TASK 2

Developments in the new and digital media mean that audiences can now have access to greater variety and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

The development of new and digital media has empowered its audience to an extent, since audiences have been given the chance to produce as well as consume. In terms of the hypodermic needle model, audiences are not only passive but have become more active nowadays due to the development of new and digital media.

Social networking sites have increased in popularity over the last decade or so, for instance Facebook has now reached over 500 million users. Social networking sites can empower their users as they have the ability to upload any photos and videos unless there pornographic or racist. And if any Facebook users are offended by any images or videos that have been upload, they have the power to press the ‘Report Abuse’ button at the bottom of each image and video on the site. Furthermore, Facebook users or users of any other social network such as Twitter or MySpace can update their status regularly, therefore having some sort of freedom of speech and having this freedom of speech can be empowering to the audience.

Recently, a social network has given a country so much power that it has influenced political change within that country. Facebook has helped to empower the people of Egypt. Facebook was used as a tool to set up events to riot against the government in the capital city Cairo. The frequent riots organised using Facebook were very successful as it led Hosni Mubarak to step down his position of President, so therefore the social network essentially gave power to those Facebook users in Egypt to influence political change.

In addition, Facebook and other social networks could pose threats to a countries government , as it could somewhat break hegemonic structures and allow the audiences to climb up the hegemonic ladder so to speak. It could be said that some countries are realising this and subsequently take action by banning these social networks such as Facebook, for example China and Syria are some of the countries that have banned Facebook.

The development of new and digital media has and will empower audiences, due to the fact that audiences can now also create their own content and become active producers. An example of this is Citizen Journalism, where audiences can voice their opinions and play an active role in reporting, analyzing and circulating news and information. The Wikileaks website is a prominent example of Citizen Journalism and has been heavily talked about in the media. Wikileaks exposed government secrets to its audience, resulting in scandals that posed a threat to the government.

An additional example of Citizen Journalism is the Ian Tomlinson incident that occurred in April 2009, during the G20 protests, where a police officer attacked the innocent Ian Tomlinson who was walking home from work, and it happened to be that an American tourist filmed the entire attack. The Guardian newspaper then published this video, which the ’Independent Police Complaints Commission’ began a criminal inquiry. So therefore Citizen Journalism can empower ordinary audiences and allow them to voice their opinions and become active producers.