New Media – Power to the people or threat to stability?

The world is beginning to be dominated by New Media - Blogging. The press of old times do not attract people as much Blogging does these days. Given the opportunity and freedom to say anything one wants, ultimately a human’s instinct will tell him to fully express himself without considering the consequences of doing so. Blogging which started off small and unpopular now is done everyday and a blog is created every second, adding to the 37 million that already exist. This shows exactly how blogging has reached the mass of people and how much it is demanded by the people. While blogging is definitely relaxing and confidence boosting when one gets to meet thousands of other people facing the same kind of situations as him or herself, It can be of great threat to the stability of a nation if blogging gets out of hand. If blogging gets into the hands of the wrong groups of people , terrorists for example, they could use this as a medium to spread terrorist believes and manipulate the minds of people especially the minds of the Muslims. This is exactly what is happening in the world now.

Terrorists spread their extremist ideas through blogs to gain support from people who get indoctrinated by their claims easily. They also use it to communicate between various terrorist groups in order to carry out their deadly missions successfully. The most amazing part of this is that they can carry out plans easily with what little technology they have and countries with high- tech gadgets cannot even locate them. However, be mindful that it’s the normal and sane people who are capable of being terrorists. Even the public could be considered as terrorists if they bring about disagreements and hostility in people which would threaten world peace. Its usually the controversial incidents that happen in the world that causes people to create more and more blogs in order to express themselves. Examples of events which stirred the feelings of the people are the September 11 attack at the World Trade Centre and the release of blasphemous cartoon caricatures of Prophet Mohamed . This let to the increase in the number blogs world wide. Since people do comment harshly and bad mouth even the government in their blogs, its crucial their blogs are censored in order to prevent anti- government feelings in the people. This would prevent demonstrations and riots from happening in the world.

For example, Singapore government has allowed freedom of speech to be established in its citizens’ blogs, however it arrested two citizens recently for uploading comments which were capable of creating anti-multiracial feelings in the people. In Iran, locking up bloggers remains a favorite practice. In January, Arash Sigarchi received a three-year prison sentence for 'insulting the Supreme Guide' and for 'propaganda against the regime.

Blogging is just a medium for individuals to express their feelings. When a government of a country prohibits public rallying against the government, shouldn’t it not allow blogging since it is now being used to communicate ill ideas which are sometimes detrimental to a country’s stability? Blogging is definitely a power to people which can be misused by them too. On the positive side,blogging grows critical thinking and analyzing skills in people and informs the government of the opinions of its people and what they think thus allowing more interactions between them. However, if the same blog brings about differences and enmity among people, it should be censored. Thus I would say that blogging is a power to the people that could be misused by them to cause instability in a region.