The Availability of Information Due to Digital Technology - Essay Example

?Computer Science College: Digital media has become a new channel for communication not only in the local community but inthe global arena and passing information has become one of the cheapest, easiest and quickest issues in the world. It is indisputable that this technological development has transformed the society in various capacities including business, political and social capacities. This has led to a completely new fashion of reasoning, decision making and thinking in the society different from the olden past when crude methods of communication were dominant and passing information across boundaries was a long process. This revolution has changed the people’s lifestyles and actions are manipulated by the information that they can access. The availability of information due to digital technology has brought along positive and negative impacts on the new society referred to as the network society. This paper features out the various ways in which digital media has impacted on the society’s way of thinking and reasoning, and how this has changed their course of actions. In the Dark Age, an age where information was a scarce resource, the behavior of the people was so much influenced by their community traditions and social-cultural norms. Information was common only on the elite people and the society highly depended on such while working out their decisions. The elite community would misuse this privilege of having information to manipulate the reasoning of the people to make decisions that would favor their individual goals. This was common in the political arena where politicians would influence the voting process to suit their political ambitions during the campaign period. Deprived of the power of information the people were likely to arrive at immature conclusion and consequently uninformed decisions (Silverstone, 2005). The evolution of information technology has phased out this era and information can no longer be hoarded among the few elite in the society. Today, dense media networks are available and accessible to all humanity in the entire world, and its power cannot be ignored (Risi, 2013). The evolution of telecommunication devices and numerous service providers have brought about a whole new experience for the community with information from the global view available to the majority of the people. With television people can access live information, and with digital mobile phone communication takes place in real time across the boundaries. According to Silverstone (2005), the evolution of the digital technology has brought a new different morphology of the society, and the digital trends will have more influence on the society that it had ever been imagined. The proliferation of the internet has completely changed the world into a global village by closing in the distance that existed between different national boundaries. The emergence of video conferencing technology today people can communicate and hold conferences from their remote locations without any problem (Risi, 2013). The internet resource has become an answer for multinational corporations and international business can now be conducted at ease. The numerous social networks in the internet have formed new platforms where people can communicate, share and pass information, exchange ideas and influence the peoples thinking process, and hence their decision making practice (Silverstone, 2005). One of the areas where digital media have been used to influence the decision making process of individuals is in the political field. Today, political agendas can be propagated across the world at a click of a mouse and it only takes few minutes before the entire world responds to an issue. This has had a great impact on the political campaigns since the factors of time, cost and distance have been put behind by the evolution of technology. On the other hand the people have vast information which they can use as a ground to make more informed and wise decisions. For instance, Cambodian politics general elections were influence by what is called digital democracy, a new form of democracy, where the people resorted to social sites such as Facebook to criticize the government’s move to ban the voicing of local radio stations in the country. The intensity of criticism is believed to be the reason why the ban was reversed almost immediately. Prior to the election in Cambodia it was possible to tally the number of individuals on Facebook who were in the opposition side and the internet figures have become to reflect the true picture of the matters on the ground (Bangkok Post, 2013). With this kind of society, it is clear that the political decisions are based on the information available on the internet. Digital media influence on international organizations and their operation is an aspect of technology that must be applauded (Inglehart, 2000). For instance the world health organization (WHO) has launched information based strategies to spread out their spirit of HIV and AIDS prevention. With cheap digital devices such as mobile phones, WHO has been able to avail information regarding the scourge all over the world with effectiveness and little cost. The television media services been able to air HIV programs across boundaries and the positive media influence has been portrayed in the reduction of infection figures in the current society (Silverstone, 2005). The World Bank reported that the world has heeded to the media campaigns on HIV and AIDS. For instance, in Ethiopia, the number of infection reduced by 5% after the dissemination of information through the Radio was used as a strategy to change not only the attitude of the people but also their moral behavior by changing their mode of thinking. In conclusion, digital media has transformed the society in all its dimensions by influencing their thinking, information processing, and consequently their decision making process. The barriers of distance, time and cost of accessing information have been removed and the people now can make more mature and informed decisions. As opposed to the olden days when information was owned the top level people in the society, today the information is unlimited and the people are more empowered. The benefits of this global trend are the emergence of an empowered society that is free to conduct business internationally and air their opinion in the political field. In addition, the digital platform has found application in many organizations including the health sector to influence the peoples' attitudes on global issues such as HIV/AIDS. References Inglehart, R., (2000). Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Risi, J., (2013). The Media influence. Retrieved from: Silverstone, R., (2005). Media, Technology, and Every Day life in Europe: from Information to Communication. UK: Ashgate Publishers. The BangKok Post, (2013). Social Media Influence on Cambodian politics grow. Retrieved from: Read More