Watching a huge international movement occur right in front of you could be a very exciting and scary thing. For example, if you were involved in a gay rights march or the occupation of Wall Street. I, never having directly participated in such activities, felt like I had never been involved in world social issues, but after reading and watching this weeks material I came to realize that the internet, television, and other forms of communication have made it much easier to become a part of a movement. It also means that the war zone of these global issues has just widened to include our homes.
As I watched the news coverage of the political movements happening in A Death in Tehran I got a small glimpse into how scary, chaotic, and emotional such an event might have been. But as Castelles reminds us in his article Changing the World in the Network Society, these movements not only take place on the streets, but also on the media. In some ways this is a great opportunity for everyone to get involved, as was the case with the Kony 2012 project, but it also comes with its dangers. The promotional video about Kony's crimes in Uganda showed just how powerful the digital network can be in gathering people around a cause. Millions of Facebook users went from not even being aware to activists in their own little way. So how can this be a problem? Sounds like a great way to get the message out there and quickly find supporters. This is true, and it is also there reason why it scares me so much. In Castelles article he mentions that gatherings through the internet and media have no command center or main source because it is all part of the collective. Think of how easy it would be for the WRONG message to get put out there and to rally supporters for the wrong cause. In A Death in Tehran they talked about a small rumor that was started in the internet about the voting booths supplying pens with ink that would disappear after a few hours. Because of this small rumor thousands of people brought their own pens.
That may be a insignificant and harmless example, but the same principle applies when a radio station broadcasts fictional stories about alien invasions and sends the entire city into a mass panic, or when TV news channels spread politically charged coverage of political news. When the media has all this power to rally a people together it becomes very important who and how it is controlled. In A Death in Tehran, the news reporter ended up leaving her job for the station because she knew that they were sending out false information about the polls. She decided to take steps to right the wrongs in the media. I think this is a great example to us. Because media has such convincing power we must be aware of life outside the net as well as in. Our responsibility as members of the world community has grown. We cannot take one source's opinion as truth. It is our duty to do our homework and study things out.
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