Term 2 Week 4 Task 4:New Media – Power to the people or threat to stability?

The first article shows how changes to communication technology are helping to spread the influence of terrorists, they can now use very little resources to cause widespread damage and generate confusion among people. This is a threat to stability as people now have the freedom to express their ideas to a great audience; such power in the wrong hands can lead to disastrous consequences. An example is the false allegations of the desecration of a Koran, soon after being published in a magazine it was spread through various forms of media all across the internet; this led to deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, the second article shows how blogging has upheld the universal right to freedom of speech; it has even caused problems in countries that traditionally limit its peoples’ right to expression. Even in a country such as china, where the government practices internet censorship, blogging has become very popular. As a result, the Chinese government turns to imprisonment to silence political unrest caused as a result of blogging. This is practiced in many other countries as well; many feel that such imprisonment is unlawfully denying them of their right to freedom of speech. But no matter what method is used, it is impossible to silence the crowd as the crowd is simply to huge. Once the floodgates have been opened it is not easy to close to them, thus it seems the effects of blogging are here to stay, and as such people are finally getting the freedom of speech they are entitled to.