Kalle Lasn, one of the creators of the Occupy Wall Street meme (and founder of the Canadian magazine, Adbusters) has described the police raid to clear Zuccotti Park as “the latest in a series of crisis-driven opportunities.” In his interview with Mattathias Schwartz, Lasn asserts, “World wars, revolutions—from time to time, big things actually happen . . . When the moment is right, all it takes is a spark.” Lasn is calling the evictions the end of Phase I and is now calling for Phase II… What if the focus group dimension of Twitter described by Adam Green could be extended as a platform for aggregating collective intelligence? #KeepSpreadingTheMeme
Read MoreEngaging Preoccupation
by Steph • November 16th, 2011
A friend working on some Twitter research has created a visualization of Tweets containing the word “occupy.” Watching the barrage of names, emotions, attitudes, accusations, reports, insults could seep in like a bad dream, the social miasma of our times unfolding in real time. I find articulate voices making sense of what’s happening now among hip hop artists who are using their art to engage issues of social justice. At AJstream, Derrick Ashong asks Lupe Fiasco why the clear point of the Occupy Wall Street movement – ECONOMIC JUSTICE – is not translating to mainstream media.
Read MoreEmergency Communication and the Deaf
by Steph • November 9th, 2011
“In all of the years of researching and taking courses / training in crisis communications – one group has not been mentioned as much as others. This audience group is the deaf community. How do we go about in making sure that this audience group gets the same information about an […]
Read MoreDeaf Tweet-to-Teach Emergency Responders
by Steph • November 3rd, 2011
The #demx research project of the November 9, 2011 national test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) uses Twitter to investigate whether emergency warnings reach the Deaf community in a timely and understandable manner.
Read MoreOccupying the Crisis of Whiteness
by Steph • November 1st, 2011
The distinctions between being a white American and the institutional structures of whiteness are important. First, the structures of whiteness are ‘in’ Americans of all ethnicities to some degree, even if only by necessity in order to survive (let alone do well) in today’s hyperdrive commercial/consumer-based society. Second: to understand the difference between the genetic-social fact of being white and the institutional structures of whiteness is to realize that the issues raised by the Occupy Wall Street movement are not about white Americans trying to get over or above anybody else. Instead, this could be the historical moment when middle-class white Americans begin to demonstrate a widespread cultural awareness that whiteness – both the personal sense of superiority, and as institutionalized in ‘the rules’ – is not fair to anyone.
Read MoreTornadoes and the Deaf Community in Western Massachusetts
by Steph • October 13th, 2011
This survey generated some interesting data which might be useful in generating hypotheses for future testing and eventually guiding design for better warning systems, improved emergency preparation, and the smooth integration of emergency response service delivery to people with so-called “functional needs” or otherwise requiring “additional assistance” – particularly the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.
Read MoreComing Out Easy
by Steph • October 11th, 2011
We were talking about gender, and the difference in friendship rules for boys and girls. One of the girls asked if anyone else had the experience of their parents allowing their sons to invite female friends home with no questions asked, but if she wanted to have a male friend visit she’d be asked if […]
Read Morepositive mental attitude
by Steph • September 18th, 2011
“I was a little girl, run over by a truck. Comatose for three to seven and a half months. One and a half years of hospitalization. And then I ran out of challenges.”
Read MoreWeather and Uncertainty: Warn or Wait?
by Steph • September 5th, 2011
One of the striking things that I learned about Americans when I began doctoral studies in the field of Communication is that there is a positive identity function to talking about the weather. If you’ve got to interact with a stranger one thing we all experience is the weather. Rather than being superficial, talking […]
Read MoreRudolph Steiner on Loyalty
by Steph • September 3rd, 2011
“Gain for yourself a new, strong-willed attitude towards loyalty;
what people ordinarily call loyalty evaporates so quickly.
Make this your loyalty:
You will experience in another person moments,
rapidly passing away,
in which he [ or she ] will appear to you filled,
aglow with the ageless image of his [ her ] spirit.
Then, to be sure, there can […]
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