Section 1: The topic Selected
Social media and the internet have changed the way we do things. In the past communication as we all know was one-to-many or one-to-one where one-to-many being a domain of the professionals but due to the internet and social media, communication has shifted to many-to-many, where people from diverse locations have that ability to bypass censors and ideas.
This research paper will focus on how citizens have used social media and digital media to report news in repressive regimes. The paper will highlight one of the TED talks by Clay Shirky on how Social media can make history. Clay is the author of Here Comes Everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. The most interesting part of this topic is the moving TED talk by clay which has raised huge debate about digital media and social media. Shirky’s TED talk has highlighted how Twitter, TXTs, and Facebook assists citizens in repressive regimes to report real news. A group of people thinks that digital media and social media are being used as a damaging tool to government control. An example is that article by Sanja Kelly and others (2014) “Tightening the net: Government Expands Online controls” (Sanja Kelly, 2014). Others are of opinion that digital media and social media are the most celebrated tools or vehicles for activism. Example as YouTube hosts numerous videos of governments’ abuse of power while Twitter was used in Iran to document the recent protests. Facebook, on the other hand, is being used by lots of individuals to uncover certain human rights abuses. An example is the article by Lauren (2010) Dugan, “Is Social media damaging to government control”
Clay Shirky kicks off this discussion with a TED talk “How social media can make history”. It is a fifteen minutes talk where Clay has highlighted how social media and digital media has changed the way people receive information; it is how social and digital media is currently affecting our society. According to Clay, the two Media have given people an opportunity to means that were never possible.
Shirky’s has started off the discussion by highlighting stories about social media transformation. The four are the reasons as to why digital and social media ought to be considered as a revolutionary. The four periods are the printing press, two-way communication, recorded media, radio, and television. The four was the media that people knew by the 20th century; at that time digital media was just good in creating conversations but not for creating groups. With social media, people were able to create groups. It also provided an opportunity where there were multiple senders and receivers of information. Shirky continues to give a point with an example of China’s 2009 earthquake. With the help of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, Chinese were to spread the news of the 2009 earthquake as it was happening whereas previously without social media it took radios stations and TVs to put the news across the world platform. Clay has continued to state that this shows how social media has impacted people all over the world. After this Chinese government banned the use of social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and rest in their country as they wanted to filter the information before sharing it on the social platforms about their country and the only way which was convincing for the Chinese government was to ban social sites in the country.
Section 2: Synopsis of the selected topic
Another example which has been highlighted by Clay is the former president of US Barak Obama where the president announced that he was to change his vote on FISA. The most impressive thing here brought out was that complainers never kept quite both in social media and on the president site. Clay has concluded that we are living in a world where media is cheap, global, and cheap. With the assist of the internet we not like in the 19th century. According to clay, people are no longer disconnected. Social media used to contain information which was only posted by professionals but currently, everyone has that capability of posting and producing that information. The internet according to clay is becoming outlets of other media such as music, magazine, radio, and television (Shirky, 2009).
This topic is relevant in the course of digital and social media. One of the contributions of this topic is highlighting the history of digital and social media. Example Clay’s TED talk has come all the way from the 19th-century mode of communication to the 21st mode of communication. Second, this topic has greatly highlighted how social media has greatly impacted our society. One of the impacts of social media is how social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are changing the landscape of reporting and news production. In addition, social media is used as a tool for solving some of the societal issues and elevating people to a greater height. Third, this topic focuses on the rise of social and digital media; how the two have raised awareness by promoting freedom of speed and thought. Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are used in some countries as watchdogs; they are used to monitor the actions of authoritarian governments. If these sites are to be shutdown then lots of human rights will go undocumented such as in Iran. Lastly, with social media, people are able to know what is exactly happening across the world as compared to five hundred years ago.
One of the additional resources which I found relevant is that article by Dugan, “Is social media damaging to the government to government control”. One of the reasons I found it credible and relevant based on what the researcher has learned in class is highlighting how social networks have contributed to our society today. The article via a link has highlighted the enemies of the internet which is the major driver of social media. The article has pointed out that it is through social networks that online journalists have highlighted corruption in governments and harsh violence to citizens by governments. Some of the country’s which has been singled out as perpetrators if the internet is China, Egypt, Cuba, Vietnam, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Uzbekistan, Iran, and North Korea. As stated by the article, these countries have successfully maintained access over social sites and able to filter out information shared by online bloggers (Dugan, 2010). One of the new information found in the article, besides the many benefits of digital and social media highlighted in lots of articles there are still some countries which block this sites just in the name of controlling information. In addition, as one of the developed nations, the researcher never expected China to be one of the enemies of social media with 74 detainees in what the author has referred to as netizen prison.
Section 3: Additional research on the topic
Another article which I find it relevant to this topic is that by Kalliopi. According to the author, social media networks allow people to consume, distribute, and create their content without government control. In addition, according to the author, social networks provide opportunities for new forms of mobilization and activism which can be a challenge to repressive governments. The author has stated that the internet and social networks have generated new forms of opposition against totalitarian rules. The author is aimed are examining social network as a vehicle to democracy or what he has referred to as an instrument of authoritarianism. The author has also indicated the dark side of social network which according to him it has violated the privacy of individuals over time. The collection of the modern social network has resulted to the collection of personal data which has resulted in modern consumerism. On the other hand, according to the author, social networks has a very connection to human rights and freedom. The author here has highlighted sentiments by Hilary Clinton where she stated that the internet has promoted democracy and if countries such China and others continue to impose restrictions then they will risking in posing themselves from progress as a nation. The author has concluded, he hopes that social media will at one point generate opposition and initiate dialogue against the authoritarian rule (Kalliopoi, 2011). Different from other articles some of the new information that the research finds is the negative side of social media which according to the author it violates one privacy
Digital and social media is growing in most of the countries and as highlighted from this research paper it has monitored most of the government operations which are deemed to demote human rights. In addition, most of the researches including what we have learned, the TED talk, has highlighted the great contribution of social media. From the view of the two articles and the TED talk, if social media was to be shut-down then they would be lots of human rights abuses. According to TED talk, social media has increased awareness among individuals; it has allowed freedom of information and speech which every open community needs so as to thrive (Treem, 2011).
References
Dugan, L. (2010). Is Social Media Damaging To Government Control? Retrieved from Ad Week: https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-damaging-government-control/
Kalliopoi. (2011). The Authoritarian States and Internet Social Media. Instruments of Democracy or Instruments of Control, pp. 34-67.
Sanja Kelly, M. E. (2014). Tightening the Net: Governments Expand Online Controls . Retrieved from Freedom House: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2014/tightening-net-governments
Shirky, C. (2009, June). How Social Media Can Make History . Retrieved from TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history?language=en
Treem, J. W. (2011). Social media use in organizations. Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International Communication Association,, pp. 143-189.
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