Category: New Media

International Relations Podcasts- The Best and the Brightest

Post author By
Post date 22/09/2009
No Comments on International Relations Podcasts- The Best and the Brightest

At home or on the go- podcasts, photo: _Morrissey_ /flickr

In the same vein as our list of interesting international relations actors on Facebook, we put together a list of interesting audio sources for you to explore (again, in random order).

1. Council on Foreign Relations Podcasts

2. London School of Economics Public Lectures and Events Podcasts

3. UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations Podcasts

4. World Radio Switzerland Podcasts on International Relations

5. The Economist Audio and Video

6. Carnegie Council Podcasts

7. C-SPAN Radio

8. New York Times World View Podcast

9. BBC Radio From Our Own Correspondent Series

10. World Politics Review Podcasts

Some, like C-SPAN, provide a live stream of congressional events, speeches and hearings (often on foreign affairs); others offer insights into current affairs drawn from expert interviews, while the Economist, for example, provides audio summaries of their Special Reports and a weekly podcast outlining the key events to look out for in the days ahead. The London School of Economics and the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations provide audio and video files of speeches and public lectures held at the schools on a wide variety of topics and often by high profile speakers.

And remember that we can also be found on the audio airwaves – enjoy ISN podcasts at home or on the go!

Any other podcasters that deserve a mention?

Tags International Relations, New Media, Media

Serendipity Should be Less of a Concern

Post author By Cristina Viehmann
Post date 07/08/2009
2 Comments on Serendipity Should be Less of a Concern

Serendipitous encounters / Photo: Hartwig HKD, flickr

Those among you who are interested in the origin of words may already know the etymology of “serendipity.” The word is based on an ancient tale called “The Three Princes of Serendip” and describes an accidental and fortunate discovery of something unexpected.

Serendipitous discoveries take place because of how things are ordered and because of the search tools and practices we employ. At the ISN we are also concerned with the order of things. We classify our content by using about 3000 keywords on international relations and security. With this concern in mind, on Wednesday in our weekly editorial meeting we discussed a recent NY Times article by Damon Darlin on the loss of serendipity in the digital age. According to Darlin, because of the internet tools in place today we have “lost the fortunate discovery of something we never knew we wanted to find.”

So we wondered: Does indexing information really remove the element of surprise?

I believe this is not the case. Indexed information in any encyclopedia is a beautiful opportunity for serendipity. To support my argument I will cite Jorge Luis Borges, who, in his “Investigation of the Word” (in Selected Non-Fictions) talks about the “alphabetical disorder” of dictionaries. What a beautiful opportunity of finding words with very different meanings next to each other just because they share the same initial letters!

Tags Social Media, ICT, Technology, Internet, New Media