Evgeny Morozov’s article “Think again: The Internet” describes the expectations people had about the Internet when it first emerged. People expected the Internet to bring a new era of world peace and to shatter the world’s borders. In the author’s eyes, the actual transformation the Internet brought to the world was the simplification of communication, which is available to almost everyone and the emergence of online shopping. His opinion of the Internet is generally negative; he thinks that it is promoting national borders (his example is the access to free books in Norway, which is only available to people residing in Norway, because it is sponsored by the government), which he calls “Splinternet” (Morozov, E. 2010), and that is is killing foreign news due to cutbacks on foreign correspondents.
Social Media is a buzzword showing up everywhere, but what exactly is it? It can be defined as a website, that does not just give information to the user, but lets him or her interact with the website as well. Instead of it being a one-way street media outlet like the traditional newspaper, it is a two-way street that enables the user to communicate as well. Merriam-Webster defines it as: “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). Examples for social media are YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Instagram, and many more.
Evgeny Morozov’s negative opinion about social media’s influence on democratization is understandable based on the time his article was written. The Arab Spring, or as some call it Revolution 2.0, was just at its beginning sta...
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...ents in his article “Think again: The Internet”. Social media can spread the idea of democracy quickly and provide education to anyone that has access to the Internet. As shown in various examples, it is also a tool to reach millions in a fast manner and can be used as a tool to organize demonstrations or protests, which can be the first step towards democratization. However, social media is still a new technology that needs to be utilized more effectively, otherwise its influence might not be as large as it could be. As it has in the past, civil society plays a large role in changing a country’s political system. Social media has become a big part of civil society and will continue growing, therefore its influence will grow as well. However, it will take a few years or even decades until we get to see its real effects, just because it is still such a new phenomena.
The article named “spring awakening” wrote by Jose Vargas describes the impact of social media in converting the mentality of young Egyptian generations into bold and defend their inalienable rights as a citizen. This article justifies how social media can mobilize a tremendous number of people to stand up for their rights. The reasons that inspire my emotion is emerging of “Wael Ghonim” as a legendary vocal figure of action for change, revelation of social media as earthquake for change, and fundamental soci-political change.
For one thing, social media has different tools that connect us easier and quicker in this new technological era. The most common ones are Twitter and Facebook. Whereas Twitter provides information synchronically and allows people to share their feelings, Facebook is about creating profiles including personal information and connecting with familiar people. Both of these have a great impact on our daily lives, especially in terms of enabling online communication for gathering. Since I attended Gezi protests in Turkey in 2013, I had a chance to observe a protest formed by digital activism. Thus, I chose the book, Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism, by Paolo Gerbaudo which is published by Pluto Press to review. The author is a lecturer in Digital Culture and Society at King’s College London (Gerbaudo, 2012). In the book, he discusses how social media influences the public contribution into political social movements. He gives
While many people throughout the world see social media as a trendy new application in the service of personal amusement, the political upheavals in the Arab world have shown how it can change the dynamics of modern day activism. The Arab Spring Uprising interlaced social unrest with a technological revolution. Blogs, news websites, twitter feeds, and political list servers became avenues for communication, information flow and solidarity. Being capable of sharing an immense amount of uncensored information through social media sites has contributed to the success of many Arab Spring activists. Social media played a role in facilitating the events of the Arab Spring, but the main issues are rooted in a broader set of economic, political, and social factors. This paper will examine how social media impacted the Arab Spring Uprising. Specifically, I will look at how social media introduced a novel resource that helped to created internet activist communities, changed the dynamics of social mobilization and revolutionized interactions between protesters and the rest of the world.
People, especially in democracies, need to be well informed of everything going on in their country in order to vote for ways to make it better. Social media gives citizens of democracies a better understanding of the events in their country and others because of social media’s unfiltered, raw
The internet has become one of the most important factors in how we live in today’s society. Social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are attracting attention and popularity. Social media has create a place for us to connect and network from any place at any time. The growth and expansion of social media is having an impact on more than just the youth but the older generations as well. Older people are coming to learn how to use computer to keep in touch with family members far away and younger people are using it to express themselves. It has become so present in our daily routines to use social media for many purposes. The article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, argues that there is a different in the way
Safranek, Rita. 2012. The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change. s.l. : Proquest, 2012.
As the times change, so does the latest technology. In the mid-1900's it was the television, before that the radio, and now in the late-20th and 21st century we have the internet. With the coming of every new media outlet audiences and media moguls migrate. Along with the migrations are the politicians who try to use the new form of media to more easily reach the public. It's come to the point where the internet increasingly work with democracy directly; some elections in the United States even going so far as to hold online polling in a general election. "Online voting is increasingly making its way int our political process," writes Vote.com President Dick Morris, "the 2000 Arizona Democratic Primary tallied 39,942 online votes," (Morris 1034). However, should the internet really be used to such degrees in the case of democracy? There is an ongoing debate among scholars on the topic. One thing to consider is whether or not the many accusations stating that the internet is an aid to terrorism outweigh the positive effects of how the internet has strengthened democracy and has had a crucial part in turning oppressed nations into less oppressed, democratic states. On the subject of terrorism being aided by the internet, making it easier for terrorist factions leaders to inform their people, could it not be argued that these factions leaders could use other means of communication, maybe only a little less effectively and therefore nullifying the accusation that the internet is the culprit? After extensive research, it's clear that the internet does not harm democracy; on the contrary, the internet strengthens it in a way that no other form of media has done before.
The definition of social media is websites or applications that are used to communicate with others over the net, either through social networking or any other means. Examples of social media include Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. The way that each site functions may differ; for example, Facebook is used to keep in touch with friends, whereas YouTube is used to share videos with others. However, any websites or applications that allow the user to interact with other users are still considered social media. Firstly, it is very common for people to believe that social media has had a negative impact on the use of language by teenagers.
Social media as defined by dictionary.com is “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts”. People use social media for networking, education, and entertainment. Some of today’s popular social media sites include Facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, vine, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Facebook is used as a basic social media site. People can share pictures, videos, and “status updates” to let people know how they are doing or exciting things going on in that person’s life. Twitter can is similar to Facebook, but updates are limited to one hundred – forty characters. YouTube is a site specifically made to share videos, which is its only function. Vine is used to share 6 second video clips, instagram is a picture sharing website, that just recently allowed sixteen second videos to be shared. LinkedIn is used for employers to find prospective employees and vice versa.
While the liberty of speech on Internet strengthens the democratization, it also provides political dissidents with channels and arranges to undermine. McLaughlin (2007) reveals that in Middle East, the Internet offers non-state dissident actors a potentially potent tool to accomplish their political objectives. Consequently, without the nation-imposed constraint... ... middle of paper ... ... ool, the public even the nation might suffer inestimable disasters.
Whereas the word social media itself defines the meaning of, social of communication. Which then not only provides you information but allowing you to interact while it provides you with information. Interaction can be as simple as leaving a comment or voting on an article to as complex as recommending information base on similar interest with other users. In comparison towards traditional media, it is a ‘one-way street’ where you receive information and only be able to give your thoughts to people whom you know. While social media is a ‘two-way street’ which provides you the capability to share your personal thoughts with everyone who have not only read about it, but also people who have
The advent of new media has had tremendous influence on every aspect of human information dissemination. Although the purpose of new media is very much built on the traditional media, new media has definitely exceeded the abilities of traditional media, with technology. The new media, Internet applications such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which facilitate the creation and exchange of user-created content, has been identified as key to influence and promote social movements. That is, It is clearly that new media-initiated attitudes drive social movements and issues such as environmental problems, energy crises and political corruption as social movements that concern the public.
Social media an online platform that is known to keep people connected and also helps them know of the happenings around yet still keeping them hooked and entertained. Social media is also known as websites and applications that are dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking and wikis. Social media is split into two parts the “social” part and the “media” part. The “social” part refers to people interacting with each other and the “media” part refers to the instruments of communication like internet, tv, radio
Social media came from two type of terms which are “social” and “media”. The term of social refer to basic need of human on connect with other human while media refer to which we use to connect with other human. The term social media credited to Chris Shirpel which state that term social media used to describe as online tool and utilities that allow communication of information online, participation and collaboration. In social media there are several categories such as blogs, social networking sites, wikis, podcasting and videocasting and social bookmarking.
As belch and belch state, Social Media is a group of applications based on the internet and web 2.0 through which users can create and exchange information (Belch & Belch, 2015 as cited by Yang and Wang, 2015).