Democracy and New Media - Essay Example

Lenin’s smuggling of Iskra into Russia, nine decades ago is an apt example of the subversion of a regime through the usage of media (Leighley, 2003). The ground for the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978 was possibly laid down when the supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini managed to smuggle audio cassettes into the mosques in Iran (Leighley, 2003). Actually, in many cases, the media was able to impart an aura of credibility to the political content transmitted through it, thereby manifold increasing its effectiveness and impact.

For example, when the B92 Radio Station in Serbia was banned by the Milosevic regime, it managed to remain on air by closely associating with international news organizations like CNN, BBC and Voice of America (Leighley, 2003). The net result was that the coverage of B92 being transmitted into Serbia from outside began to be regarded by its recipients as more credible and authentic than before. The recent Spring Revolution in the Middle East had an inevitable new media element associated with it.

The same stands to be true for the recent uprisings in Indonesia. To a great extent it is true that though media has already been a part of most of the political movements, per se political movements are not caused by media. However, the internet tends to differ from the audio cassettes and Iskra in the sense that it is quintessentially a global media and is actually a many-to-many communication portal. If used accurately, it allows people from anywhere in the world to communicate with people from anywhere in the world that is not possible in the case of radio or television.

In that context, the new media is conducive to the democratic aspirations that it allows for a wide-scale and global dispersal of values, data, news, and information. New media inevitably has a negative side to it. It does allow for the manipulation of content and can be used by authoritarian regimes for propaganda purposes. Still, it is welcome in the sense that it also allows the world to hear the voice of those who have been denied a voice.