In East And West Asia Use Of New Media As A News(Gathering) Tool
By Kashoo Tawseef
11 March, 2015
Countercurrents.org
In the words of Allan, (eds.) in his book, Citizen journalism: global perspective, media has passed through a change where the consumers have choice of information to access to either to the traditional media with so many limitations or to the new media with easy access and adds that “the new-media model is horizontal, with the consumer of the information in the middle of a flow of information seemingly, the equal of every other bit.” The new media has positive effect on the way the recent events were covered in print and electronic media related to Middle-East in general and in South Asia in particular, in 2011 during Egypt uprising as compared to five years ago in Lebanon war in 2006.
Given that present day media (both print and electronic) is potentially exposed to public opinions, the criticism related newspaper coverage has also been influenced by new media and is debated more than ever in the contemporary world within new media environment. The influence in the news coverage at different times in the Middle East, illustrates that new media helped the people of Middle-East in getting their voices heard, and did help in advocacy efforts at times when state tried to block the access but at the same time everyone had eye on the developments taking place in that part of the world.
New media, sources used in the press in covering the Middle-East and South Asia events has replaced the traditional news sources to a greater extend, and more and more eyewitness account is being given coverage, and the situation from the ground from all perspectives is being reported now-a-days as was noticed from various sections of the media in case of Egypt uprising or Indo-Pak conflicts. This represents good news for advocates of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
Middle-East(ern) region has been plagued by dictatorship, and strong authoritarian set up hence, traditional media suffered a lot in portraying the true voice, images of the events happening there from decades. Similarly, South Asia(n) region has also been witness to many wars and there are many conflicts still going on be that conflict on border disputes between India and Pakistan or territorial issues between India and China. However, the emergence of New Media (Social Media) gave much needed impetus to this system and helped in bringing awareness within the populace of South Asia. The role of different tools of new media like Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Blogging has been pivotal. Common man expresses their views in numbers; engage themselves in raising their voices to get heard in different parts of the world. Another important aspect of new media called File sharing, also helped in this awareness. People took pictures from mobiles, sent them through SMS/MMS, Emails, as was noticed from various sections of press, and this way broke the authoritarian shackles of the Middle-East rulers and helped to broke the shackles of censorship in South Asia. Most recent example being banning of Leslee Udwin’s documentary film, “India’s Daughter” by South Asian state, is now available on Youtube, and available to everyone.
Traditionally, media, like newspapers, sent out reporters to individually assess the situations of an event in the Middle-East or in South Asia. The new media has helped in a way that people from the ground, for example, in case of Egypt, were the reporters for them (media) to document the actual happenings, and thus helps in promoting mass awareness throughout the world, including in the East and the West. It has also given a chance to popular newspapers like the Guardian and the Washington Post to examine the situation neutrally and more objectively. Besides, this has also helped people outside these regions to get a grip of what has been going on there. New Media has never been so effective and important!
Kashoo Tawseef : Born in conflict area, Kashoo Tawseef is a student of Media Studies and political science. His articles and essays have appeared in the Greater Kashmir, Kashmir Times, Rising Kashmir, Etalaat and in other media journals. His paper about the resolution of a Conflicts and a way forward won a journalism and research award in the United Kingdom. You can record your viewpoint at k dot tawseef at the rate gmail.com
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