New Communication Technologies

Twitter and Tear Gas started chapter three with an interesting story.  It talked about this woman’s grandmother who was exceptionally smart but was born in Turkey and was taken out of school once she had completed the fifth grade.  It is very sad to see someone with such potential be shut down before talent shows, but some cultures keep gender roles stricter.  After the end of World War I, Turkey was building a new central government formed from the fallen Ottoman Empire.  They focused on building schools and improving the school system.  Teachers were given the job to find girls who were gifted and show potential and send them to school.  The grandmothers name was in the paper and she was sent to that school to finally be educated.  The thing that was difficult for all the students, was their Turkish language class.  Not everyone knew the standardized “Istanbul Turkish”, but it would soon become the new normal thanks to mass media.  Mass media helped bring a unified language through newspapers and common national institutions.  This brought the country together and helped them to become more unified.

It is interesting how mass media has been changing through the years.  From the newspaper to just a gathering circle, mass media was always a way for people to communicate effectively and get valuable information out to the world.  Soon, money and wealth would be big contributions to who could use different forms of media.  Being able to read the newspaper showed wealth since being literate was not widespread at the time.  Most people had to rely on just messages spoken out loud.

Something that I find interesting is the fact that as media continues to change, it also changes our culture, way of life, and just our society.  Having a community that is more technologically focused really is going to be different from a community that barely knew how to read.  It allows us to change as humans and adapt to new situations.  But the interesting thing to note here is that even though humans rely on technology the most, people still write letters, read physical newspapers, and still hold onto older forms of mass media.  It really shows that sometimes the older inventions are still great today for spreading information.

Sometimes mass media advances at a rapid speed.  It means that the modern technology can keep up with the amount of information that we are putting out into the world.  The story of Sana really shows that the world is willing to listen if you have a good message to send.  In this case, she was able to go to Twitter and share her frustration online, showing the world the problems that she was facing where she lived.  This really shows just how connected the world can be.  Not a single person was willing to listen to Sara, but as soon as she found her crowd, the ones who would listen (the political activists), this opened up a whole new opportunity for not only Sara, but anyone who had a voice that needed to be heard.

The final thing that I think is interesting about this chapter is how it goes through all the different mass medias that changed the world.  Ending with the start of Facebook, mass media was able to connect people together who would have never been able to before.  Facebook uses the social want to feel popular or powerful to attract inexperienced users, especially in Turkey.  It really made ties stronger with friends and family.  But the most incredible thing is how mass media can be used not only for friends and family, but also for spreading important news quickly and effectively.