Is truth being buried by the rise of new media ?

I was in Bangkok earlier in the month and saw an editorial in 'The Nation' that provoked me to respond as the writer was criticising those of us who use webs and blogs.

He says, " Rather than bringing us closer together, websites and blogs are bringing more hatred, division and misinformation than ever before."

Speaking at a commencement ceremony in Virginia, Obama - a known user of BlackBerry, as well as Twitter and Flickr - singled out Apple's iPods and iPads for criticism. No, he wasn't cheering one item over another; he was trying to make the point that these high-tech gizmos and applications are straining American democracy.

"With iPods and iPads and X-boxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said at Hampton University in Virginia. "These are distractions that are putting unnecessary pressure on the country."

It may seem that Obama was being hypocritical, given the fact that he has used such gizmos in his presidential campaign and in his current office. But if we look at his message with an open mind, we can't deny the fact that he has a point.

Obama lamented the spread of social media and blogs, through which "some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction".

While Obama's message was for American consumption, Thailand and the rest of the world are not immune to this phenomenon.

"We can't stop these changes," he said, "but we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time."

Thailand has come to know the "changes" that Obama was talking about. However, we can't say wholeheartedly that these changes are for the better. Much of the news about these new technologies, often disseminated through the so-called "new media", are associated with crime, such as theft and pornography, not to mention intrusion into private lives.

Modern telecommunications and Internet technology may make our business transactions faster and allow us access to information at the push of a button - as the makers of these devices claim that they are linking people closer to one another - but in reality they don't make us better people or help us better understand the world we live in.

Too often we confuse information with knowledge. Because we confuse these two very different ideals, there is a tendency to believe almost anything that is posted on the Internet or sent via Twitter. This is a dangerous development.

"With so many voices clamouring for attention on blogs, on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult at times to sift through it all, to know what to believe, to figure out who's telling the truth and who's not," Obama said.

The users of the so-called "new media" of blogs, Twitter and Websites all operate on "real time" and they cannot and will not wait 24 hours before releasing their information - accurate or not. And so they grab at anything politicians say or do without putting it in a proper context. In other words, it's not hard for the new breed of shameless politicians and others to exploit this reality.

In a traditional newspaper, information is ditched every 24 hours. While this gives the public time to sift out the truth and form considered opinions, it also greatly reduces the free space to spin out lies or half-truths.

While Obama was referring to American society when he said "All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy", we cannot deny that the same can be said for many other countries.
In some parts of Asia, where governments are dealing with vicious opposing voices, these new communication platforms have generated more hatred, misinformation and societal division than ever before.

Unfortunately, we can't turn back the clock. We can only, as individuals, employ sound judgement and not be fooled into believing everything that the spin-doctors and bloggers want us to believe.

This should be a lesson to all of us who blog, or communicate on social media, to take this democratic right responsibly, and seriously, to sift the chaff from the wheat, and try to be as accurate as possible in what we write about.

But like everything else in this world, that is easier said than done.