The news article, ‘How Social Media is keeping the Egyptian Revolution Alive’ has briefly described that how social media is applied by the Egyptian activists to fight against the SCAF to hold the power to control the country and remain the original government. In Aitamurto’s (2011) article, she reported numerous activists have voiced out their thought, commented, discussed and debated through the social media over the issues of Egyptian Revolution. Campaign was announced on Facebook and successfully gathers 8000 activists. Furthermore, she stated that an interviewee mentioned that news related to politics and the military are not allowed to report. She also mentioned that the number of citizen journalism is increasing, as the information they provided is more ‘transparent’. Sedra (Aitamurto, 2011) described that ‘Transparency is a weapon against corruption’. Other than that, through social media, an online event named ‘Tweetback’ has successfully funded 2 million Egyptian pound to support the poor neighborhood in Cairo.
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I strongly believe that in this current digital age, the use of new media has left a big impact to the society. According to the Internet World Stats (2011), a body that traces trends in the sector, of the world’s 6 billions people, there are over 2 billions of Internet users in the worldwide. In Mcluhan’s study (cited in Glodeanu 2011, pg. 135) showed that the Internet has created a platform to allow Internet users to interactive with each and another. Through the social media, the users not only able to get information online, at the same time, it also allows the interconnection of users. In the news article, the author has mentioned about ‘transparency’. With the censorship in the mainstream media, it does not quench the public demands. Blue Book of China’s Society’s 2005 study (Xin 2010, pg. 333) stated that the media failed to act as the ‘watchdog’ of the political issues, where it caused the corruption in a government. In addition, with the rise of Internet users, the social media has become more influential in several aspects.
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References:
1. World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats 2011, Internet World Stats, viewed on 5 November 2011, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
2. Aitamurto, T 2011, How Social Media is Keeping the Egyptian Revolution Allive, Media Shift 13 September, viewed on 5 November 2011, http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/09/how-social-media-is-keeping-the-egyptian-revolution-alive256.html
3. Glodeanu, A 2011, The Impact of Digital Communication in Political Journalism, EBSCOHOST, vol. 12, viewed on 5 November 2011, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.taylors.edu.my/ehost/detail?sid=a708058e-d4a8-46de-8b9d-92e719737c94%40sessionmgr111&vid=3&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3
4. Xin, X 2010, The Impact of ‘Citizen Journalism’ on Chinese Media and Society, EBSCOHOST, vol. 4, no. 3, viewed on 5 November 2011, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.taylors.edu.my/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=afe37ccb-8fce-4513-a7a9-159e929de28b%40sessionmgr112&vid=4&hid=24
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