To what extent is the Internet is the public sphere that facilitates freedom of ideas?
The public sphere refers to an imperative democratic milieu in which the “bourgeois society” may congregate to discuss and debate social issues (Habermas 1962). As Livingstone (2005) states, public sphere is more likely to emerge in a society as a result of people’s dissatisfaction with matter of economic or day-to-day governance than their embrace of abstract political ideals. The concept which is the most easily to understand the public sphere is a metaphorical space which offers freedom of expression, without privilege or hierarchy. Social change can be defined as an alteration which people change the attitude about some compelling social issues via the Internet. In addition, Internet increasingly represents a key tool for individuals to exercise their rights to freedom of expression (Oozeer 2014). This essay will prove the Internet is a new public sphere and promote freedom of thoughts.
When we talk about public sphere, we should talk about private first because it is essentially important for the transformation of publicness. People connect their friends use letters before two decades, the appearance of mobile phone change the way to contact with people. With the development of technology, mobile phone can be smart, it can do anything whatever you want. Mobile phone is the most widely used of mobile media and plays an important role in communication in the society. Mobile phone changes the people’s life and the influence about society. “Mobile phone communication allows, and demands, people to be always available; it facilitates ad-hoc communication and co-ordination as part of the flow of daily activities; and it allows for readjustments to and comments on social action”(Livingstone 2005).Mobile phone can represent a part of private sphere, more and more people use mobile devices in public sphere. It is not only a transformation of tools to communicate, it is also a massive change between the individuals and societies. Mobile phone is small and omnipotent, its function not only call somebody or send a message, and people can find more information about the whole world. For example, if people feel something unfair, they only can talk about their friends with SMS and email and nobody know what happen on him or her in the decades ago. The spread of the media is less developed and the communication tools are also imperfect. But now, people use Internet via mobile phone, people can complain anything about any topics. Other people can comment and send their opinion on the Internet via mobile phone. People use internet and mobile phone set a new public sphere in the society. As we know, mobile phone can be regard as a private tools, everyone has secrets and privacy in the mobile phones, and it is a private sphere. Conversely, people change the society step by step with Internet via mobile phone. It illustrates that mobile phone is the most important tool in communication and Internet is a new forum supplies people to communicate. “Mobile media potentially link individual users to any other point of digital communication, everywhere, at any time, through various platform of interactive media practices” (Livingstone, 2005).Individualized and interactional media has changed a transformation in relations between people and society. Mobile media make people are willing to access to the society, and make the private sphere more public and commonable. “ The public sphere was necessarily transformed as the distinction between public and private realms blurred, the equation between the intimate sphere and private life broke down with a polarization of family and economic society, rational-critical debate gave way to the consumption of culture (Caloun 1992).
Four estates include Government, Non-Executive Government, the judiciary, and the Media. In fact, social change changes the society, also changes the governments ‘attitude. Social media gives supports for civil society and the public sphere-which will produce change over years and decades, not weeks or months (Clay 2011). If people want to change attitude and gain rights via Internet, it would be a tough process no matter how succeed or not. There are several examples to prove people change the society via the Internet. There is a traditional festival in Yulin China, which is called Dog meat Eating Festival. The event was first started in 2009 and it is a yearly festival to celebrate the end of summer and it is believed people will be lucky if they eat dogs in these days. There is no animal law protection in China. So it is a legal behavior about eating dog in China. The data shoes that almost 10,000 dogs are killed every year. However, not all of Chinese eat dog, some organizations which is protecting the animals and environment against this festival. Some activists feel really upset when they watch some images about dogs. They decide set an organization and appeal people protect the dogs. The start of everything is difficult, they organized some groups in the social Medias, and they transmit the information and news on Internet. They earn some attentions about public characters, some famous celebrities gave them massive supports. The government thinks social media is powerful. Indeed, the best practical reason to think that social media can help bring political change is that both dissidents and governments think they can. All over the world, activists believe in the utility of these tools and take steps to use them accordingly. And the governments they contend with think social media tools are powerful, too, and are willing to harass, arrest, exile, or kill users in response. Even the Yulin Dog meat Eating Festival can not be cancel, social media have reduced the number of dogs every year. Another thing which social media turns the table on Internet is Child Trafficking in China. Trafficking in children in particular has become the new tendency in the last decade. In 2004, for instance, 41 % of all recorded trafficking incidents in China involved children (Zhang 2006). It is estimated that 70,000 children are kidnapped in China every year and traded on the black market (Channel 4 2007). Apart from the changing scale of the child trafficking phenomenon, the characteristics of child trafficking have also changed, and as a result it has attracted the attention of some high echelons of the Chinese establishment who consider it a ‘lucrative business’(Shen 2012).For instance, an expert from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Ministry of Public Security (MPS) explains, “compared with trafficking in women, trafficking in children is more profitable and easier” (Zhang 2006: 19).When Chinese want to something to reduce the impact on society, they find the Weibo. An anonymous group launch an activity which called “Go back, baby”. The content about this activity is when people see some children are begging on the street and people can obviously feel the children not belongs to their “parent”, please take a picture and post it on Internet. Other people who lost their children or other activists will research with police, and help children go back to their real parents. The queen of Weibo Yao Chen, she is the most popular micro blogger in China, who has almost 21 million follower on Weibo. She appeal to everyone pays more attention to the children which you see. After a long Struggle, Weibo has help almost 100 child go back to their home. Social media change the society, it makes people more powerful when they want change the world.
Why the Internet can be a new public sphere in society, the biggest consumer is children and young people. Children and young people are usually among the earliest and most enthusiastic user of information and communication technologies, and households with children lead the diffusion process (Consalvo 2011). Online media relation has been growing in strength and the Internet would be more public and no censorship (Nair 2004). Blogs The Internet has become a free space, which different opinions could be expressed without restriction. Blog and YouTube will be two represents about freedom of expression on Internet. Blog has appeared for sixteen years, it have become on of the most popular means of communication and an essential tool for freedom of expression, and this forum allows million of cyber citizens express themselves and communicate around the world (Gordon 2013). The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has recently published the Bloggers’ Rights, which include the following:
- Bloggers can be journalists
- Bloggers are entitled to free speech
- Bloggers have the right to political speech
- Bloggers have the right to stay anonymous
- Bloggers have freedom from liability for hosting speech the same way other web hosts do (http;//www.eff.org/blogger) (Gordon 2013). In some people’s impression, YouTube only for entertainment, there are some different kind of context on YouTube from the regime of conventional television; such as: Centred (in a studio), Hierarchy of discourse, Distinctive class of ‘media people’, all of these term turn to Decentred (in a network),System of linkages, Ordinary people as celebrities and experts respectively. YouTube makes a platform more clear and powerful (Tolson 2010).Some women judge the status and complain the unfair treatment about the society. For example, women have no rights to drive a car alone, women can drive a car when a man stay with them in the car. Women take a video about driving a car alone and post on the YouTube, they earn many persons’ supports. Women use YouTube to be an invisible weapon struggle for their own rights and freedom.
In conclusion,new technologies have change the public relation between the human and society(Courtright 2007).More and more young people access to the Internet via technologies, and Internet would be more public and free. Even some medias present a variety of problem for public sphere and their master is the drive for profit, people can not deny social media has became the most powerful tool and adjust the society step by step.(Butsh 2007).The Internet is the greatest invention in the 21st century, its a new platform to make the world smaller and smaller,people closer and closer.The Internet is huge because it can change the social view of things.It small as well, small that humans can not touch it. The Internet is open because people can express their thoughts without restriction Conversely, the Internet is private because everyone has their own opinion, and nobody can violate others thought. “The Internet spreads not just media consumption but media production as well-it allows people to privately and publicly articulate and debate a welter of conflicting views(Clay 2011).So there are the reasons why Internet can be a new public sphere.
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