New Media Issue

In today's affluent society, the advancement of technology has brought many new media issues such as credibility issues (fact and fiction, buying followers, making comments in a public sphere, clickbaiting...), brand identity issues (failing expectations, brandjacking, astroturfing, parody, copyright infringements...), campaign issues (slacktivism) and security issues (cyber harrassment and privacy concers).

Today, I am going to specifically talk about

Cyber Harassment 

picture source: http://cybbullying.wikispaces.com/Cyber+Harassment

Cyber harassment is a criminal offense that using cyberspace to terrorize or to control a target to a point that he or she is being harmed, fear or even causes death, either to oneself or to others close to her or him.

The Amanda Todd Case




ABC news reported a video posted on Youtube entitled "Mystory: Struggling, bullying, suicide, slef harm"(more than 17 million views) by Amanda Todd. Amanda Todd used flash cards to tell about her experiences of being cyber harassed and blackmailed. After a month of posting this video on 7th September 2012, Amanda hanged herself on 10 October 2012.

In the video, Amanda revealed that she began using video chat in the 7th Grade to meet new friends online, and one stranger convinced her to naked her breasts on camera. The stranger attempt to use the photo to blackmail Amanda and the naked picture of Amanda began circulation on the Internet.
Amanda's mother said "The Internet stalker she flashed kept stalking her and everytime she moved schools he would undercover."

The Amanda Todd Case


picture source: http://blog.nj.com/jerseyblogs/2010/10/tyler_clementis_suicide_blogge.html


A 18-year old boy, Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on 22th September 2010. The story started when Tyler Clementi began to share that he was a gay. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi used a web camera to stream footage of Clementi kissing another man in Rutgers University. Clementi could not accept when he saw his roommate's tweet and he had become a hot topic in his new social environment thus committed suicide to end his life. After Clementi's death, Ravi was being charged.



Why I chosen this topic to discuss?

I chose to discuss this topic because it is a serious problem that people today cannot despise. The powerful new media influence us not only in positive way, it can also make an innocent person to end his or her precious life because of cyber harassment. And cyber harassment can be the most difficult issue to resolve in our society.

Solutions to cyber harassment 

1. Parents- always be concerned with their children

picture source: http://chaicounselors.org/2014/03/13/self-harm-and-the-parent-child-relationship-in-the-south-asian-community/

Parents should always concern with their children's attitude and behavior and often monitor what their children do on social media. It is an effective way to prevent any sad cyber bullying case happen to their children. If parents find that their children are facing cyber harassment on new media platforms, they should immediately educate their children what to do to guide them and to have conversation with them to avoid them to committee suicide.

2. Friends - take care of the friend who is being cyber harassed

picture course: http://www.rappler.com/science-nature/life-health/63358-friends-social-circles-genetics-study

Friend is one of the important agents to eradicate the problem of cyber harassment. As a friend, we should always take care of our friends who are being cyber harassed, we should comfort him or her and console them to be tough and also always accompany them to carry out some meaningful activities such as travelling. This is to avoid the friends who are being cyber harassed to keep thinking about the problem, we as a friend to cheer them up is a significant responsibility.

3. Schools/ Institution - Education and policies

picture source: http://says.com/my/news/how-a-teen-in-a-baju-kurung-won-the-attention-of-malaysians-and-our-deputy-prime-minister


In this context, school should develop clear rules and policies to prohibit the use of technology such as smartphones or tabs to bully others. In addition, after setting those rules, school has to supervise and monitor the students and to educate them what types of behavior constitute cyber harassment and tell them how the school district's policies apply to the students.

4. Government - disseminate information and intensify laws

Picture Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/09/uk-malaysia-1mdb-idUKKCN0PJ0MT20150709

Government is one of the most important agents in this context of cyber harassment. Government should utilize media to disseminate information in order to create awareness of this issue and ask people to be careful of this issue. Government also has to intensify laws in order to prevent this issue happen around all the people.

All in all, everyone of us should take our responsibility to avoid all kinds of new media issues. The new media is an effective platform in every aspects if we utilize it in a positive way. 

Thanks for reading :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

references:
http://www.yourdictionary.com/cyberharassment
http://nobullying.com/six-unforgettable-cyber-bullying-cases/
http://nobullying.com/tyler-clementi/
http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/10-01-12-edtech-digest.html
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/203969.html