New media Ecosystem; New Media Qualities & Freedom of Speech & Public Sphere

Protests At Cairo By Libyans
Source: The Libyan Youth Movement

Everyone today is media experts themselves. Cell phones are a must in today’s public sphere which is now turning into a media sphere. In the news article by Tech Central titled ‘Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests’ (Tech Central, 2011), continuous clips of videos was recorded of the on-going demonstration in Cairo. The protest occurred in the gates of the Arab League headquarters with over hundreds of Libyans demanding for the imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya (AhlulBayt News Agency, 2011). The anti-government protesters led by Wael Ghonim, Google executive and cyberactivist, had superiority in power from the people and media. As argued by Mathews (2007), technology creates online communities which are now prevailing in society such as social networking. Ghonim (2011) further asserts that without the existence of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Youtube, there wouldn’t be any protest.

Wael Ghonim, Leader of Protesters ,Google Executive and Cyberactivist
Source: Wiki Noticia

The expansion and trend of social networking sites are on a steep rise due to the unlimited capacity the internet is able to withstand. With the tremendous value of population accessing these social networking sites a day, it will not cease and that is the main purpose of those sites (Qurashi, 2009). Moreover, ever since the creation of social networking sites mainly onto the practice of posting images such as Posterous and Tumblr, the context of the information being share is more convenient and easily understood with the additional comment feature which is perfect for media sharing with Facebook and Twitter too. (Maltoni, 2010).

It is believed that young people play a dominant role in development due to the growth of youthful energy and how sophisticated younger generations are today with the connectivity towards their cell phones (Tech Central, 2011). There are more ways than publishing today when people can actually have immediate discussions with the expansion of all these social connectivity which enables each and every individual to share their opinions, thoughts, locations, experience, interest and more (Armano, 2010).

Source: Vector Stock

Social Networking sites and internet mobile usage is indeed crucial in staying updated and keeping in touch with the latest trends and happenings. Moreover, almost all social networking sites today comes together with many visualization aspects which is interesting to the readers. Hence, with media playing that part in videos, images and drawings more people will be involved. As suggested by Reep (2006), we have to use more document ‘image’ in order to grab reader’s interest.

Reference:

1. AhlulBayt News Agency 2011, ‘Libyan in Egypt protest outside Arab League; League still divided over no-fly zone,’ 12 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=230971>
2. Armano, D 2010, ‘Everyone is Media,’ The Influencer Is You, 10 July, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://influencers.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/07/everyone-is-media.html>
3. Maltoni, V 2010, Public Relations in an Everyone is Media World, Conversation Agent, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://www.conversationagent.com/2010/03/public-relations-in-an-everyone-is-media-world.html>
4. Mathews, C 2007, Discovering the Power of Social Networking Sites, CIO, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://www.cio.com/article/136450/Discovering_the_Power_of_Social_Networking_Sites>
5. Reep, D 2006, ‘Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, New York, ppl. 133-172
6. Tech Central 2011, ‘Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests,’ 28 February, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/2/28/it_news/20110228100840&sec=IT_News>
7. Qurashi, A 2009, ‘The Power of Social Networking Sites,’ Blog By Adeel Qurashi, 17 April, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://adeelq.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/the-power-of-social-networking-sites-2/>