Section 2: New media ecosystem; new media qualities & freedom of speech & public sphere.

In the article entitled ‘Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests’ it talks about the revolutionary move that has been done by the people of Egypt. They had used the tools of technology to capture the happening of the country in the times of crisis and have distributed it online through websites and also social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. It is also through social networking sites the protest against the government had happened. Wael Ghonim who one of the anti government protester said that the social media had been an important part in ousting Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship.

This revolutionary move was enabled because of the interactivity that is going on within the realms of the Internet and people were able to connect with each other and revolutionize the nation. However, it is said that it is the people that have made the changes within the country and the technology and the internet was a form of tool that had helped them to start the uprising.


In my point of view the internet or the new media are definitely a leverage for the people of Egypt when it comes to strengthen their movement in going against the government. The power of the online community gives them a chance to expose what is happening as well as to gain support from numerous people. The internet has indeed become a tool of free speech and more than that it has given people a type of promotion of human rights ( Brophy& Halpin,1999) . It is also being used as a tool to expose information and to communicate ( Brophy & Halpin 1999). Undoubtedly the internet has the ability to spread news quite efficiently and the interactivity that it features gives people the chance to voice out what they need to say and be heard. In changing the public sphere human rights is reliant on the raw and honest truth with an information to be exposed ( Brophy& Halpin, 1999). With the help of social networking sites such as Facebook, people of Egypt were able to involve many people in decision making, group discussion and also project how they feel about the situation( Herrera, 2011) . However, it is also said that the technology involved in the revolution such as mobile phones, twitter and facebook was just a tool in assisting the revolution. It is the people and their efforts that had made the social movement a reality ( Herrera, 2011). Indeed it is evident that new media has shaped political freedom and its contribution is within the fact that new media has the potential to escalate relevance as a way to apprehend public concerns and agendas to continue with the revolution ( Jeong & Mahmood , 2011).

Reference:

1. Brophy, P, Halpin, E 1999, ‘Through the Net to freedom: information, the Internet and human rights’, Journal of Information Science , vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 351-364
2. Herrera, L 2011, Egypt’s Revolution 2.0: The Facebook Factor, Jadaliya, viewed 3 June 2011, <http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/612/egypts-revolution-2.0_the-facebook-factor>
3. Jeong, Y, Mahmood R 2011, ‘Reading the world's mind: Political, socioeconomic and cultural approaches to understanding worldwide Internet search queries’, International Communication Gazette, vol. 73, no. 3, pp. 233-251.