Disqus - Latest Comments for robinbrowne

Re: The Similarities Between Red and Yellow

Robin Browne — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 22:45:44 -0000

Like Sarah El-Shaarawi, I submitted an essay to the 2022 Dalton Camp Award contest. My essay, titled “The revolution will not be televised (until Black people start burning stuff)”, published on my blog “The "True" North All about Black folks making Canada even greater”, argued that the Canadian mainstream media does a very bad job of covering social change movements led by Black and Indigenous people, only paying attention once there’s a crisis where Black people are burning stuff or Indigenous people are blocking stuff. El-Shaarawi’s article backs up my argument by focusing on two white journalists who were covering Indigneous people blocking stuff. It doesn’t focus on what the journalists were covering, it focuses on them. El-Shaarawi draws parallels between the treatment of journalists in places like her father’s birthplace, Egypt, and Canada. However, she provides evidence that contradicts her own argument by attempting to draw parallels with the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi - who was murdered and dismembered allegedly at the order of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince - with the arrest of the two journalists. She quotes one of the journalists, Amber Bracken, saying, “We were detained for days in cold cells. They took most of our clothes, denied us soap and toothbrushes, and only allowed us to speak to our lawyers.” A far cry from being murdered and dismembered… El-Shaarawi doesn’t mention that Bracken and her colleague were released without charge after 5 days. She also doesn’t say whether one of the Indigenous protestors who was arrested at the same time, Wet'suwet'en leader Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, was released or charged (BC crown prosecutors charged Wickham with criminal contempt in July 2022). El-Shaarawi says “journalists thrive on exposing corruption and injustice” then cites Mohawk journalist Dan David, who explored media coverage of Indigenous issues in Canada in 2018. David said white journalists excused their lack of coverage of Indigenous issues by saying, “Stories about Indigenous communities never went anywhere. Things never changed.” So El-Shaawari is basically arguing that Canadian mainstream journalists (who are mostly white) have tried really hard to do a good job covering Indigneous issues but feel nothing has changed so they’ve given up. However, she also says it’s not all journalists’ faults, adding: “In any context where financial, political or religious interests are at play, there exists a tension between journalists’ incentives for coverage and the incentives of those in positions of power to limit or control the coverage of certain issues. Unfortunately, it is almost always the journalists who are at a disadvantage, with more to lose. While the degree of risk varies by issue and region, that tension exists from Riyadh to Regina. In the arrests of Bracken, her colleague Michael Toledano and so many others, we see the price of fighting to hold power to account.” The price for holding power to account for white journalists in Canada is 5 days in custody and no charges. The price for Indigenous protestors in Canada and journalists in truly red states, are criminal charges, murder and dismemberment. It’s not its treatment of white journalists that shows the oppressive side of the Canadian state, it’s its treatment of Indigenous people. And the treatment of Indigenous stories by mostly white liberal journalists supports it.

Re: Amy Goodman: Corporate media needs to be 'fourth estate' not 'for-the-state'

Robin Browne — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 17:30:14 -0000

I totally agree that people would be very interested in stories about the struggles and triumphs of real people, over endless celebrity hype, if it was as readily available. This is one of the most important roles of indy media.

Re: Any black folks in the house?

Robin Browne — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 17:02:06 -0000

Unfortunately, his dream is still a dream for many folks, including most Afro Brazilians.

Re: Any black folks in the house?

Robin Browne — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 13:13:55 -0000

Thanks for the comment. What alternate lens would you suggest?

Re: Any black folks in the house?

Robin Browne — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 11:38:27 -0000

Thanks for the comment! I had only been in Rio a couple of days when I wrote the post so had only seen a couple of events and Rafaela hadn't won her gold yet. I didn't know anything about her background or the crap she faced so thanks for sharing. She is an inspiration!

Re: LinkedIn Is Still Underrated

Robin Browne — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 13:55:57 -0000

If others feel like I do, I think Bell taking the lead on letting folks opt out of behavioural marketing (BM) will be to their advantage.
For example, after listening to your CHOM spot, I checked out Lynda.com and when I returned to the streaming music site I listen to at work just 10 minutes later there was already a Lynda.com banner ad at the top.
I found this creepy, not useful, because one look at a website doesn't mean I want to buy what's there. Bell and others using BM need to figure out how to let people help them make the ads more relevant to them or I bet lots of folks will be opting their way out the door.

Re: Find Your Bravery

Robin Browne — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 15:05:34 -0000

She references a great quote from Theodore Roosevelt that basically says, "Get out there and take the risk to create because by doing so, at best, you'll know "the triumph of high achievement", and, at worst, you'll "fail while daring greatly"". I would counter this by saying that you actually don't fail when you dare greatly.
For example, I used a version of this recently with one of my kids who didn't make the top tier of a team he tried out for. I told him that it was all good because:
1) he had tried to do something really hard (the competition was fierce)
2) as a result he was in great shape to make the 2nd Tier team.
As Tony Robbins' says, "There are no failures, only results."

Re: Google+ and the lesson of Owned vs Rented Spaces

Robin Browne — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 20:17:18 -0000

I find it's not that simple Joe. For example, I have my blog that I own and use for long form content. Medium length things I post to Facebook and short things to Twitter, (neither of which I own unfortunately ;-)). I don't want to post it all on my blog because it's got a clear focus that the other stuff doesn't necessarily fit. Yet, I don't want to pay for another blog to house that stuff. So, at this point, I haven't found a perfect solution.

Re: SPOS #450 - Steven Kotler And The Time To Be Bold

Robin Browne — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 12:56:23 -0000

Oh, and one more point. The thing that struck me most in this episode was Mitch's statement that more people have access to mobile than have access to clean drinking water. My cynical side would say this is probably because the companies driving this growth in mobile access think enabling mobile services is more profitable than providing clean water. If that's the case, they should remember people can't buy anything if they're sick or dead from dirty water.

Re: SPOS #450 - Steven Kotler And The Time To Be Bold

Robin Browne — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 12:39:44 -0000

You know I'm a huge fan on the podcast but this one missed the mark as Kotler was jargon-laden, including never defining his main topic: flow. What is flow?

Re: The Conflict Of Media... And Digital Media

Robin Browne — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 15:01:45 -0000

I recently took my first Uber ride that got me thinking about digital disrupters. This post reveals how disrupters can either be entirely new players moving into existing industries, like Uber, or digital millionaires buying existing businesses, like Hughes buying the New Republic or Amazon's Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post (which was news to me so thanks. ;-)). Hughes could have gone the Uber route and created his own digital competitor to The New Republic. However, when Rose asked him why he didn't, he said it was because he really liked and respected the work of The NR and felt he could help spread it to a greater audience by expanding its digital offerings. One thing is clear: traditional industries that are in trouble better hope that some friendly tech billionaire buys them because there's no way they'll survive the likely alternative: an Uber-competitor.

Re: What Does It Take To Be A Billionaire That Changes The World?

Robin Browne — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:00:05 -0000

I've been thinking and writing a lot about the digital divide lately and this episode's focus on passion got me thinking about a new angle.
The advice that people "follow their passion" assumes that people can feel passion. However, people struggling with issues like depression (and we all know someone who is) have a disorder that impairs their ability to feel passionate about ANYTHING. They also don't feel like being very social - no matter how many free tools there are for people to "connect". The thing is, these folks all have the potential to do amazing things to make society better. We need them to be part of the digital social change revolution. But right now, we've got a staggering number of people on the wrong side the digital divide: the lonely, bored, non-engaged side.

The good news is that the recent increase in public attention to mental health issues provides folks with lots of support to come over to the right side - and bring their skills, and passion - with them. Each of us can do our part to help those around us by speaking openly about mental health issues.

Re: From One to a Million: Managing Social Media at Scale

Robin Browne — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:45:33 -0000

This should be good as Dave has a ton of real world experience which he delivers with lots of great humour.

Re: Invisible Children Responds To The Kony 2012 Viral Video Controversy

Robin Browne — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:22:46 -0000

First, I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to
contribute to this thoughtful debate – and Invisible Children for sparking it.

Great comment Teresa. I agree that Kony2012 has issues but I
don’t think the problem is (and I’m paraphrasing) “white American heroes
marching in with their YouTube videos and Justin Beiber support to save the
Africans”. The problem is WHY this story resonates with so many people. I would
argue it’s largely because the villain is a completely monstrous, brown guy,
doing horrible things a half a world away. He’s someone it’s safe to hate – and
who does things from which we don’t benefit.

The stories that resonate far less, if at all, are the ones
with white villains in suits who directly or indirectly support people almost
as bad as Kony in countries where horrible atrocities go unnoticed. They
support them so their companies can operate in those countries producing things
we all demand and benefit from – like the coltan in all our cell phones from
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, example.

Re: What do library and donor cards have in common?

Robin Browne — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:38:22 -0000

Thanks for this Mark. It's both a great personal story and a great social media case study - right down to your tweet headline that got me to click:
What do @justinbieber and the Fonz have in common? http://t.co/8w4edJmw @alungstory#beadonor less than a minute ago

Re: Is Social Media Worth the Effort?

Robin Browne — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:52:54 -0000

You're right that ROI isn't always easy to figure out for a school - or any other organization. However, too many organizations don't even struggle with this problem and, instead, use one social media tool after another with no evaluation or impact. Others try and give up.

Those that do the work to:
1) establish clear, measurable objectives - like the ones you give above;
2) take baseline measurements to see where things are before doing their communications program; and
3) measure using consistent tools and procedures
....reap the benefits of all the unprecedented data now available to get results.

Re: The Machine is Indeed Using Us

Robin Browne — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:22:18 -0000

People only getting information from their own fish bowls is a real concern - especially where they're unaware of it like with customized Google results. With such busy lives and so much information people are less inclined to make the effort to seek out opinions contrary to their own. Yet this is exactly what we all need to grow our own opinions and make fully informed decisions.

Re: Paper Blogging

Robin Browne — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:44:57 -0000

I was at a conference once where they had the Twitter stream following the conference hash tag projected on a huge screen on stage. This is getting more common and is tons of fun but they also had a flip chart outside the conference room with a marker and the title "Analog Twitter" at the top. People would then add their short analog "tweets" to the page. Retweeting was a challenge but it was still fun! ;-)

Re: Retire the Binder

Robin Browne — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:30:21 -0000

Hi Rod,
Great initiative! Some questions:
1) what will happen if/when the net is down, slow or spotty in places?
2) Assuming each kid will need an Evernote account, how will you deal with reluctant parents?
3) how will you deal with kids' differing internet access at home?
My wife is a principal prepping to open a brand new K-6 school this fall so I'll be following your experiments closely and passing on lessons to her.

Re: Six keys to success in social media

Robin Browne — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:48:07 -0000

Great post Joe. Since you mention corporate communications I assume you're talking about doing social media in fairly large organizations. Given that, I would also add buy-in/support from upper management and the I.T. shop as success prerequisites.

Re: How Governments misunderstand the risks of Open Data

Robin Browne — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:28:07 -0000

As the guy who asked you the "R" question at one of your recent open data talks to a government audience, I have to clarify my question.
When I said that we in government have to provide decision makers with risk assessments I should have clarified that they are part of documents including opportunity assessments and recommendations. I like the way you've laid out the various things in place to deal with possible misuse of open data. I see documents listing risks matched against the things in place to mitigate them.

Re: What Social Media Users Want [STATS]

Robin Browne — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 07:21:15 -0000

My one caution to everyone wanting to use these stats would be: beware of generalizations. Always remember each client, or audience that client is trying to reach, has unique needs and you still need to ask the client the basics:
* what's their objective?
* who and where are their target audiences?
* what are they doing now, and what have they done in the past, to reach those audiences and how successful are/were they?
* what resources (especially time) are they willing to put towards trying new things?

Re: The Hottest Men in Social Media

Robin Browne — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:52:52 -0000

Hey guys,
I'm always a little nervous listening to MOC because I'm afraid Chris is going to say something brilliant that I'm not going to understand. Well this show sounds like just that happened. I didn't get the Project Gutenberg thing. How does posting a revised public domain work on your web site improve SEO?

Re: For Better or For Worse#3 HIP-HIP-HORAY!!!!!

Robin Browne — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:11:58 -0000

You are soooo right about your parents Lucy! (So remember, when this is all over you must make them breakfast in bed every morning and drive Bayla and yourself to school!)
I just watched the hair cutting party video which shows the amazing ability you all have to turn something potentially negative into an opportunity to connect, laugh, learn - and inspire!

Re: Audio recording a presentation with a lapel mic

Robin Browne — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:39:26 -0000

Thanks for the post Mark.
$800 bucks for one wireless mic is pricey but great quality audio is priceless...
What if I'm trying to record two speakers? Can I get two wireless mics that will record to the same MP3 file simultaneously?