We want internet access!

I came across a transcript from the Media Report (Funnell 2008), a book titled ‘The Blogging Revolution’ is written by a journalist Antony Loewenstein. The book analyze on the power of blogs in six different countries. All six countries have a commonality of a suppressing dissent government as well as bloggers as a tool to communicate with their world within and outside. Funnell (the presenter) and Loewenstein discussed about how people in these six countries which includes Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and China, tries to bring a change to their country at the same time keeping their profiles low due to the suppressive government.

The book cover page.
(Source: google image)

I am glad to hear that there are still people from the inside who are willing to take the initial step towards democracy for their country even though their life is at risk. For example (Funnell 2008), the ideology that is assumed by the government that people in the rural areas are less literate thus the chances of using the web to challenge the Chinese government are less. Though, what the people are actually doing is that instead of going against the government, they challenge corruption and other smaller issues to gain community in a hope for more outspoken citizens in the future.

The internet is definitely an effective tool to be used for giving a voice to the voiceless but it is as well important to not offend any other culture or country by accident due to the lack of literacy of other cultures. There is a need to be aware of the cultural differences when writing to international audiences because different countries have different norms of writing and language (Olsen & Huckin 1991).

Personally, I find that internet access is a necessary tool these days for research and entertainment. To have internet censorship is cruel and is definitely one human right issues of the 21^st century. Internet allows us to interact and exchange ideas, thus, I just do not understand why some government will take that healthy discussion as a threat? So far, some governments are more open to this kind of feedback (Wyld 2007) but there are still some traditional dominative governments are against the idea of democracy (Lowenstein 2008).

It is a pity for those without internet privileges as they are missing out on a lot of things!

Referencing

Funnell, A 2008, The blogging revolution, the media report, viewed on 12 June 2010, from <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2351985.htm>.

Lowenstein, A 2008, The blogging revolution, readings, viewed on 12 June 2010, from <http://www.readings.com.au/product/9780522854909/the-blogging-revolution>.

Olsen, L & Huckin, T 1991, technical writing and professional communication, 2^nd edition, Mcgraw and hill, new York, pg 230-232.

Wyld, D 2007, The blogging revolution: goverment in the age of web 2.0, IBM Center for the business of government, viewed on 10 June 2010, from <http://www.businessofgovernment.org/report/blogging-revolution-government-age-web-20 >.