Felix Ale

New Media and a democratic society Felix Ale

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: A, Atlantic International University, course: Journalism, language: English, abstract: New Media refers to cell phones with the power of computers ten years ago, high speed internet available anywhere without requiring a desktop computer, and rapid communications which can transfer not just voice files, but data of all sorts. Since the so called Arab Spring(s) starting in 2011-2012, it has been argued famously that these "revolutions" were made possible by the rapidity of communication. In other words, that new media made the transfer of ideas from one place to another easier and instantaneous. Ideas mean here video, audio, data or files containing anything and everything. However, the data suggest that this is not the case. Even if it were the case, that this new media is so class based (at least in the developing world) that it can be as dangerous as it is beneficial.