Category Archives: Social Media

Blogging in 2018

By Julian Dierkes Mongolia Focus is in its 8th year of existence. We’ve continued to blog pretty steadily in 2018 with a total of 65 new posts this past year. Since July 2011, we’ve published at least one post every … Continue reading

Posted in Reflection, Research on Mongolia, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Politicians in the Wake of the Ждү Scandal

By Julian Dierkes Over the past several months, Mendee and I have written several articles describing the mounting political frustration in Mongolia and the likelihood of a series of upheavals brining about political change in the coming 5-10 years. Well, … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Democracy, National Labor Party, Party Politics, Politics, Protest, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Podcasting Mongolia

By Tsenguun T & Aldarsaikhan T The Mongolian podcasting scene is growing rapidly since the production of the first Mongolian podcast Үлдэх Үг in mid-2016. There are close to 20 Mongolian podcasts covering various topics today, and this number is … Continue reading

Posted in Aldarsaikhan Tuvshinbat, Business, City Planning, Environment, Gender, Higher Education, LGBTI, Media and Press, Podcast, Politics, Social Change, Social Media, Society and Culture, Tsenguun Tumurkhuyag, Ulaanbaatar | Leave a comment

Not a Political SMEar Campaign

By Mendee J and Julian Dierkes A massive corruption scandal is brewing in Mongolia. Alhtough the scandal was skillfully picked up by President Battulga and Democratic Party MPs for partisan politicking, now it literally opened a pandora’s box of corruption. … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Corruption, Diversification, Media and Press, Mongolian People's Party, Policy, Politics, Protest, Social Media, Social Movements | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pervasive Sense of (Political) Crisis

By Julian Dierkes During my most recent visit to Mongolia, I heard talk of political crisis everywhere. [A strong argument for visiting more often!] Not the kind of crisis that could be resolved by a change of government, although rumours … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, Governance, Ikh Khural 2020, JD Democratization, Nationalism, Party Politics, Politics, Public Opinion, Social Media, Social Movements, Society and Culture | Tagged | Leave a comment

Virtual Nomination of Anti-Corruption Leaders: Political Innovations?

By Mendee Jargalsaikhan and Julian Dierkes The role of social media continues to be something that we are watching closely. The most notable example of social-mediated democracy was Ch Saikhanbileg’s 2015 SMS poll. But, despite Mongolian politicians’ early embrace of … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Judiciary, Public Service, Security Apparatus, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Where did the Conspiracy Conspiracy Come From?

By Julian Dierkes Mongolia is not unique in the presence of conspiracy theories, nor in the presence of events and factors in those events that may lend themselves to conspiracy theories. Yet, in my experience, conspiracy theories have become dominant … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Curios, History, JD Democratization, JD Mining Governance, Party Politics, Politics, Pop Culture, Social Issues, Social Media | Tagged | 1 Comment

6-Year Anniversary and Welcome Marissa Smith

By Julian Dierkes Unbelievable! We’ve been blogging here for six years now! That means that almost 100,000 users (93,500) have looked at over of a quarter of a million of posts (277,000). They’ve selected among over 480 posts. The most … Continue reading

Posted in Research on Mongolia, Social Media | 2 Comments

Allegations Against All Candidates

By Julian Dierkes One of the recurring challenges in trying to keep up with political developments in Mongolia is the extent to which these developments seem to be driven by rumours and accusations. That is especially the case during an … Continue reading

Posted in Corruption, Presidential 2017, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Initial Campaign Impressions

By Julian Dierkes After a first full day of campaigning, here are some very quick, superficial impressions of the presidential election campaign. These are based largely on Twitter and some emailing, as I am about to get on a plane … Continue reading

Posted in Elections, Nomadism, Presidential 2017, Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest Post: The Long Journey – Towards a Broadcasting Law in Mongolia

By Toby Mendel Broadcasting laws are important Most democracies, and quite a few non-democracies, have adopted broadcasting laws. At their best, these laws can promote a number of important social and human rights objectives. They can establish independent bodies to regulate … Continue reading

Posted in Law, Media and Press, Public Policy, Social Media, Society and Culture, Toby Mendel | 3 Comments

Funny Thing Happened Last Week: John Oliver, Dalai Lama, Mongolia

By Julian Dierkes One of the reasons I encourage graduate students to be strategic about communicating their research results is that you never know when and on what topic the public comes knocking on your door. Sometimes the public comes … Continue reading

Posted in Curios, Dalai Lama, Health, Media and Press, Pop Culture, Social Issues, Social Media, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment

Blogging in 2016

By Julian Dierkes In the sixth calendar year of the existence of this blog, we were once again very happy to find a significant number of readers. In the course of the year, we wrote 68 new posts. Highlights of … Continue reading

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The Diplomat Podcast on Mongolia as Asia’s Hidden Geopolitical Player

By Julian Dierkes I’m finally getting around to listening to The Diplomat’s podcast episode focused on Mongolia, “Northeast Asia’s Hidden Geopolitical Player“. Ankit Panda, one of the editors of The Diplomat, speaks to Peter Bittner who spent some time in … Continue reading

Posted in China, Foreign Policy, Japan, Mongolia and ..., North Korea, Podcast, Social Media, South Korea | Tagged | Leave a comment

Five Years of Mongolia Focus

By Julian Dierkes We posted our first blog on July 29, 2011. The idea to blog grew out of discussions that Mendee, Byamba and I were having almost every day at the office. Social developments in Mongolia, current politics, curious … Continue reading

Posted in Research on Mongolia, Social Media | Tagged | 2 Comments