Overview: Politics

FalseA German journalist and camera crew have fun with the EP gravy train in “Scandale au Parlement Européen : Argent facile, champagne à gogo et autres privilèges. This sort of film iseasy to make and so becoming commonplace. And people in the Brussels Bubble wonder why they are not so widely loved elsewhere?

worth repeating for everyone who thinks that the path to democracy in the EU is measured in column inches...

This post started out as a comment to Blogging, content discovery and the European public sphere, Kosmopolito's post marking Bloggingportal's 5th birthday (all posts and more). However Kosmo, one of the old guard of EU bloggers (and currently jobhunting, btw) raised more than a couple of good questions, so my comment needed a larger home…

"“Fished out of the shadows, old news coverage in China’s media can provide clues to the family connections of government officials as reporters investigate their financial dealings.”"

Original linkTonight I'll be toddling along to Grilling Kippers, a UKIP-focused anti-Eurosceptic campaign from deep within the Brussels Bubble.

Great idea for explaining EU affairs or just wishful thinking? "A new game called Fantasy Geopolitics (think Fantasy Football meets Model United Nations) is radically changing the way high school students in Minnesota are interacting with the news." - How a High School Teacher Is 'Gamifying' World News

US authorities seem particularly vulnerable to confirmation bias. Anyone remember http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_B ? "FBI was already convinced they had their man, so they rationalized away the non-matching elements ... Mayfield being jailed without charge; his home and office burgled by the FBI; his client-attorney privilege violated; his lif…

There’s nothing more devastating than a rigorous debunk sprinkled liberally with acid. A model to keep in mind whenever setting the record straight: be entertaining.

Last Thursday I finally caught up with Eric Maurice of PressEurop, which recently had its plug pulled by the EC following their decision to cancel its renewal tender some weeks after publishing it.

"Instead of leading on this issue as the European country that is best prepared to do so, Britain undermines what it likes most about the EU—the single market—by challenging one of its cornerstones—free movement of EU citizens."

A good pro-EU article ends with: "How dare these foreigners impose on us clean beaches, food labelling, consumer protection, lead-free petrol, road safety, access to healthcare abroad, cheaper mobile phone charges and real chocolate? ... If we want to bathe in sewage, landfill our countryside, guzzle mechanically recovered meat, and pay through t…

Davastating analysis in the FT of "... three visible failures: First, the economic, financial, intellectual and political elites mostly misunderstood the consequences of headlong financial liberalisation ... The rescue was necessary. But the belief that the powerful sacrificed taxpayers to the interests of the guilty is correct. Second, ... a gl…

You can go for months without a good post on the EU public sphere, and then a whole bunch come along at once.

"One cultural tool for constructing Europe has been through official symbols aiming to emotionally strengthen citizens’ identification with basic values of the European project.... The fifth symbol is the euro, introduced in 2002. When trust in European institutions is shaking, so is the belief in those symbols and the identification of and with …

"Change of direction speaks volumes for change in German attitudes triggered by the euro crisis." ... Maybe some EU functionaries need to get out of their luxury offices now and then, and talk to the people. Then they'll be able to carry out policies which are rooted in practical life." - Key centre-Right German party adopts new hardline Eu…

“Comments from readers are probably one of the thorniest problems for online publishers of all kinds… and the methods for dealing with them are all over the map... We spoke to online editors and community managers at 104 news organisations from 63 countries across the globe, plus a selection of experts from the corporate and academic worlds to id…

Interesting survey of HuffPo, Techcrunch & other experiences with changing commenting systems and policies. - HuffPost policy banishes trolls — and drives away some frequent commenters | Poynter.

"If you have been following European politics and media, online and offline, for the past 5-6 years, you cannot but notice the genesis of a European Public Sphere . This sphere may be more or less evolved depending on national media, but it clearly there, much more than it was before the last European elections and the before the start of the cris…

Quote of the day: "rekindling enthusiasm for Europe with new banking regulations... is like boosting libido by reading the instructions on a packet of condoms" - Can the European Center Hold? - NYTimes.com

How nice to see a positive answer to the perennial question: Where are the MEPs?

A refreshing focus on what matters: "Voters are frustrated that they exert less influence than ever over elites... a restoration of the people’s dwindling faith in political institutions at national and EU levels is at once the biggest and the most elusive prize... decline in public confidence in Europe’s governing classes is wider, and it rel…

by RAND: "What will be the key societal challenges that the EU will need to address within the next two decades? ... a review of literature, data and insights from over 200 international experts ... explores evidence and uncertainties underpinning global societal trends and the challenges they provide for policymakers. ... put in place a lastin…

Came out just after my post on applying network theory and the EU online public sphere: "For those of us who are interested in understanding and participating in the EU digital public sphere(s), social network analysis offers a useful way to identify key influencers and map different communities. I can see plenty of practical applications (for e…

via @bloggingportal. @poljourno finds no smoking gun: "... the European Union is still seen as a niche topic by the media in most EU member states. Ask the man on the street about the activities of the Brussels Bubble and you will also be met with a shrug and a ‘who cares’, in the majority of cases. But a fascinating documentary The Brussels Busi…

The above image is from Drake Baer's FastCompany article "Why Successful People Have So Many Groups Of Friends", which is all about networking for career success, something I've never done and am very unlikely to start.

Some key points from "The Benefits of Quality Content and Genuine Social Engagement ... to create great, sharable, engaging content and become an active participant on social platforms: - Quality content is what your clients want to read, not what you want to tell them.... - Content that gets highly shared is content with heart. Real stories, re…

"The European Endowment for Democracy has been created to promote the European values of freedom and democracy. A joint effort of the Member States and European Union institutions, the European Endowment for Democracy remains an independent private law foundation with its seat in Brussels. Fostering - not exporting - democracy and freedom The Eur…

How nice to see the Brussels Bubble meme continue to spread ... ;) "In a damning indictment of efforts in Brussels to promote stronger public attachment to the EU through the European Year of Citizens 2013, Emily O’Reilly said the campaign was “not succeeding”. ... the new office holders needed to be courageous enough to address the union’s demo…

The forward of this book, by Brian Solis, made me want to substitute 'citizen' for 'consumer' and 'customer', and 'government' for 'business': "The future of customer engagement requires a more thoughtful and localized approach. Connected customers aren’t complacent, fickle or unfaithful, they’re focused on what’s important to them. As they’re al…

Today's online news environment is ideal for spreading bullshit. As someone like HuffPo's Washington bureau chief puts it: “If you throw something up without fact-checking it, and you’re the first one to put it up, and you get millions and millions of views, and later it’s proved false, you still got those views. That’s a problem. The incentive…