrived in time for the first presentation at the sixth Chinese Internet Research conference. Hope to be blogging most of the panels. Conference back channels are available at twitter, follow circ2008. There’s also a conference wiki, and an RSS feed of all twitterers who are attending the conference.