huridocs-tech Ahmad Faiz: Internet Indispensable in the Media Age

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Title: Internet Indispensable in the Media Age
By: Ahmad Faiz
Email: <ahfaiz@tm.net.my>

TEXT:

Internet Indispensable in the Media Age
Ahmad Faiz bin Abdul Rahman

It is often said that we live in an information age, where
news from almost every part of the world is accessible with
the press of a button. The truth is that we live in a media
age where the relaying of information is heavily influenced
by the few who have extensive control over the gathering and
dissemination of information.

This is the product of globalisation of the sort that is
heavily influenced by media oligarchies. And the most
influential of them being international news agencies like
CNN and BBC.

Hence, more often than not, current news coverage merely
enforces dominant Western viewpoints or ideology.

Recall that during the Gulf war, most of the coverage tended
to emphasise the moral superiority of the dominant power
centres of the West. Yet, many were not truly conscious or
even aware of the fact that a quarter of a million Iraqis
had been killed as a result of that war.

And many more continue to remain ignorant of those who
suffer and have died from "Gulf War syndrome" which is
caused by exposure to radioactive fallout from depleted
uranium weapons used by Western military forces.

Likewise, many continue to remain ignorant of the fact that
half a million Iraqi children have died because of the UN
Security Council s economic sanctions.

Such matters do not generally make headline news, if at all
they are given any sort of coverage, because they do not
jive with the Western powers  primary concern which is the
destruction of Iraq s weapons of mass destruction.

Unless people have access to alternative sources of
information - the Internet being one of the most important -
world opinion on what is important or relevant would
continue to be conditioned largely by media giants and the
various individuals or interest groups that control them.

Indeed, as far as alternative sources go, it goes almost
without saying that the Internet is largely a "free for all"
when it comes to information.

Through the Internet, alternative or non-mainstream
viewpoints have the opportunity of being placed "side by
side" or on a par with those forwarded by the various media
giants thereby making it more difficult for such media
giants to pass off news or comments in an unbalanced and
uncritical manner.

This is because the people with access to the Internet are
no longer passive recipients of news.  Seemingly
questionable reports or viewpoints would be subjected to
critical assessments and debates that have the potential for
being truly pluralistic.

Of course, that is not to say that something as useful as
the Internet is free from hang-ups of its own.  So long as
its accessibility is determined by one s level of income,
its usefulness would be limited to the fraction of those
people who have the means for it.

This would effectively exclude a large portion of the
world s population comprising mostly the peoples of the
South.

And it would explain why an overwhelming portion of the
Internet s online contents is Anglophonic.

With that in mind, it can be said that the Internet, like
any other media forms dominated by the West, is transmitting
mainly the dominant Western worldview.

Hence the dilemma for the peoples of the Third World is that
insofar as the Internet is an increasingly indispensable
tool for participation in the goings-on of the "Global
Village" it reinforces the current uni-polar structure of
world power.

Things like Western-style liberal democracy, free market
economy and pop-culture make up much of the "globalisation"
process not because they are necessarily good in themselves
but because they have been normalised through the daily
barrage of the Western dominated media.

And electronic dike building by China and Singapore aimed at
preventing cultural encroachment by screening out materials
that are deemed hazardous to their way of life cannot
successfully deter all the negative influences that come
with globalisation.

Yet, the answer lies, believe it or not, in the Internet
itself.

Clearly, whole nations cannot withdraw their participation
in the affairs of the global village by being purely inward
looking or insular without chancing the same fate now faced
by poverty-and-famine-struck North Korea, for example.

And the non-western peoples need to assert their presence
and influence the shaping of world opinion.

This is where the Internet comes in. It may not be the most
culturally and ideologically neutral media technology but it
does allow mainstream and peripheral views to be placed on
the same footing.

Of course, there is the problem of vicious reporting and
rumour mongering over the Internet, which has the potential
for getting out of hand. The recent spate over electronic
mail that had spread false news of riots in crisis hit
Malaysia, causing anxiety among locals, tourists and
possibly foreign investors alike, is one such example.

However, one should bear in mind that the Internet is like a
sword that cuts both ways. It can also be used to develop
the sensibilities, understanding, knowledge and critical
faculties of people living in a world heavily influenced by
media giants that fail to provide objective and accurate
information fully.

A good example of that failure today would be in regard to
the East Asian financial and economic crisis. Media giants
of the world certainly had a big hand in building irrational
exuberance about business in Asia only to replace it with
irrational pessimism soon after, thus exacerbating the
crisis.

A more horizontal means of information dissemination like
the Internet would therefore be indispensable for countering
such misleading news.

And coupled with the speed with which information travels
over the Internet, not only can misleading news be brought
in check, the international community can also be galvanised
into taking concrete steps towards the betterment of mankind
in spite of the media giants.

For example, much of the success of the world wide campaigns
against the use of landmines and for the establishment of
the International Criminal Court can be attributed to high
speed communications between non-governmental organisations
throughout the world that were the backbone of those
campaigns.

This is the power of the Internet.



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