Tuesday 22 April 2014

Case Study: Question 7 & 8


  1. What concerns/ considerations are there (if any) for the media institutions involved in your case study as a result of the impact of new and digital media? (e.g. deskilling or multi-skilling of the workforce/ decline in workforce etc)


Although there are positive factors for using Facebook such as more interaction, generating content, receiving latest information, there are also concerns for this media institution. For example, there are privacy concerns associated with Facebook which has caused some users to deactivated their account. According to The Guardian, it was rumoured that "Facebook was scanning private user messages to equate conversation with the page "likes", and another that claimed private messages were being posted to public-facing users timelines". This establishes that there are concerns over Facebook as even though the development of new media has made it easy for people to interact with others, there are privacy issues raises. This is further reinforced through a doctoral student at Oxford, Caroline Andrey who states: "There are lots of people who are really angry about having their privacy abused, not least me". However, Facebook had 1,230 million monthly users which could highlight that the positive effect for this social networking site in the future, as there could be a increase of users over the years.

Similarly, Turkey's prime minister Tayyip Edrogan is in favour of blocking Facebook and Twitter because he believes that it is damaging his reputation. According to the article, Twitter users in Turkey have posted voice recordings and documents which show evidence of the corruption among Erdogan group. The prime minster's action blocking Twitter is for "protection measures". Significantly, Turkish telecoms watchdog stated that the ban was caused by citizens complaining about the social media platform violating privacy. Watchdog claimed that they asked Twitter to remove some content but they failed to do so, and therefore Twitter was blocked by courts in order to prevent victimisation of citizens in the future. Furthermore, Erdogan made threats about blocking social media sites after the audio recordings on his alleged conversations suggested corruption was leaked online. He also favoured on banning social sites such as Facebook and Youtube in society, in order to protect the country. For example, the steps to prevent spying on the government would be to shutting sites down as, "these people or institutions are [using social media] for all kinds of immorality, all kinds of espionage and spying.". Conversely, Turkish Twitter users  quickly worked around this issue by tweeting the hashtag, '#TwitterisblockedTurkey', which rapidly began to trend globally. As a result, many people began to compare Turkey to Iran and North Korea, where social media is strictly controlled and there was also calls for a protest on the streets. As a result, this establishes a privacy concern over Facebook in some countries, which has made some people favour in banning social media. Thus it could be suggested that the development of new/digital media has caused concerns for some people, regarding illegal issues.

Articles:
  • http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/04/facebook-in-numbers-statistics
  • http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/15/facebook-users-privacy-concerns-security
  • http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/turkey-blocks-twitter-prime-minister
  • http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/19/users-quitting-facebook-cite-privacy-concerns.html
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16275176
Quotes: 
 Tayyip Erdogan: "Social Media is a menace". 
Tayyip Erdogan: "These people or institutions are [using social media] for all kinds of immorality, all kinds of espionage and spying".

8. What are the political and social implications of the new technologies and the methods of their consumption?  E.g. moral panics etc?

In relation to Facebook and Democracy, there have been both social and political implication which has been caused by the development of new technology. A prime example of this would be the Arab Spring which took place in countries such as, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. The Arab Spring refers to the "revolutionary wave of demonstration and protests, riots, and civil wars", which was caused by citizens rebelling against their regime's rules. Significantly, a number of issues led to the protest in these countries such as, dictatorship, human rights, political corruption, unemployment ect. The first protest occurred in Tunisia and the demonstrations were a result of high unemployment, corruption, lack of freedom of speech and political speech. Arguably, the protests would not have occurred without the development of Facebook as it was a source for Tunisians to generate awareness of the corruption occurring in their country under the power of Ben Ali. This highlights a social and political implication of new technology as through Facebook citizens had the power to challenge the challenge the hierarchy by forming activist groups and posting up messages and clips.This generated an unstoppable awareness which led more people to challenge the power of the regime, and this led to copycat demonstrations in other countries associated with the Arab Spring. As a result, this highlights the concept of user-generated content which gathered millions of Tunisian's to protest against the regime in order to fulfil their goal by having a democratic society and being treated equally. It could be suggested that the development of new media has changed the methods of consumption for users as they can now generate their own content and receive information instantly, which would not of been possible through traditional forms of media. 

Moreover, China has a strong censorship policy on Facebook as it has been blocked since 2009 because the Xinjian independence activist were using Facebook as part of their communication network. The government realised the power of Facebook to connect globally and therefore he decided to block the site across the nation. Notably, he also realised that they could not specifically censor each post and therefore they blocked the site and Twitter. As a result, citizens were not pleased about this decision because Facebook was a tool for them to socially interact with others, which highlights a political implication. However, last year China had lift the ban on Facebook but only for citizens living in a 17 square mile are of Shangai. 

Quotes:
Roger Cohen: "Tunisia was a Facebook revolution. But I prefer a phrase I heard in Tunisa: “The Dignity Revolution".

Articles:
  • http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/10/debate-flares-over-impact-of-social-media-on-arab-spring-and-other-revolutions/
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/opinion/25iht-edcohen25.html?_r=0http://
  • www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2431861/China-lifts-ban-Facebook--people-living-working-small-area-Shanghai.html
  • http://news.sky.com/story/1206329/the-great-firewall-blocking-facebook-in-china

No comments: