New media technologies may have little impact on politics, even change politics for the worse. It has little effect on civic engagement. New media technologies increased political knowledge among citizens already interested in politics, for users who are not, public sphere online is meaningless. Social mediaactivists are more democratic, more knowledgeable about current political events and also somewhat more understanding of anti-government sentiment. As the new media technologies provide a platform to talk without consequence and response, they have been widely sed by extreme groups to shape the citizenship and distort democracy.
Such as 2011 England riots, the event was also called ” BlackBerry riots” because people used mobile devices and social media such as twitter and facebook to organise. This Issue was launched majority by young people, who face the fierce competltlon and huge employment pressure. They are also the primary users of the social media network. In this Issue, two man , 20 year old Jordan Blackshaw and 22 year old Perry Sutcliffe- Keenan had been sentenced to 4 years In Jall for attempting to use Facebook to rganize and orchestrate” disorder.
Blackshaw created a Fackbook event Smash Down Northwich Town, Sutcliffe-Keenan also set up a page encouraging rioting in Warrington. As Assistant Chief Constable Phil Thompson warned, ” The sentences passed down today recognize howtechnologycan be abused to incite criminal activity, and send a strong message to potential troublemakers about the extent to which ordionary people value safety and order in their lives and their communities. ” As shown in the London riots, Twitter users send a message to millions. So
Tendentious information and hate speech of the extremists can also spread quickly on the twitter, it would stimulate public dissatisfactions of government and make more people who dont know the truth fear and anger. So openness and freedom of the online platform provided by new media technologies reinforce the sense of citizenship and democracy but also have potential to disrupt social order and democracy. 2, Digital divide: Disadvantaged groups- (the poor, the elder, the undereducated, and thous In rural areas-continued to lag behind in their access to and use of the internet.
People who lack required knowledge, skill and capital are not easily access to the Internet. Let alone use blogs or youtube. They continued to lag behind In access to the alternative public sphere. 3, For Journalists on social media such as Twitter: Issues of credlblllty. As social media has Impacted the speed of spread of Information and news. There are sometimes situations where the news can be misinterpreted and misleading. It Is only human nature to add and edit what they hear to make It sound better In their minds and this endency Is what makes the ” unofficial news” unreliable.
The User Generated Content usually lack ofprofessionalism. It Is called cltlzen Journalism but when a story Is reported even in a post on Twitter or Facebook or Youtube, professionalism is key. story. But usually citizen Journalists record an event and present it to the public, very often without checking all the facts related to the event. 4, political inequality: The differenece between speaking and being heard. It is true that citizens face few formal barriers to posting their view on the twitter or youtube.
This is openiness in the most trivial sense. But from the perspective of mass politics, we care most not about who posts but about get read. There are plenty of formal and informal barriers that hinder ordinary citizens’ ability to reach an audience. For the enormity of the content available onsocial networkingsites, people seem to cluster strongly around the top few information sources in a given category. Such as ” trending topics” on the twitter, even through these topics recommened intent to help their users to know what is happening in the world.
Trending topics are ometimes the result of concerted efforts and manipulations by preteen and teenaged fans of certain celebrities or cultural phenomena. Public sphere provided by the new media technologies in some extent is not equal for the public to make voice. The elite domination still exists like in the mainstream media. 5, state interference, influence the watchdog function of social media, Although state interference in the political discussion on the social media is generally neglected in the Western world, it is still a major obstacle for truly open, free discussion to happen n less developed democracies.
For example, the central government of China employs ” professional writers” to insert the state voice in many corners of social media chat rooms in HongKong and help create a bottom-up participatory control. So falling to see actual political change to arise from their opinion expressions, normal citizens end up voicing the most extreme opinions. Sacrificed in this process is the diversity of opinions and democracy. To conclude, Citizenship refers to the individual citizen self-awareness of his or her position in the nation.
It concerns the right to know and speak for public in the democracy society. New media technologies reinforce the sense of citizenship and democratization because Rather than passively receive what the media want to inject to them, people in new media age are more active. The openness of the digital media would allow citizens to compete with Journalists for the creation and dissemination of political information. It broadens the ” public sphere”, gives chances to citizens to engage in the political discussion, challenge domination and allows motivated itizens to be heard by a worldwide audience.
But there are also limitations, the extensive use of new media technologies by extreme groups would incite criminal activities and distorts democracy. Disadvantaged groups continued to lag behind in their access to the alternative public sphere. The new media technologies have served to level some existing political inequalities, but it has also created new ones. Government interference in the political discussion will break the Watchdog function of the new media.
