Just finished watching Quo Vadis, Aida?. A heart-wrenching story: Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. A film, once again, reminding the complicity of international organizations … Read more
The video is in Turkish, but here are key timestamps linked to significant moments in the video: 00:00:01 – Introduction to Esat Kocadağ and the Origin of Espressolab 00:00:32 – Esat’s Early Journey and Connection to Coffee 00:01:35 – Opening the First Espressolab Store 00:04:30 – Transition from Hobby to Business Expansion 00:06:20 – International … Read more
It is a pity that Mastodon is not mentioned at all during the current hype for Bluesky. After the last American election, Bluesky has a real chance of taking off. I have created a list of Fact-Checkers and Global Voices Community members who are moving to Bluesky en masse. Turkish users seem to prefer Bluesky … Read more
Along with John Postill and Katrien Pype, I have become a convenor at the EASA Media Anthropology Network. Let’s see how it goes. I meant to contribute more for the next term, but John invited me in formally, and here I am.
This is a video in Turkish, but thanks to AI, you can easily get the transcription! I was busy with other projects and could not focus on SosyalKafa. But here comes a majestic return (!). Here are the key timestamps from the video “M. Remzi Sanverle Masonluk Hakkında Her Şey”: Introduction and importance of the … Read more
The title is to get your attention; it took more than a day:) I could not figure out why and tried to fix it, but one day, I was signed off from my Google account. For many days, I had to log in every time I used Google services and all other services, such as … Read more
I want to tell you about a situation that frustrated me. Recently, at a jury meeting, I came across a well-known, well-connected, and rich communicator in the telecommunications industry. When 5G was mentioned, he said something like this. “I was at a huge 5G summit abroad at the beginning of the pandemic. I hung out … Read more
I will be in Munich for a month in January 2024 to be part of this project: Below the Radar? Messaging Apps, Encryption and the Enticement of Extreme Speech The new CAS Research Group led by communication scientist Sahana Udupa Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München started yesterday. Online extreme speech and disinformation have emerged as a major problem … Read more
If I were living in the US, I would probably be upset. But back in Türkiye, many people around me are happy with the election outcome. They [Democratic Party leadership] insisted on a weak leader, then moved to Harris, who was not as dynamic as we thought. They ignored younger more militant voter base to … Read more
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg visited Istanbul to support Acik Radyo (Open Radio), a recently closed independent radio station in Turkey. Here are the key details of her visit: Purpose of the Visit Thunberg’s visit was primarily to express solidarity with Acik Radyo, which had its broadcasting license revoked by the Turkish Radio and … Read more
Sena and I produced a piece we had worked on before into publishable material. It portrays AI in newsrooms just before the rise of Generative AI. You can read the pre-print version here. Here is the abstract for Azimli, S. O., & Saka, E. (2024). Automated Journalism in Turkish Media Before the Rise of Generative … Read more
I sometimes wonder about the decision-making process at Foursquare HQ. Recently, I saw that Foursquare is killing its city guide app to focus on the check-in app Swarm and wondered again. A decade ago, they killed their very successful app to promote their check-in app, Swarm. They now decided to kill the app totally and focus on Swarm—such … Read more
I have been honored to be a member of the EASA Media Anthropology Network from the outset. Our mailing list has hosted tens of e-seminars throughout the last 20 years. Currently, network members discuss the 20 years, and here is my contribution: On the 20th anniversary of Media Anthropology Network I was a graduate … Read more
As our academic and civic initiatives continue, we also have a commercial entity. Sinem and I now set up a consulting agency: Saka & Saka Consulting. One of our first appearances was a workshop on AI and Marketing at this week’s Global Marketing Summit in İstanbul. Key Statistics to Share: 80% of marketers report increased ROI from … Read more
It is in Turkish but here is a long summary in English: Short Summary for Where Is Artificial Intelligence Going? by Merlin The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Insights from Erkan Saka, Bilgi University Professor, on Artificial Intelligence Advancements 00:05 How Artificial Intelligence is impacting recruitment 01:44 AI limited in managing human emotions and human resources … Read more