An era in which people rely on social media platforms for sending and receiving news
ISLAMABAD: Gone are the days when television channels and newspapers were considered effective for providing pertinent information to the masses. We now live in an era in which people rely on social media platforms for sending and receiving news. These platforms disseminate power onto the common people by making them active participants in the sharing and spreading process. This means that millions of people are allowed to share, receive and create information that can be spread across the world in a matter of minutes.
The virtual world has greatly affected the way in which news is perceived and understood. Therefore, the distinction between essential news and everyday gossip has been blurred. What instead happens is that online cultures start to emerge in order to deconstruct the massive quantities of information as true or false, giving them the power to decide the significance of a particular type of information.
The advent and the eventual spread of the novel coronavirus took the world by storm. There was a sudden burst of information as millions of people took to social media platforms in order to play their part in the situation. The emergence of every new type of information would completely alter the perception of how the pandemic was understood. Many people started claiming that the virus was nothing more than just a hoax while others downplayed the dangers of it. It was not until the death rate in many countries starting significantly rising that people started taking matters more seriously.
The truth is that millions of lives could have easily been saved if the world had heeded the call of WHO officials who were adamant from the very beginning that countries enforce strict lockdowns in order to curb the spread.
Ibtehaj Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2020.
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