News Media and Arab Spring - Essay Example

News media and Arab spring News media and Arab spring The Arab Spring is a series of revolutionary movements that began in in Tunisia. Although the revolutionary movements were confined to Middle East and North Africa areas, they soon gained global attention. The Arab Spring offered a new dimension of social and political lives to the world. In a sense, they foretold a new world order in terms of elements such as social media. The way the media played amidst the revolutionary events ignited a fresh discussion into the role of media in geo-political issues. The new discussion entails the role of traditional media, in form of the television, and the significance of the new media in influencing the Arab Spring movement. It is essential to highlight that both the traditional media and the new media forms such as social media have created a global experience in the consumption of information. The actors and institutions compete towards a shared experience. Television channels, such as the BBC, strove to give the rest of the world a view of the experiences in the countries that faced the Arab Spring movements. The rest of the world, therefore, could either sympathize or contribute towards the development of the Arab revolution (Christensen, 2013). Besides, the different forms of media interacted to give a balanced view of the events. Consumers of media products were divided between the adherents of traditional media and the fanatics of the revolutionary media. The critics of the new media would herald such platforms as geared towards entertainment than real news. On the other hand, the critics of the old media would herald such media as presenting modest and edited information. This reveals that the consumer of media products possess a wide range of choices as regards one’s perception of valid news. Moreover, the different forms of media collaborated to accord a balanced view of the Arab Spring events. The media play between two traditional Western media outlets and two non-Western counterparts provided an interesting view of geopolitical issues. BBC and CNN are commercially funded Anglo-American channels. It is essential to highlight, however, that BBC was founded on public service. Popular television audiences normally characterizes the latter as representing the Western view of the world while Al Jazeera and Kremlin-financed TR News provide a counteracting view about the non-Western world. The Al Jazeera News possesses no commercials and is funded by the Qatar’s Al Thani family. These television programs from different channels are essential because they broadcast to a larger global English audience. The rise of Global News outlets has raised the pertinent question of vested interests. It is essential to highlight that global television channels spring out of given political interests. In the light of the Arab Spring, the Western television channels could easily advocate free markets and liberal democracies that open closeted countries. In this perspective, BBC and CNN could have been the representatives of the interests and agendas of the countries and the commercial entities that support them. On the other hand, Al Jazeera has always branded itself as a channel for voicing the situations of the unheard. This, sometimes, created a basis upon which the audiences understood the events of the Arab Spring. The role of traditional television channels such as CNN and BBC was profound in the context of the social media. In as much as social media was a revolution that propelled the spread of information among the revolutionaries and across the world, the traditional channels participated in organizing social media. This solved the social media’s core shortcoming of disorganization. For instance, CNN instigated discussions on the role of the social media in the unfolding of events in Egypt and Tunisia. On January 27 2011, CNN reported that young tech-savvy people were using social media tools in organizing themselves (Robertson, 2013). While CNN, BBC, and RT were conservative in the coverage and use of social media, Al Jazeera spurred a revolution by acknowledging and using elements of social media such as YouTube videos in building their coverage of the events in Tunisia and Egypt (Robertson, 2013). The news channel integrated citations from blogs and tweets in their news. This prompted the Egyptian authorities to shut down the Al Jazeera channel in the country. It emerged that while CNN and BBC were interested in the intrigues of social media towards the revolution, Al Jazeera was interested in the wholesome development of the revolution. This made the channel recognize the social media as an indispensable tool in delivering news. Al Jazeera, especially, participated in the rebroadcasting of events thereby amplifying the intensity of the revolution and enraging global advocates of participative democracies. Television channels have a profound role to play in foreign policy issues. This is because audiences look up to such channels as reliable in acquiring objective account of events. The development of the Arab Spring was a major geopolitical issue that would eventually affect other countries in terms of governance and trade. In this context, the television channels perform a role beyond mere sharing of news. They guide intensive discussions on the development of mature politics. Channels such as BBC have a projected a moral ideal that audiences esteem. In turn, they cannot base their provision of news on business models. This would make then lose the sensitive audiences who have already placed a higher ideal on the television channels. The role of new media was remarkable in the development of the Arab Spring events. In places such as Tunisia, the citizens were already using social media before the revolution began (Faris, 2014). Tunisia and Egypt occurred in the clusters of countries with high income, high unemployment, and limited internet censorships. The use of social media was a reflection of the young people’s prior substantial use of the internet in running their daily lives. The advent of the political revolution provided an opportunity for social media to be incorporated into political dissent. The internet and the social media expanded the capacity for expressing dissent and discontent with the perceived repressive regimes. On the other hand, countries such as Libya and Yemen faced low levels of technological investment and mild online civil societies (Faris, 2014). The revolutionaries in such countries resorted to protracted conflicts as a means of gaining the attention of their authorities. There are notable advantages and shortcomings of the social media as revealed in Arab Spring political contexts. Social media was an instant way of updating concerned parties of the revolution’s development. In addition, it allowed the sharing of videos and pictures that could perhaps not feature in traditional television channels. Social media, however, appeals mostly to a younger age group of audience. This was particularly evident in the Egyptian developments whereby mostly young people were sharing information across the social media. Twitter was essential in updating the world and the revolutionaries with instant information about the development of events. On the other hand, the Facebook platform allowed longer characters and larger updates. Blogging, however, cultivated a more serious approach to the examination of issues. Blogs showed a more committed effort at developing the revolution. Social media also entailed disorganization of information that constrained the comprehension of facts. The Arab Spring manifested the hegemony between the old and new media. It is crucial to highlight, however, that the traditional television channels and the social media cooperated in giving a balanced view of the Arab Spring events. Television channels, such as Al Jazeera, rebroadcasted tweets and citations of blogs towards manifesting the gravity of happenings in places such as Egypt and Tunisia. All the same, this does not rule out the moral ideal of television channels such as BBC in promoting discussions and giving objective news. This means that such news channels should not submit to the whims of vested interests. In addition, in as much as new forms of news media are emerging, the television channels have a mandate to maintain the organized and objective dispensation of news and discussions. References Christensen, M. (2013). New media geographies and the Middle East. Television & New Media, 14(4), 267–270. Faris, D. (2014). MEDIA-the fourth wave: digital media and the Arab spring. The Middle East Journal, 68(1), 180-181. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1510297730?accountid=13758. Robertson, A. (2013). Connecting in crisis: “Old” and “New” media and the Arab Spring. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(3), 325–341. Read More