We are in the midst of a digital transformation – that is, the integration of digital technology into many areas of personal lives, work, leisure, business, and government.
Our personal and public activities are increasingly channelled through digital devices and the web.
This opens up new opportunities, but it also brings up new challenges – for example, violations of privacy, electronic surveillance, and online harassment.
As we have been exploring in this column, digital citizenship is an approach to cope with this new reality to minimise negative impacts and derive optimum benefits for everyone.
The essence of digital citizenship involves using information and communications technologies (ICT) to participate responsibly in social and civic activities. One commonly used definition of digital citizenship is that it covers the “norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to technology use”.
Across Sri Lanka, young people are harnessing ICTs for serving the public interest. They belong to a new breed of social activists who are building communities of interest or practice, often sans the traditional institutional structures of civil society. They don’t get – or seek – much publicity in mainstream media.
Yet quietly and resolutely, they are shaping our new digital realities. Today, I want to salute two such youths from Sri Lanka’s North and South.
Digital storytelling
A decade after the civil war ended, there are many untold stories in the Northern Province. People are rebuilding their lives, livelihoods, and communities.
Entrepreneurship is spreading. Civil society is reasserting itself. But the mass media still portrays a largely negative picture.
“Countering foreign media that tends to stereotype us is one thing, but the content in local media too is very troubling. It thrives on polarising our people,” says young journalist and digital activist Benislos Thushan, a native of Jaffna.
Frustrated, he turned to new media to redress imbalances in old media. In recent years, he has trained and inspired dozens of citizens across the Northern Province on digital storytelling (DST). Already, 10 batches of young men and women have completed the six-month course that is offered free and held at the American Corner in Jaffna.
“Almost 200 students have come out of this training programme (up to mid-2019) and we are constantly updating our modules,” says Thushan. “Everybody has a smartphone and likes taking pictures. But being a citizen journalist comes with greater responsibility.”
Thushan has worked with newspapers and also been part of peace-building initiatives. He now studies and freelances in Colombo during the week, and travels to Jaffna (400 km north) every Friday night to conduct his classes in Jaffna on weekends.
“The aim of the DST course is to build digital storytelling competencies among our youth and to promote citizen journalism,” says Thushan. “By now, most young people have access to smartphones. They have connectivity. Most of them love taking photos with their phones. They love sharing their stories too, but they lack guidance. So, most of the time, the pictures they take tend to be domestic or at local functions, etc. My classes encourage young people to venture beyond and experiment with the digital tools they already have.”
The DST course comprises three main elements: fundamentals of storytelling, photography as a visual storytelling tool, and use of social media. Participants are also taught media ethics, protecting anonymity of sources or photo subjects when requested, and being sensitive and politically correct.
Telling their own stories
Towards its end, every participant has to do a photo essay on a topic of their choice. Some interesting and innovative projects have emerged – some being continued online as voluntary efforts.
One participant set up the “Everyday Mullaitivu” Facebook page that shares photographic vignettes of life in his area (one of Sri Lanka’s least developed districts). He features stories of positivity coming out of Mullaitivu.
Another did a photo essay on the dying traditional arts and crafts of the Jaffna District. The many uses of the palmyra palm, the iconic tree of the Jaffna Peninsula, was the theme for another.
A medical student who followed the DST course started “Jaffnapedia” with a friend. Using Instagram and Facebook pages, they seek to capture everyday sights of Jaffna’s people and places. They also invite others to send photos, which the two curators selectively share.
Thushan says: “Storytelling is empowering. When you can tell stories from your own communities, you can substantially reduce the polarisation caused by (mainstream) media. We want to be recognised not just as a region of post-war, but also as communities with lots of hope. People are striving hard to overcome the past.”
More at: https://www.facebook.com/DSTjourney/
Victim turns activist
Smartphones and social media are tools that can be used for good or evil. Solutions to misuse can also be found in the same digital realms.
A few years ago, Poornima Meegammana was busy preparing for her GCE Advanced Level (university entrance) exam. The day before the exam was to start, she received some “really nasty” messages – seemingly from a trusted male friend’s Facebook account. As she recalls: “I was stunned by these messages and didn’t know what to make of them. I least expected such a thing from this friend, and I was psychologically very affected. It was only later that I found out that someone else – also known to both of us – had accessed my friend’s account without authorisation and sent those messages.”
Poornima, who divides her time between her hometown Kandy and Colombo, coped with the trauma with support from her family and close friends. But she realised that such cyberbullying was widespread, with girls and women being especially targeted.
Turning her bitter experience into a positive action, she founded “Respect Girls on Internet”, a voluntary initiative to address cyber harassment of girls on social networks, including extreme cases of self-harm. The effort is anchored within the non-profit Shilpa Sayura Foundation, founded by her techie father Niranjan Meegammana.
See: http://respect-girls-on-internet.blogspot.com/
Poornima says many teenagers typically start using the internet without any knowledge about cyber safety or privacy. Young persons who experience cyberbullying tend to withdraw from social life and digital activities while the physical and/or psychological effects can impact their studies or work for years.
“There are laws and procedures for protection, but there is a lack of awareness, advice, and resources available – especially in local languages – for victims to seek justice,” she says.
The Respect Girls project creates digital content to raise awareness about the problem, advocate for safe and respectful online discourse, and promote empathy. One of the project’s key outputs is a cyber privacy e-handbook for teenagers, as well as for teachers and parents.
Respect Girls also acts as a network of youth for preventing cyber harassment, and as a support group for victims.
In 2017, the Internet Society – an international organisation that promotes safe and responsible internet use – selected Poornima for a 25Under25 Award recognising young people around the world who are using the internet as a force for good.
(Science writer Nalaka Gunawardene has been chronicling and critiquing information society for over 25 years. He tweets from @NalakaG)
As we have been exploring in this column, digital citizenship is an approach to cope with this new reality to minimise negative impacts and derive optimum benefits for everyone.
The essence of digital citizenship involves using information and communications technologies (ICT) to participate responsibly in social and civic activities. One commonly used definition of digital citizenship is that it covers the “norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to technology use”.
Across Sri Lanka, young people are harnessing ICTs for serving the public interest. They belong to a new breed of social activists who are building communities of interest or practice, often sans the traditional institutional structures of civil society. They don’t get – or seek – much publicity in mainstream media.
Yet quietly and resolutely, they are shaping our new digital realities. Today, I want to salute two such youths from Sri Lanka’s North and South.
Digital storytelling
A decade after the civil war ended, there are many untold stories in the Northern Province. People are rebuilding their lives, livelihoods, and communities.
Entrepreneurship is spreading. Civil society is reasserting itself. But the mass media still portrays a largely negative picture.
“Countering foreign media that tends to stereotype us is one thing, but the content in local media too is very troubling. It thrives on polarising our people,” says young journalist and digital activist Benislos Thushan, a native of Jaffna.
Frustrated, he turned to new media to redress imbalances in old media. In recent years, he has trained and inspired dozens of citizens across the Northern Province on digital storytelling (DST). Already, 10 batches of young men and women have completed the six-month course that is offered free and held at the American Corner in Jaffna.
“Almost 200 students have come out of this training programme (up to mid-2019) and we are constantly updating our modules,” says Thushan. “Everybody has a smartphone and likes taking pictures. But being a citizen journalist comes with greater responsibility.”
Thushan has worked with newspapers and also been part of peace-building initiatives. He now studies and freelances in Colombo during the week, and travels to Jaffna (400 km north) every Friday night to conduct his classes in Jaffna on weekends.
“The aim of the DST course is to build digital storytelling competencies among our youth and to promote citizen journalism,” says Thushan. “By now, most young people have access to smartphones. They have connectivity. Most of them love taking photos with their phones. They love sharing their stories too, but they lack guidance. So, most of the time, the pictures they take tend to be domestic or at local functions, etc. My classes encourage young people to venture beyond and experiment with the digital tools they already have.”
The DST course comprises three main elements: fundamentals of storytelling, photography as a visual storytelling tool, and use of social media. Participants are also taught media ethics, protecting anonymity of sources or photo subjects when requested, and being sensitive and politically correct.
Telling their own stories
Towards its end, every participant has to do a photo essay on a topic of their choice. Some interesting and innovative projects have emerged – some being continued online as voluntary efforts.
One participant set up the “Everyday Mullaitivu” Facebook page that shares photographic vignettes of life in his area (one of Sri Lanka’s least developed districts). He features stories of positivity coming out of Mullaitivu.
Another did a photo essay on the dying traditional arts and crafts of the Jaffna District. The many uses of the palmyra palm, the iconic tree of the Jaffna Peninsula, was the theme for another.
A medical student who followed the DST course started “Jaffnapedia” with a friend. Using Instagram and Facebook pages, they seek to capture everyday sights of Jaffna’s people and places. They also invite others to send photos, which the two curators selectively share.
Thushan says: “Storytelling is empowering. When you can tell stories from your own communities, you can substantially reduce the polarisation caused by (mainstream) media. We want to be recognised not just as a region of post-war, but also as communities with lots of hope. People are striving hard to overcome the past.”
More at: https://www.facebook.com/DSTjourney/
Victim turns activist
Smartphones and social media are tools that can be used for good or evil. Solutions to misuse can also be found in the same digital realms.
A few years ago, Poornima Meegammana was busy preparing for her GCE Advanced Level (university entrance) exam. The day before the exam was to start, she received some “really nasty” messages – seemingly from a trusted male friend’s Facebook account. As she recalls: “I was stunned by these messages and didn’t know what to make of them. I least expected such a thing from this friend, and I was psychologically very affected. It was only later that I found out that someone else – also known to both of us – had accessed my friend’s account without authorisation and sent those messages.”
Poornima, who divides her time between her hometown Kandy and Colombo, coped with the trauma with support from her family and close friends. But she realised that such cyberbullying was widespread, with girls and women being especially targeted.
Turning her bitter experience into a positive action, she founded “Respect Girls on Internet”, a voluntary initiative to address cyber harassment of girls on social networks, including extreme cases of self-harm. The effort is anchored within the non-profit Shilpa Sayura Foundation, founded by her techie father Niranjan Meegammana.
See: http://respect-girls-on-internet.blogspot.com/
Poornima says many teenagers typically start using the internet without any knowledge about cyber safety or privacy. Young persons who experience cyberbullying tend to withdraw from social life and digital activities while the physical and/or psychological effects can impact their studies or work for years.
“There are laws and procedures for protection, but there is a lack of awareness, advice, and resources available – especially in local languages – for victims to seek justice,” she says.
The Respect Girls project creates digital content to raise awareness about the problem, advocate for safe and respectful online discourse, and promote empathy. One of the project’s key outputs is a cyber privacy e-handbook for teenagers, as well as for teachers and parents.
Respect Girls also acts as a network of youth for preventing cyber harassment, and as a support group for victims.
In 2017, the Internet Society – an international organisation that promotes safe and responsible internet use – selected Poornima for a 25Under25 Award recognising young people around the world who are using the internet as a force for good.
(Science writer Nalaka Gunawardene has been chronicling and critiquing information society for over 25 years. He tweets from @NalakaG)