It’s not that big a secret that I am a big fan of BNR Nieuwsradio. Last Thursday (January 28), I had a great conversation/interview with BNR’s Paul Van Liempt. We talked about Obama’s State of the Union address, the current US political landscape, his dwindling support, social media, political organizing, social politics, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Jon Stewart, Whitehouse.gov, MSNBC, and tea parties.

You can download the interview here (.mp3, 28.8 MB). The interview starts at 3:30 and ends at 17:30.

Last Tuesday (January 26), I participated in a debate on “Individu 2.0”. The debate was hosted by Christian student organizations to prepare for their Easter gathering where they will tackle religious and societal issues. As an outsider/expert I was asked to share my thoughts on the mediatization of everyday life, together with Jan van der Stoep (affiliated with the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede). It was an insightful debate. Jan and I agreed on many counts which made the debate a little bit less spectacular, but for me it was good to have some outsider conformation on some deep felt thoughts and opinions on new media.

What I did not expect was that the debate would spark the interest of two attending journalists of the two leading Dutch Christian newspapers. At the end of the debate the students asked about my views on (Dutch) politics and new media, as well as the rise of the Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders. In a nutshell, I think social networks (Youtube, Facebook, Hyves, Twitter etc), could be a valuable (additional!) avenue to discuss politics and to voice one’s concerns about the deep seated fear (and sometimes hatred) towards “others” (i.e. non-native Dutch citizens). I might be hopelessly naive here, but I think engaging in a debate in this particular case (through movies, pictures, blogs, etc), and taking the concerns of those-who-fear very seriously (instead of trivializing the Wilders supports’ genuinely felt fear-of-others) could be one way out of a xenophobic, divided political future. There’s way more to this issue, and my argument is much more nuanced, but this is one of the points I made during the debate.

The debate’s media fallout was illustrative and focused on my views on social networks and politics and used my quotes in their headlines. The best article ended up in the newspaper (first link). The two other articles surfaced immediately after the debates on the newspapers’s websites.

- ‘Gebruikers netwerksites zijn machthebbers’. Nederlands Dagblad. January 28, 2010, page 6.
- „Twitter en Facebook zijn machtige wapens”. Reformatorisch Dagblad. January 27, 2010.
- ‘Netwerksites gaan Wilders stemmen kosten’. Nederlands Dagblad. January 27, 2010.

Rather than the somewhat traditional list of what made 2009 remarkable (for me), I wrote a book review of 2009′s three best game books: “De 3 beste boeken over videogames“. To be sure, there are way more (and arguably better) books published last year, but these three books are best suited for the Bashers.nl audience (many of which are not scholars or students) and I have read them cover-to-cover.

The list consists of:

1. Montfort, N., & Bogost, I. (2009) · Racing the beam: The Atari Video computer system · Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
2. Gilsdorf, E. (2009) · Fantasy freaks and gaming geeks: An epic quest for reality among role players, online gamers, and other dwellers of imaginary realms · Guilford, Conn: Lyons Press.
3. Juul, J. (2009) · A casual revolution: Reinventing video games and their players · Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

I promised on Bashers.nl to make the book review a monthly feature, so expect the next book review (somewhere) in February. Tips on good game related books (the newer, the better) are always welcome of course (contact me at David @ gamespace . nl)!

Also on Bashers.nl, an email discussion between me and Niels ‘t Hooft on 2009′s mega-hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in which we reflect on realism in games, mediated warfare and the potential and expectations of big games such as these. See: “David en Niels over Modern Warfare 2″: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Last week’s Media van Morgen symposium, organized by two Utrecht University MA students, turned out to be a huge success. There was even a waiting list, but, luckily the event has been recorded by LectureNet.

You can access all talks here, video and slides are included. And here’s the direct link to my talk “Mediawetenschappers en de Media van Morgen“.

In my talk I argue that journalists, politicians, consultants, entrepreneurs, and fans dominate the debate (and discourse) on (new) media (i.e. its meaning, effects, future etc). Instead, students and scholars should have a much bigger stake in many such discussions (for example on media literacy, Second Life, social politics, games, etc, etc). Given the radical decentralization of the means of cultural production and the decline in professional journalism, there is a huge opportunity for media scholars to get their hands dirty by engaging in debates in traditional media (newspapers, TV, radio), as well as setting up their own platforms for discussion and dissemination of thoughtful analysis. I think that today’s (new) media students can (and should) be tomorrow’s experts.

*Update* (30/01) – Here’s a good summary of my talk (and the others) at MindNote.nl: “Symposium Media van Morgen (deel 1)“.

Yesterday I went to Doetinchem to give a talk at Reed Business on social politics (the ins & outs of the Obama 08 campaign). Had a great time there and got lots of positive feedback.

This month I will take part in the following events:

- January 21. “Mediawetenschappers en de Media van Morgen“. I will do a TED-like talk sharing my thoughts on the media scholar of the future for an event organized by Universiteit Utrecht’s MA (media) students. The symposium is called “Media van Morgen” and has a couple of interesting speakers (many of my fellow UU alumni).

- January 26. “Debat Individu 2.0“. For a debate on the mediatization of everyday life I will participate in a roundtable discussion in the Tituskapel (Amsterdam).

- January 28. “Yes we can? Nieuwe media gebruik in “the age of Obama”. After two successful masterclasses (hosted by KREM), we will do a third masterclass on social politics in The Hague. There are still seats available! There’s more information at KREM’s website.

Just a quick note: Best wishes for 2010! For me it’s back to work (on my PhD). Lecturing will start in February and until that time it’s PhD-crunch-time.