Week 11

Everyone wants to be heard, just like how information wants to be free. Over the years, the media and social networks has improved based on accessibility, functions and so on. The monologic media (old media), which are the radio, cable television, newspapers and other forms of news transmitter, has now been deteriorating. They still exist without a doubt, but dialogic media (new media) is taking over slowly. Eventhough the new media is taking its place in society today, the old media still does play its own role, and it does still affect the society. 

The major difference between the old media and the new media is the lack of interactive medium in old media. For example, the newspaper and television shows. News are being broadcast at the very instant, and it is in no way for audience to interact with the people over at the other end. Eventhough they do, say they write to the newspaper company or make a phone call to the television station (to claim their $10,000), it would at least take 5 minutes. Whereas on Facebook (the new media), it would only take second for a person to comment on some other person's status just within seconds, and other users could simultaneously respond/ comment to keep the flow of information going. The new media require users' involvement to get engaged with current news, latest gossips and what so ever. To me, Twitter is a great platform for users to get engage with news quickly and spread them out with minimal efforts. It is such an interactive medium, especially with the use of the hastags, it's an efficient way to get yourself updated with any issue that you're interested with.  

With the vast social network revolutions, media could hardly keep up with every single newsworthy information. Therefore, this is where activists take place. Just when you thought how great can a social networking site be, it would be as great as getting people together to protest on something worthy for sure. All it takes is for an individual to take a step further to reach out to the others whom are too afraid to speak for themselves. Vloggers such as Asmaa Mahfouz who stands up for justice are the ones who should be respected. Also, not forgetting that YouTube, a video interactive medium plays a large role as new media too. The voices of public is always many times stronger and louder than the ones from the government. This could be seen from the Arab spring protests, that majority of them were organized via Twitter and other social networks. It is amazing how a social networking platform could bring so many people together. I guess it just comes to show the amount of people who are keep on track with the news feeds and that the information posted online are constantly being watched.