This document discusses how social media and citizen journalism have changed the Olympic Games experience. It notes that while the IOC controls official media access, new technologies allow a more inclusive and grassroots approach to sharing Olympic stories. The author proposes #media2012, a national citizen media network for London 2012, as a way to amplify diverse narratives and reclaim the Games experience for all.

1. harnessing the twitter olympics:
from #van2010 to #london2012
jennifer m. jones

2. www.jennifermjones.net #media2012 #van2010 #ldn2012

3. So why the Olympics?

4. Sport

5. The Olympics is not a sporting event...

6. olympism, symbols &
governed by the IOC
ideology

7. sacred symbols brand identity

8. ritual & spectacle
disruptive, locally interpreted but
globally understood.

9. sponsorship: the corporatisation of an institutionalised ideology

10. transformative infrastructures - the invasion and the privatisation of
public space

11. cultural programming CODE (cultural olympiad 2010)

12. media visibility - one of the most watched events in the world

13. the games do not exist in a vacuum

14. everything is political

15. security & surveillance

16. budget cuts
...and funds that will not renew
once the games are over.

17. destruction of
existing communities
• displacement and gentrification
of areas- artificially inflating
housing prices to price out
existing residents.

18. local resistance DTES Olympic Tent Village

19. olympic resistance
photo credit: @kk
network

20. protest, resistance and the games go hand in hand since the first
games in athens, 1896.

21. The olympic games is not a sporting event...

22. ...it is a stand-alone, complex (and often
conflicting) multi-narrative phenomena...

23. ...that produces globally shared histories and
memories of a nation’s collective identity...

24. ...that we share together through the media.

25. athens 1896 the first modern games

26. how do we remember?

27. the first olympic
media was a citizen
journalist
the IOC shaped their recent
history on the images and
archives provided by audience
members

28. but now...

29. accredited media
media corporations that have
paid the most for the exclusive
rights and access to the games
one representative from each
country
full rights to the sport and
olympic brand

30. access to sport

31. non-accredited
media
visiting journalists who may or
may not have accreditation for
the ‘official’ media centres.
facilities provided from the host
city government to support
media production

32. media access to people people get access to media

33. but what about everybody else?

34. access to technology:
faster, smaller, cheaper

35. samsung athens 2004 leading the way in innovation

36. this presentation is breaking copyright law!

37. IOC congress, oct 2009 Martin Sorrell

38. ‘audience as co-conspirators’

39. launched half-way
flickr.com/olympics
through vancouver 2010

40. the olympic review acknowledged after the games

41. but what about the rest of us?

42. amplifying alternative narratives

43. self-accredited media truenorthmediahouse.com

45. what does it mean to be media?

46. w2 arts and media
house
www.creativetechnology.org

47. media space for
independent journalists

48. workspace & facilities

49. produced their own
media content

50. TNMH had no physical space, social
media only.
W2 was a community space, transforming
when required.

51. how can this change the games experience
towards london 2012?

52. london as a ‘national
13 regions of the UK
games’

53. social media already part of games experience

54. resistance to the games

55. national unease

58. #media2012 - national citizen media network for
london 2012

61. reclaiming the olympic games

62. from media event to media festival

63. http://www.media2012.org.uk
http://www.jennifermjones.net
#media2012
see you in london!