Modern technologies, social media, and media freedom Essay

Modern technologies, social media, and media freedom - Essay Example It is certain that the next platform shall offer better communication links between two or more peoples. In addition to that, communication may be faster as compared to the current communication speeds. The Internet as a modern technology has led to the rise of the social media (social networking) networks such as FaceBook, Tagged, Hi5, Twitter, MySpace etc. The social media in turn has its positive and negative influences on media freedoms/freedom of expression globally. Based on that notion, this paper shall seek to analyse how social media has affected media freedom. In addition, the paper shall also look into the way forward with regard to social media and its impacts. The social media has its positive and negative effects which we all have to live and deal with as a society/ globally. One of the positive effects of social media is that the information exchanged is in real time (immediately). However, this is the same aspect that has a negative impact with regard to social media existence. A good example of social media gone badly and affecting media freedom is when there were riots in London and Twitter was apparently the modern technology that was being used to â€Å"propagate† the riots. Apparently, Twitter was alleged to have â€Å"mobilized† the riots which initially started in Tottenham and due to the posting of pictures in Twitter, the riots spread very quickly to neighbouring cities such as Walthamstow, Enfield, Waltham Forest and Brixton (â€Å"The Huffington Post,† 2011). Self expression: Different people have different ways in which they express themselves. Some people may express themselves in a manner that deems fit to them alone but not to everybody. Hence, a lot of people think that they can express themselves as much as they want without being held accountable for what they say or do. According to a survey that was conducted on the awareness of the legal consequences surrounding social media postings, approximately 65%