TRISTAN WILLENBURG WRITES – Beware what you click on Facebook. An Indian is under arrest in Saudi Arabia for what he says was simply taking a look at an image authorities have since deemed blasphemous. The rub: To see the photo, the man says he was tricked into giving it…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES— When the western world first saw the platypus, they were confused, but curious. Now, whenever we encounter strange animals in the media, we have the same reaction – but that curiosity is only satiated when those animals are actually real. A man in the northern province of…
KELCEY LORENZO WRITES – Atlanta-born K-Pop solo artist and YouTube sensation Eric Nam recently announced that his first U.S. tour would have to be put on pause. The one-week showcase tour was supposed to kick off on February 20th in New York, continue on to Atlanta and Dallas, and finish…
NICK ARMER WRITES -The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy announced that the 2015 Women’s Rights Award would be given to Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad. Yet, this victory has not come without severe backlash from Iranian authorities. On February 24, Alinejad was presented with the award in a public ceremony…
ASIA MEDIA STAFF WRITES – A recent survey conducted in Singapore has found that the majority of youths who are active on social media strive to ensure that their online presence portrays them in a good light, but often do not lie about themselves in order to do so. The…
MICHELLE VARINATA WRITES – With an affable personality and Obama-like charm, Joko Widodo nonetheless appears to have fallen from grace after a mere 100 days in office. The Indonesian president, called “Jokowi” by his loving supporters, got into trouble over the proposed appointment of a new head of the National…
NICK ARMER WRITES – Though the election of President Hassan Rouhani came with the hope of a more moderate Iranian government, the result has been quite the opposite. The Iranian authorities have brought forth tighter controls on the media and strict punishments for those bold enough to voice controversial beliefs.…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES— Today’s generation would find it hard to imagine life without social media. And at least some people in the government seem to have caught on. According to TuoiTreNews, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stated that authorities must provide “official and accurate information in a timely manner on…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES — From the moment you open Tumblr, 4chan, or Reddit, you’re laughing up a storm. We’re lucky that this is all in English for the American audience, but Vietnam isn’t far behind with their own growing chuckle site. The popular start-up site HaiVL was allegedly acquired by…
ASIA MEDIA STAFF WRITES – While Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is still contemplating the decision to join the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the country has ramped up its own online efforts in the fight against religious extremism. Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Teo…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES—No one, it seems, can escape the far-reaching grasp of the Internet. Vietnamese authorities thought they could lock away dissidents, but their fingers keep tapping and a scene emerges that looks eerily similar to African Americans during the 1960s Civil Rights era. According to TuoiTreNews, it’s now apparent that prisoners have…
AMBER VERNETTI WRITES – Last week the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the inception of the ‘Arab Social Media Award’ in the Gulf region to promote proper and acceptable social media use and to encourage awareness of the concerns associated with social media. Due to the UAE’s growing population of…
KIARA BRAMASCO WRITES – On February 18, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladeshi Police force, arrested 21-year-old Rasel Bin Sattar Khan for circulating an audiovisual message online. According to The Hindu, the message is believed to be from al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri who…
NICOLE SABA WRITES – It all started with a series of deadly car bombings that happened in December. Other than the target of the initial explosion – Mohammed Chatah, former Finance Minister of Lebanon – four others lost their lives that day. Among them was Mohammed Chaar, a sixteen-year-old boy,…
JEREMIAH FAJARDO WRITES – On paper, promoting a sense of international awareness sounds like a logical quality for an airline to convey in its commercials. Such ads can assure customers of a friendly, welcoming environment. Yet, as All Nippon Airways (ANA) has found, this is hardly achieved by poking fun at…
YVONNE EPPS WRITES- Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, they just did. Vietnam’s war on peaceful protest has reached guerrilla warfare of the monetary kind. Hey, Uy’s atrocities were unforgivable, so why not take the rest of the Internet down, right? Two decrees have been posed against social…
