UNDERSTANDING THE NEW ERA OF NEW MEDIA

Media has always been a tool of social emancipation. From the earliest times, any form of media will always disrupt the status quo, that disruption happens daily.

The invention of the Gutenberg press in the 1500s, changed the face of media and information dissemination. Martin Luther could start his revolution in the church, because information became available through the Bible. Everybody had access to the Bible which was a rarity then. The history of disruption keeps evolving, Lenin also harnessed the power of disruption in seizing power from the monarchy in Russia leading to the Russian revolution.

Benito Mussolini and other world leaders did harness the prowess of media and its disruptive capacity. In fact, I dare say, media is like dynamite and properly crafting a narrative is like a detonator to start any revolution. The media revolution now finds various forms of innovation with technology.

DARPA. Originally known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the agency was created on February 7, 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957. By collaborating with academia, industry, and government partners, DARPA formulates and executes research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, often beyond immediate U.S. military requirements. DARPA-funded projects have provided significant technologies that influenced many non-military fields, such as computer networking and the basis for the modern Internet, and graphical user interfaces in information technology.

DARPA is independent of other military research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA comprises approximately 220 government employees in six technical offices, including nearly 100 program managers, who together oversee about 250 research and development programs.

This scheme helped greatly with the advent of the internet. It was the precursor to the internet.

TIM BERNE LEE. A British Engineer at CERN had been working on the hyperlink protocol.  Berners-Lee wrote his proposal in March 1989 and, in 1990, redistributed it. It then was accepted by his manager, Mike Sendall, who called his proposals ‘vague, but exciting’. He used similar ideas to those underlying the ENQUIRE system to create the World Wide Web, for which he designed and built the first web browser. His software also functioned as an editor (called WorldWideWeb, running on the NeXTSTEP operating system), and the first Web server, CERN HTTPd (short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol daemon). This invention led to the World Wide Web and the internet greatly revolutionized the world.

The advent of the internet led to quicker information dissemination at the speed of a click, like Bill Gates called it “business at the speed of thought.“

In 1999, the dot com bubble did burst, and the aftershocks led to Social Networking sites and other forms of expression on line known as Social Media.

THE REVOLUTION. The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa that commenced in 2010 became known as the “Arab Spring” and sometimes as the “Arab Spring and Winter,”  “Arab Awakening”, or “Arab Uprisings”, even though not all the participants in the protests were Arab. It was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, following Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment. With the success of the protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest sparked by the “Burning Man” struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen, then spread to other countries. The largest, most organized demonstrations often occurred on a “day of rage”, usually Friday afternoon prayers. The protests also triggered similar unrest outside the region. The organization of this protest was largely on Facebook and other social media platforms. 

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA. The Trump Campaign also used social media platforms tremendously in spreading its narrative leading up to 2016 elections. The constant use of advertising on social media and data manipulation le d to big gains for the Trump team. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and other platforms were greatly used.

It is obvious that there is a polarization as regards regulation and governmental clampdown of social media, but care must be taken not to trample on fundamental rights. The events of the endSARs protests are also a reminder of the power of social media.

Rufai Oseni, rufaioseni@gmail.com