Media Ecology and Public Diplomacy with Ben Hammersley

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy was pleased to host Ben Hammersley for a discussion about the technological mega-trends that will shape the next decade, and what the internet, social networks, borderless memetics, epidemiology, and the changed media landscape will mean for public diplomacy.

Ben's book, 64 Things You Need to Know Now For Then will be released in the U.S. in April, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon here.

About Ben Hammersley Ben Hammersley is a nonresident fellow with the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and a British writer and technologist, specializing in the effects of the internet and the ubiquitous digital network on the world’s political, cultural and social spheres. He now enjoys an international career as a speaker, explaining complex technological and sociological topics to lay audiences, and as a high-level advisor on these matters to governments and business.

He is the British Prime Minister’s Ambassador to TechCity, London’s Internet Sector; Innovator in Residence at the Centre for Creative and Social Technologies at Goldsmiths, University of London; Senior Fellow at the Royal College of Defence Studies, London; A member of the European Commission High Level Group on Media Freedom; A fellow of the European Policy Centre in Brussels; and Editor-at-Large of the UK edition of WIRED magazine. His latest book, 64 Things You Need to Know Now For Then, is published internationally.

Previously, Ben was the first specialist reporter on the internet for The Times, and a reporter and skunkworks engineer for The Guardian, where he designed and built the weblogs network, and the political discussion site, “Comment is Free”. He reported internationally, including from warzones, writing on everything from the launch of the PlayStation2 in Japan, to the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He travelled undercover in Burma to interview Aung San Suu Kyi, photographed Hezbullah in Beirut, and has embedded with U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan, and Philippine troops in Mindanao. His reporting from Turkey for the BBC pioneered multimedia reporting—being the first to report for television, radio, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook equally.

Click here to visit Ben's website.