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From July 27, London will host the 30th Olympic Games. The stakes are high and the competition will be fierce, not just among the athletes, but the corporations who will use the mega-media event to sell to the billion people tuning in. The price to advertise has been around the $50million mark and companies have ensured they are getting their full money's worth. The official sponsors, however, find themselves competing with numerous advertising rivals, ‘ambush marketers,' who employ guerrilla tactics to crash the branding party that the Olympics have become. The Listening Post's Flo Phillips looks at the competition of the corporations in this year's Olympic Games.

When you think of social media, you are likely to think of computers, mobile devices and sites like Facebook or Twitter. But there is one form that pre-dates it all - street art has been with us for centuries. Street art, graffiti, came before television, radio and the printing press and remains a powerful tool of communication. The medium was used to great effect during the Arab revolutions, acting as an indicator of what people in the street were saying. Street art is the political warning sign that tends to appear and attract attention long before the acticists actually hit the streets. And while demonstrators may have gone back to their lives after the fall of a government, street artists remain, making the most out of their new found freedom of expression, hoping that it lasts. In this week's feature, Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at political street art, the low-tech end of social media.

Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's president, has been in the job for less than a month, but has already found himself caught up in a battle with the country's state media. The power struggle between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and President Morsi is being played out in the front pages of the country's newspapers and on its television screens. Private media outlets, which have taken off since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, are growing in numbers and becoming more opinionated than ever. State-owned media meanwhile have been accused of favouring the military over their new leader. In this week's News Divide, we look at the stand-off between Egypt's new civilian administration and a state-owned media that continues to be influenced by remnants of the old regime. This week's News Bytes: In Moscow, authorities charge a former policeman in connection with the murder of prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya; WikiLeaks claims victory in a court battle against a US financial firm that imposed a blockade against the whistle-blowing site; and an Ethiopian court hands out tough sentences against six journalists in what critics are calling a blow to press freedom in the country. Political street art When you think of social media, you are likely to think of computers, mobile devices and sites like Facebook or Twitter. But there is one form that pre-dates it all - street art. Street art came before television, radio and the printing press and remains a powerful tool of communication. The medium was used to great effect during the Arab revolutions, acting as an indicator of what people in the street were saying. And while demonstrators may have gone back to their lives after the fall of a government, street artists remain, making the most out of their new found freedom of expression. In this week's feature, the Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at political street art, the low tech of end of social media.

When Libyans vote in the country's first free elections in almost five decades, will they have had the benefit of a free and independent media to help them make an informed decision? Since Muammar Gaddafi's downfall, the country has seen a proliferation of news outlets, from print, broadcast and online. But after decades under Gaddafi's state-run media machine, the transition to a free and open press has not been easy and for these relatively inexperienced journalists, the election will be their biggest challenge to date. In this week's News Divide, we look at the difficulties facing the country's burgeoning media scene as the country takes part in a landmark election. The rise of Kashmir's media The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has been a flashpoint on the sub-continent for more than six decades. It is a heavily militarised zone, with more than half a million troops stationed there. Despite the ongoing conflict, it receives little or no media attention. The climate for local journalists is poor: they work under strict curfews, internet access is sporadic and text messaging services are regularly cut off. But anti-Indian protests in 2010 sparked a change in the media landscape. For the first time, a host of new voices were heard and since then Kashmiri bloggers, filmmakers and authors have taken their stories to India, Pakistan and beyond. In this week's feature, the Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at the rise of Kashmir's alternative media voices.

Since the middle of June, Sudan has been witnessing its own version of the Arab Spring. Thousands of Sudanese have taken to the streets protesting against austerity measures imposed by President Omar al-Bashir’s government. But compared to some of the other uprisings, Sudan has received little news coverage. There are a number of reasons for this, revolution fatigue among them. Within Sudan, the story is being censored from the public. Security forces have banned newspapers, citizen journalists have been arrested and activists have had to rely on social media for information. In this week’s News Divide, we look at why the media has failed to keep up with an uprising that has quickly gathered pace. This week’s Newsbytes: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s defence minister, unleashes a tirade of abuse against a prominent Sri Lankan journalist; in Tunisia, the independent body created to reform the country’s media has quit, citing government censorship; a new law in Russia spells trouble for freedom of expression online; and the story of the MP who brandished a gun on live TV. London Olympics: Ambush advertising From July 27, London will host the 30th Olympic Games. The stakes are high and the competition will be fierce, not just among the athletes, but the corporations who will use the mega-media event to sell to the billion people tuning in. The price to advertise has been around the $50m mark and companies have ensured they are getting their full money’s worth. The official sponsors, however, find themselves competing with numerous advertising rivals, ‘ambush marketers,’ who employ guerrilla tactics to crash the branding party that the Olympics have become. In this week’s Feature, the Listening Post’s Flo Phillips looks at the competition of the corporations in this year’s Olympic Games. Have you ever wondered what you would say if you had the chance to speak to yourself at a different age? Jeremiah McDonald, one US-based filmmaker, has apparently done that. Back in 1992, as a 12-year-old boy he recorded himself on video tape asking questions of his adult self – and now he is grown up, he has edited together that conversation. The two Jeremiahs banter about former pets, Star Wars and some old hobbies. The video has gone viral, with more than five million hits, but has people wondering whether the young Jeremiah is actually an actor. We have made it our internet video of the week and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has been a flashpoint on the sub-continent for more than six decades. It is a heavily militarised zone, with more than half a million troops stationed there. Despite the ongoing conflict, it receives little or no media attention. The climate for local journalists is poor: they work under strict curfews, internet access is sporadic and text messaging services are regularly cut off. But anti-Indian protests in 2010 sparked a change in the media landscape. For the first time, a host of new voices were heard and since then Kashmiri bloggers, filmmakers and authors have taken their stories to India, Pakistan and beyond. In this week's feature, the Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at the rise of Kashmir's alternative media voices.

When Libyans vote in the country's first free elections in almost five decades, will they have had the benefit of a free and independent media to help them make an informed decision? Since Muammar Gaddafi's downfall, the country has seen a proliferation of news outlets, from print, broadcast and online. But after decades under Gaddafi's state-run media machine, the transition to a free and open press has not been easy and for these relatively inexperienced journalists, the election will be their biggest challenge to date. In this week's News Divide, we look at the difficulties facing the country's burgeoning media scene as the country takes part in a landmark election. The rise of Kashmir's media The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has been a flashpoint on the sub-continent for more than six decades. It is a heavily militarised zone, with more than half a million troops stationed there. Despite the ongoing conflict, it receives little or no media attention. The climate for local journalists is poor: they work under strict curfews, internet access is sporadic and text messaging services are regularly cut off. But anti-Indian protests in 2010 sparked a change in the media landscape. For the first time, a host of new voices were heard and since then Kashmiri bloggers, filmmakers and authors have taken their stories to India, Pakistan and beyond. In this week's feature, the Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at the rise of Kashmir's alternative media voices.

The military entertainment complex is an old phenomenon that binds Hollywood with the US military. Known as militainment, it serves both parties well. Filmmakers get access to high tech weaponry - helicopters, jet planes and air craft carriers while the Pentagon gets free and positive publicity. The latest offering to come from this relationship is Act of Valor and it takes the collaboration one step further. The producers get more than just equipment – they have cast active-duty military personnel in the lead roles, prompting critics to say the lines have become so blurred that it is hard to see where Hollywood ends and Pentagon propaganda begins. In this week’s feature, the Listening Post’s Nic Muirhead looks at the ties between the US military and Hollywood.

As Mexicans go to the polls this weekend, the media is not only covering the presidential campaign story – they have become a part of it. The country’s largest TV network, Televisa, is accused of accepting cash in return for giving Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), favourable media coverage dating back to 2005. Both parties deny the allegations. But a student protest movement called YoSoy123 is not buying it and has been protesting what it calls biased media coverage. In this week’s News Divide, we look at the media scandal at the heart of the Mexican elections. Also on this week's Listening Post: Hollywood and the Pentagon propaganda push. The military entertainment complex is an old phenomenon that binds Hollywood with the US military. Known as militainment, it serves both parties well. Filmmakers get access to high-tech weaponry - helicopters, jet planes and air craft carriers while the Pentagon gets free and positive publicity. The latest offering to come from this relationship is Act of Valor and it takes the collaboration one step further. The producers get more than just equipment – they have cast active-duty military personnel in the lead roles, prompting critics to say the lines have become so blurred that it is hard to see where Hollywood ends and Pentagon propaganda begins. In this week’s feature, the Listening Post’s Nic Muirhead looks at the ties between the US military and Hollywood.

On Listening Post this week: The propaganda push behind Obama's drone war. And Somalia - where being a journalist can cost you your life. It has been one of the worst-kept secrets of the Obama administration - the aggressive campaign of drone strikes against suspected militants hiding out in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, under President Barack Obama there have been a total of 280 drone strikes on Pakistan alone and the civilian death toll has been anywhere from 482 to 832. The Obama administration puts this figure at just 60. In our News Divide this week we analyse what is behind the difference in the casualty figures the US government reports and what investigative journalists have found on the ground.

Every year on the last Monday of May, US news outlets dedicate their day's coverage to Memorial Day commemorating soldiers killed in action. This year, Chris Hayes, a presenter on US network MSNBC, sparked controversy when he questioned the US media's habitual use of the word 'hero' when describing American soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a chance to ask a difficult question: whether those who die in war have perished in vain or, even worse, had been killed in a cause that was actually wrong – and to ask whose interests the rhetorics of military heroism serve. But his comments caused outrage among right-wing media outlets and Hayes was forced to publically apologise. What Chris Hayes learned, apart from a few new ways to apologise, is that to many Americans, this is not a discussion even worth having. In this week's feature, the Listening Post's Marcela Pizarro on the terminology that galvanises America's wars.

On July 16 and 17, Egyptians head to the polls eager to vote in the run-off stages of the country's milestone election. Two candidates face off against one another: Ahmed Shafiq, the former prime minister, and Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi. It has been roughly 18 months since the former president, Hosni Mubarak, was deposed and the Egyptian public openly rejected the state run media machine. But this current show of democracy, and the energised media landscape that has evolved, has exposed the pitfalls that come with a new, factionalised media landscape. In this week's News Divide, the media are being examined as closely as the politicians they are covering in the country's landmark election.

In 1972, a bungled burglary at the Democratic Party's office in Washington triggered one of the most famous political scandals in history. Watergate led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the only US president ever to do so, and launched the Washington Post into the media hall of fame thanks to the work of two of its reporters on that story. Since then the names of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward have been synonymous with quality investigative journalism. But 40 years later, times have changed. Some say that the Post is a shadow of its former self and that while the paper made its name speaking truth to power – it has now merely become a function of it. Listening Post's Marcela Pizarro takes a look at the legacy of the Washington Post, the decline of the US printed press and the challenges for investigative journalism in a digital age.

Although the Arab Spring has been contained to North Africa and the Middle East, it has unnerved leaders further afield in countries with democratic credentials that are less than stellar. Zimbabwe is one such country. Earlier this year, six Zimbabweans faced treason charges for gathering and screening footage of the Arab revolutions. Although those charges were eventually whittled down and they received suspended jail sentences, the message was clear from Harare. It has been more than three years since the Zimbabwe Government of National Unity was formed, merging Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. However, critics argue that the coalition has done little to reform the country's media. Government censorship - direct or indirect - is still a reality in Zimbabwe, but some are finding ways around it.

During Augusto Pinochet's 18-year rule, thousands of Chileans were murdered or had gone missing. But due to tight censorship, it was a story the country's media failed to expose. Chile returned to democracy in 1990, but the media have been reluctant to touch on the thorny issues of the country's past, until recently. Over the past few months, Chileans have been tuning into a TV drama dealing with the military dictatorship. Los Archivos de Cardinal – The Cardinal's Archives tells the story of a team of lawyers working with the Catholic church to expose the torture and killings carried out by Pinochet's regime - and it has provoked a fierce debate about the role of public broadcasting, in what remains a deeply polarised society. The series has brought back memories of a collective trauma, revived old political rivalries - and it's also provoked some of the country's most prominent journalists to carry out their own investigation - using the cardinal's original archives to look into the real facts behind the cases dramatised on screen. The Listening Post's Marcela Pizarro takes a look at the slick TV thriller that tells the story the Chilean media has tended to avoid.