New Media- Power to the people or threat to stabilty.

The vital characteristic that differentiates the new media from the traditional media is the censorship of information. The internet provides a forum for the people to voice out their views while providing a certain degree of anonymity. This characteristic proves to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allows and promotes the freedom of speech. On the other hand, it could serve as a platform for propaganda and extremist remarks, which has the potential to breed anger and hatred in the society. I personally believe the true benefits of the new media is something difficult to harness, as there would propagandists and extremist taking advantage of the freedom to spread their radical ideas. All the ideas would only serve to distort and twist true information, straining the credibility of the new media. Thus in my opinion, the New media is more of a threat to the society than a power to the people.

The Internet often provides a false impression that our identity is anonymous on the web and remains anonymous. Thus, this encourages people to post irresponsible remarks that could fan social tensions. For example, a RJC student once criticized a person for not working hard enough on the web. Even till the extent of telling the person to get out of this genius'(Her) face. This show of elitism invoked a quite a small commotion. This type of remarks would stir dissatisfaction and tension between the elites and the average. Also, the internet allows extremist to spread their radical ideas and even as a function to carry out their attacks. 'The use of the Internet for terror purposes is not a new phenomenon. Even before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US, terrorists were exploiting the Internet for fund-raising, training and planning purposes. It is now primarily used for radicalization and recruitment purposes.'' We should be especially wary as the internet is popular with the younger generation, who are more gullible, are easily decepted in accepting these radical ideas. Thus extremist turn to the new media to breed a new generation of terrorist.

I agree with Dionne’s view that the internet could never be abolish due to its popularity. So instead of trying to destroy its existence, we should instead focus on how to modify it to suit our preference. For example, Indonesia has blocked access to pornography websites. We could adopt similar approach and censor inappropriate content on the internet.

In my previous post, I strongly object to freedom of speech due to its backlash. The new media is a form of freedom of speech, where people could simply say whatever they please, without any consequence. However, they fail to realize that whatever they say or post may harm or hurt the stability of the society. Thus I believe that the power of the new media could be enhanced with censorship. Otherwise, it would only be a threat to stability of the society.