Mediaboss Marketing

Syahredzan Johan

The Star

Publication Date : 12-01-2015

When the prime minister came back to work after he fell sick with E.coli earlier last week, his Twitter followers knew of his recovery before it was reported in the media as he had tweeted it. In fact, it was his tweet that later became a news report, instead of any statement from his office.

Earlier this year, when the whole nation focused its attention to a high-profile criminal appeal in the Federal Court, Twitter users knew real time what was submitted in Court from the tweets of the people who observed the proceedings. They did not have to wait for news report to find out what happened in the proceedings.

These are some of the examples of how social media has changed the way we obtain information and how we interact with each other.

Before the advent of the Internet, information was monopolised by the State. The State could dictate and control the information that filtered to the masses.

When the Internet happened, this monopoly slowly eroded. First, there were alternative websites, offering information that was different from what you could get in the mainstream. Then came the blogs, which basically allowed the people to share information on the Internet in a form of a journal. But the biggest development was the emergence of social media; with it, everyone can share content.

This perakyatan maklumat, or democratisation of information broke the monopoly of information held by the State. With social media and the Internet revolution, the State is but one of the very many merchants in the marketplace of information.

More here:
Striking the balance on social media