NEW(SOCIAL) Media

Use of (New) media as a News-gathering Tool

By: Kashoo Tawseef

In the words of Allan, (2009), media has passed through a change where the consumers have choice of information to access to either to the traditional media with so many limitations or to the new media with easy access and adds that “the new-media model is horizontal, with the consumer of the information in the middle of a flow of information seemingly, the equal of every other bit.” (2009:215) The new media has positive effect on the way the recent events were covered related to Middle-East in press general and United Kingdom’s press in particular, in 2011 during Egypt uprising as compared to five years ago in Lebanon war-2006. 

Given that present day press is potentially exposed to public opinions, the criticism related newspaper coverage has also been influenced by new media and is debated more than ever in the contemporary world with new media environment. The influence in the news coverage at different times in the Middle East, illustrates that new media helped the people of Middle-East in getting their voices heard, and did help in advocacy efforts at times when state tried to block the access but at the same time everyone had eye on the developments taking place in that part of the world. 

New media, sources used in the press in covering the Middle-East events has replaced the traditional news sources to a greater extend, and more and more eyewitness account is being given coverage, and the situation from the ground from all perspectives is being reported now-a-days as was noticed from various sections of the media in case of Egypt uprising. This represents good news for advocates of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Middle-East(ern) region has been plagued by dictatorship, and strong authoritarian set up hence, traditional media suffered a lot in portraying the true voice, images of the events happening there from decades. However, the emergence of New Media (Social Media) gave much needed impetus to this plagued system. The role of different tools of new media like Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Blogging has been pivotal. Common man expressed their views in numbers, engaged themselves in raising their voices to get heard in different parts of the world. File sharing was another important aspect of new media, which helped this awareness. People took pictures from mobiles, sent them through SMS/MMS, Emails, as was noticed from various sections of press, and this way broke the authoritarian shackles of the Middle-East rulers. 

Traditionally, media, like newspapers, sent out reporters to individually assess the situations of an event in the Middle-East. The new media has helped in a way that people from the ground, e.g. in case of Egypt, were the reporters for them to document the actual happenings, and thus helps in promoting mass awareness throughout the world, including in the East and the West. It has also given a chance to popular newspapers like the Guardian and the Independent to examine the situation neutrally and more objectively. Besides, this has also helped people outside the Middle-East region to get a grip of what has been going on there. New Media has never been so effective and important!

Source: Allan, S. & Thorsen, E. (eds.) (2009). Citizen journalism: global perspective. New York:Peter Lung Publishing.

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