THE SOCIAL MEDIA MUST BE MODULATED Social Media is a phrase being tossed around a lot these days. The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument used in communication, like the newspaper you are reading now or the television. Therefore a social instrument of communication is simply referred to as a social media. The regular media (print and electronic) is considered as a one way street where you can read or listen to a report with limited capability to give your thoughts on the matter. On the contrary, social media is a two way street that gives you the position to respond to every issue at the. Social media is general operated on social media websites which can be in the form of social bookmaking (like Blinklist, Simpy); social news (like Digg, Propeller, Reddit); social networking (like facebook, watsapp); social photo and video sharing (like youtube, Flickr) and Wikis (like Wikipedia, wikia). In Sierra Leone most educated citizens are used social networking sites to share all sorts of information. A lot of youngsters are engaged spent most of their times adding friends, uploading pictures and charting with friends from different part of the world on any of the social networking sites available in Sierra Leone. Between 2013 and 2014 there was a sharp increase in the number of social network users. During that period the social media has enhance a better way of passing information as a result the sites have helped people to revive their love relationships which resulted in marriages, religious people have been able to pass relevant information to their congregations and students in schools and colleges have been able to access relevant educational materials especially on Wikipedia (copy and paste syndrome) However the dangers that loomed on social networking sites where appalling especially in 2014 when the Ebola scourge broke out in the East of Sierra Leone. Someone quickly posted this on a Facebook Group in May as soon as the formal case of Ebola was recorded “Ebola is a hoax, the government is just finding ways of corrupting the census programme...........” and other person posted on watsapp, in the first week of June, as thus “APC hs brot another war in salone, pls lets dnt allow dem dis tyme around...........”. This happened at the early period of the Ebola and many rational people in different groups and at different times argued against such diabolic messages but on the reverse those hazardous people continue to pass on messages which were in denial about the existence of the virus. Videos and written messages were circulated purporting that America and other countries in the west are responsible for the scourge in the sub-region and the latest that was posted in on the 31st December, 2014 claiming that the President of the Gambia who was battling a failed coup said the west is responsible for inflicting pains in the name of Ebola in order to access the minerals of West Africa. Also a lot of messages spiral around that His Excellency has collected huge sums of money for the biotechnology laboratory in the East of Sierra Leone. In December a group of muggings circulated a fake Ebola Update stated that zero case was recorded and recently another fake update transverse different watsapp and Facebook groups which confused the citizenry of this nation. As recent as on Sunday, other two fake updates with two and twenty two reached most Sierra Leonean phones all over the world - the two updates were seemingly carrying the same heading, Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Before that messages were released asking students of this country to demonstrate on the 19th January, 2014 for the reopening of schools. The individuals that created the message doltishly ignore the fact that the country is in a State of Public Health Emergency for which gatherings are not encouraged. Politically, people have used social networking sites to demoralise people of integrity in this country. They have shared smutty images (don’t tell me it is cartoon) of His Excellency the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma; Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio; Dr. Kandeh Yumkellah, and the present interim NUSS President, Mr. Sheridan. All of these have given Sierra Leone an awkward image in the external world as a place where people have less or no regard for their leaders. This cannot be done in other countries and if it is done in some countries, how long Sierra Leoneans will continue to copy bad things?? When will we start portraying this nation as a sober nation??? As these vicious, roughshod and barbarous messages continue to take centre stage in the ambit of social networking sites, it is necessary for group administrators, the National Telecommunication Company, and the Office of National Security and the Ministry of Information to find ways of regulating these messages. Administrators of groups such on facebook and watsapp should ensure that members do supply reference for any information that is posted in their groups in order to ensure proper verification and clarification. Some educated people, just as they copied and pasted during their college days that is exactly the way they are behaving in credible groups; they copy from Group A and paste in Group B with no proper verification or referencing. In countries like, China, Iran, Korea, Saudi Arabia, people’s activities on social networking sites are limited and restricted in some countries it is totally forbidden as they are not operational. If such happens here some of our one eyed human right organisations will shout and yell that it is against the right of people. Therefore in order to be on a balance between giving people’s right and at the same time not selling the peace of our country to hooligans using the social networking sites to destroy the nation, stakeholders should ensure proper control on the use of social networking sites as it is done in China; people use the sites with effective and efficient monitoring. If this is not done am afraid our elections in the future will be chaotic as a lot of viral information will be spread like bush fire on facebook, twitter, viber and watsapp. The government has to take a radical decision towards regulating the activities of people on social networking sites. @ alsaeed
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 02:02:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015