Absolute Freedom of New Media Would Bring Harm to Social Harmony

  Freedom is normally seen as a good thing in term of condition to be free or giving power to act and think without externally imposed restraints. However in my perception, absolute freedom is dangerous if being misused beyond control especially when the merging of new media which everything can be communicates through the technologies. There are terms that can be describe as new media such as the emergence of electronics communication and some of the popular examples are Weblog, Social Networking Sites, Instant Messaging and many more.

Online journalism also can be referring as the new media that define as the news online by uploading in on the World Wide Web so it can be accessed by just about anyone. It is a way of getting all sorts of information by your fingertips. With this modern era, this kind of new media been used increasingly popular through years by years.

Malaysia is one of the country which lives in social harmony with the entire different of ethnic group and it is important to sustain the peace between all races. As for me, if absolute freedom of the new media is practise in our country, it would definitely cause a lot of damage and harms to the social harmony that being created in this country since got their independence day.

Furthermore, Malaysia been ranked as one of the lowest countries in terms of press freedom, means that unable to voice out views and opinion and perceptions freely like other countries in the world, but in fact it have to do in an ethical and conscientious manner. Imagine if there was absolute freedom or press freedom being given to all newspapers journalists, bloggers and writers in Malaysia to convey their opinion on this matter, sure it would bring more harm than good. This kind of issues would perceive that there will not create social harmony among the different ethnic groups in Malaysia and it would just create more pressure and conflict between the ethnic groups or races in the country.

Gatekeeper is he or she who decides what information is to be disseminated to the public and what information is not to be disseminated (Shoemaker 2010). Without the gatekeeper, the society will start to think that they are given freedom of writing basically towards anything that they wanted to use with the new media which will only lead to chaos and riot if the content of the writing include anything that biased, unethical, slander, rumours and gossips. The receiver self which is using the new media will get confused and started to question the integrity and the validity of the new media.

Although there have been many negative impacts regarding towards this issue but it still have it positivity such as the new media can be very useful and interesting. All the information can be access using the internet and have a great diversity of views on everything. While Caveat Lector (Reader beware) quote that, “Don’t believe everything you read, and don’t judge a Web site by its appearance alone.” From this quotes it is define that each things of information comes from it sources and for us to know the validity or the truth we should analyse and thinks rationally because we can easily be manipulate of each information and the facts  that if the sources kept been unknown. Try to verify the same information elsewhere. This is important if the information trying to manipulate and against of previous understanding or if intend to use it for critical purposes such as an important of health, family, or anything else.  

In this new era called modernization, person who just sits in front of their computer or using their devices, handheld and others just cared about their social technological activities. One important thing that every users should bear in mind that spend many time in cyber world is not good in health either mentality and physically. Instead of misuse the new media, people should play each of their role in order to create social harmony and use the absolute freedom that been giving by government wisely but first is respect other peoples, cultures and lives in social harmony environment.