New Media

Power to the people or threat to stability??? That is the big question...On one hand, new media is powerful to the people in the sense that, with the abundance of blogs, now everyone has the opportunity to pour their feelings over any issue in the vast internet. Just think about it, whatever you want ot say, it can be said with the touch of a few buttons. Sure, it is bound to chure up some really crude, violent messages, but personally, i would much prefer it to be done in the internet than in riots and strikes, which most of the time escalate into massive fights.

But, however, there surely is the bad part to new media and it takes the form of terrorism. As everyone knows by know, the terrorists are actually using the internet to spread its jihadist views and spread all sorts of propaganda. For instance, the article mentioned about faking the desecration of a Koran. Finding out that your religion's holy book was mocked at is sure to drive everyone mad, and that was just the case. Anti-american riots were up and running not long after that. Thats the problem with media....Any tom, dick or harry in the world could just start up controversy with a few touch of buttons. Its because of these people that the whole censorship thing started off anyway...

I really do understand why censorship started...It would be every government's goal to ensure that its people trust them totally and that their image to the people is a very good one...But is this image coming at the expense of lying straight to the faces of people...Thus, bloggers who know the truth about what really goes on in the government are eager to show it to their fellow countrymen. Its a right of everyone to know whats going on in their government. Take Singapore's policy of openness for example. It has worked out well in the sense that the public is able to know what the governemt is doing and likewise, the government is able to get feedback from the people. I believe that this really helps to reduce any tensions or problems that people have with any policies. This is why the Singapore government does not go around censoring blogs and imprisoning bloggers.

Freedom of speech...A widely debated topic, i mush say...Surely, some governments are really hypocritical...Whats the point of saying freedom of speech one day and the next day, you are censoring blogs and imprisoning bloggers. They, by their own judgement, are saying that the people are not able to voice out their pressing issues and likewise are not able to comment anything bad or controversial about them...The way i see it, if the government has been having a really good relationship with the people and has really been honest and open to them, i don;t see any reason why they should be so afraid of these blogs. "Say what they want but we know that we are right", should be their approach. But whats happening is far form this.

Controlled media is the last thing i would like to touch on. I mean, people watch the news to find out whats REALLY going on..But what they are watching instead is fabricated news, made for a certain party to look really good in the eyes of the viewers...For instace, Micheal Moores Fahrenheit 9/11 showed a scene where the American news would be in full praise of the American army but would quietly shield the public's attention about all the caualites that occured during the war in Iraq.

So overall, with he way things have shifted the the media, i think that the media is more of a threat to stability to the world.