Offering an
instant opportunity and freedom of expressing the views has made social media
walls so powerful as an instrument for mobilising and influencing public opinion
that many see it as the virtual change maker.
As to Prof Sarah
Joseph of Monash University, Australia, “By making “on the ground” eyewitness
accounts widely available, social media has expanded access to information in an
important new way. Reporting is no longer confined to traditional sources like
journalists; instead, social media grants access to unfiltered information
related by any person affected by an event who chooses to share the story. For
example, a key voice on Twitter during the Arab Spring has been @angryarabiya,
39, the daughter of Abdullhadi Al Khawaja, a human rights activist in Bahrain
who was jailed for life in June 2011 for dissident crimes. Her tweets have been
followed closely by those monitoring developments in the Arab uprisings.”
“The
dialogue taking place via Facebook, Twitter and other SMNs was used
by the mainstream media as a source during the height of the
protests. Al-Jazeera in particular relied on reputed bloggers and
Twitter users during the uprisings for real-time coverage of events,
by using Sharek, a citizen’s media platform that received and
filtered through submissions by citizen journalists,” Madeline Storck,
a student of International Relations at University of St Andrews,
Scotland, mentioned in her dissertation.
As per Saleem Kassim, a contributor to
New York based website PolicyMic.com, “Through social networking
sites, Arab Spring activists have not only gained the power to
overthrow powerful dictatorship, but also helped Arab civilians
become aware of the underground communities that exist and are made
up of their brothers, and others willing to listen to their
stories.”
We are not unaware of the role of
social media networks in ensuring huge participation in the Occupy
Wall Street movement in USA. Thanks to social media for
disseminating facts from the ground at the quickest possible for the
world to access. Apart from many of its adverse impacts, role of
Social Media Networks in effecting political changes in many
countries has made it more relevant for the youth, activists,
lobbyists, opinion makers and knowledge seekers.
But in India, one of the huge social
media user countries, social media has only become part of
discussions by sparking off a few controversies and unwanted actions
by the government and its various agencies.
It’s not that India doesn’t make use
of social networks meaningfully and for good reasons. Most social
media users of India use the networks meaningfully and for
individual as well as social growth. Social media boom has been a
boon for many professionals who see it as a career booster. Social
media networks are playing a vital role in promoting and propagating
important causes.
But, unfortunately, it has always come
in news and discussions for some bad reasons.
While celebrity twits are more often
picked as stuffs of sensation, facebook postings have sparked off
controversies for wrong reasons. Be it West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee’s reaction over the cartoon by a University teacher
or Objection of the Indian government to some of the postings on
various social network or the recent controversy over the posting by
Saheen Dhada questioning Mumbai shutdown after the death of
Balasaheb Thackeray, in none of the controversial cases social media
was seen as a medium of expression and a forum of free speech.
Rather, irrelevant reaction by some people, irresponsible use, or
one can say misuse, of social media networks with some ill
intentions or personal agenda, and the urge of governments to
suppress the voice of people by punishing people for giving a vent
to their feeling, imposing restrictions and attempting to bring the
networks under control are limiting the scope of social media as a
tool for change.
With its population over a billion,
social media can really act as a powerful agent by facilitating
communication and free conversation between people and the
government in India. The results could be highly productive only when the
users make use of social media more responsibly and there is
tolerance for permissible criticism at all levels, across the spheres.