The rise of new media has revolutionized the way we communicate, connect, and consume information. Social media platforms have enabled us to share our thoughts, opinions, and experiences with the world, breaking down geographical barriers and facilitating instant communication. However, this freedom of expression has also given rise to a darker side of new media, where misinformation, disinformation, and fake news spread rapidly and uncontrollably. In this article, we will explore the features of new media, its dark side, and the role of users in combating this threat. We will draw on the insights of Senior Lecturer Amali Uthpala Nandasiri, from the Department of Mass Communication, University of Kelaniya, to shed light on this pressing issue.
Media is a method of conveying a message or information to the society. It has been used since ancient times and has been classified into traditional, modern, and new media. Digital anthropology is a main subject in modern media anthropology, as we communicate through digital technologies such as computers, satellite technology, and mobile phones. The liveliness of this process is created by the Internet.
The process of information communication in new media can move from the unknown to the known, meaning anything can be communicated by anyone who is accustomed to using new media. New media is not subject to censorship, and anyone who is internet savvy has the ability to socialize anything and everything.
The use of modern media technology has enabled information to spread more quickly throughout the world, just as it does within a family. This has enabled more information to be added to the world and society every day. However, the quality of the information conveyed by new media is the biggest issue we currently face with media. This is due to the influence of text, music, and visuals, and the potential for false information to be spread. In the new media, one can observe the quirks of the information-communication process.
New media has the ability to simultaneously distribute information to a larger audience than traditional media. It also has the ability to overcome all the barriers of time and space in the distribution of information. However, there is a problem with the quality of the information that is accessed on the table. Even if the receiver wants to get rid of the influence of the information society, it has become impossible to do so. For example, someone with a cell phone looks at their cell phone more often than they look at another person. Today’s new media has created individual isolation, allowing things that have been kept hidden in society to be enjoyed and expressed openly. This has led to an increase in openness in society.
Youth is a period of high-speed thinking, leading to the rapid communication of information in the new media and the increase in the use of this media among young people. This has led to the inclusion of information related to sex and violence in new media messages due to the curiosity about what is invisible rather than what is visible on the surface. Individual isolation can develop into crime if left unchecked, and personal relationships have changed due to the loss of attention to the closest ones.
Which vehicle is sold at the highest price? What is the diet of your favourite actor or actress? We know this kind of information. But how important are they to us? This is called useless information. This is a society that is tired of useless information.
The number of new media mobile phones involved in computer-related activities has increased, but the quality conditions affecting the connections have decreased. This has resulted in many expressions of useless misinformation, disinformation, and fake information as well as social, cultural, and religious expressions of hatred. The information disseminated through these publications shows that despite how far ahead we are in terms of technological inventions, our human characteristics as humans have not developed at the same speed.
Young people are often overestimated in their statements about crimes, and even family problems are criticized in the new media. As users of new media, we have a responsibility to think about whether we want to socialize everything we hear, feel, think, and see.
The quality of information is decreasing, and the mass media has a specific organisational structure, but information control will not happen through new media. This is due to the way the market has been created to access information, making it possible to get and publish information without control.
Social media is a new medium of growth, developed as networks between individuals or groups. Examples include Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram, Skype, and Messenger. Information can be accessed by any device with the ability to access social media.
Everyone should have the power, skill, control, intelligence, and principles to understand the information provided through social media networks. Without self-discipline, critical intelligence, information transmission, and information capture, the information base here tends to determine social value. With the social and cultural crises caused by our society, our self-discipline and critical intelligence are disappearing, leading to many problems.
The photo of a child victimized by a crime and his family is the first to appear on social media, and some people have taken it as a mode of entertainment when discussing the child victims of sexual crimes. This shows that one person’s pain has become someone else’s amusement and that children and adults should have critical intelligence and self-discipline in the face of this crisis in today’s society.
The most important details in this text are that social media can help to create motivation for the further occurrence of crimes in society, and that information should be socialized within an intellectual dialogue thinking about the good and bad of it for society. Additionally, the new media has the ability to respond instantly, but people’s understanding and thinking power have not improved. Therefore, it is important to create a mental attitude for these intellectual conversations in a crisis within a new media.
Today we live in a society of high consumption. Then this has been further developed in the presence of new media activism. There has been a situation where people’s life problems, social crises, and crimes are exposed in the new media. Then the damaging disinformation, misinformation, and fake information I mentioned earlier can be sold in media content. Because they can be sold, we go from one crisis to another, but we will not be able to get rid of these problems. No matter how advanced media technology is, we should always work based on human principles in the use of technical tools. Without that, we cannot build a good society.
Behind every technological device is a human being. If you deal with the feeling based on information, its damage is serious. As humans, we need to act intelligently in the communication of information through new media. Self-discipline is very important, as is our discernment. If we do not act wisely, there is a possibility that we will be a part of another social crisis or crime. Therefore, it is our responsibility to handle the correct information behind it when we transmit, grasp, and understand the information in new media. The self-discipline and ethics behind the operation of the media will be saved only if the human values associated with this weakness are secured in the decline of the media.
Malki Epasinghe, Communication and Media Unit,
University of Kelaniya
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