By: Hasna Rabbani, Gr 9
First of all my message for the Miracle’s Anniversary:
“The Miracle is a pillar of the Pakistani-Canadian community in British Columbia. For the past 25 years, it has helped us all maintain strong connections with our culture and, Inshallah, it will continue to for many years to come.” Jazakallah,
Before the invention of the internet in 1983, information would spread only through newspapers and word of mouth. It was easier to lie, harder to get accurate information, and overall, less accessible. However, it was easily preservable, and fabricated news was harder to spread. Today, all the information in the world is at our fingertips. Anyone can post what’s happening around them, and millions of fact-checkers can verify the authenticity of each video. Instead of a weekly newspaper, we have articles that are updated the minute new information is available. It’s inarguable that the internet has changed the media, both positively and negatively.
One of the internet’s greatest strengths is accessibility and unmatched global communication. The internet allows for real-time updates and billions to stay informed. Anyone can post pictures, videos, or captions to broadcast their situation, whether it be of their daily life, war, natural disaster, or community events. People can effortlessly document historical and culturally significant events. For example, victims and journalists in Gaza have documented Israel’s breach of the ceasefire in videos and articles about Israeli airstrikes and military presence inside the Gaza Strip. Additionally, this information is available to anyone with an internet connection and is not restricted to the areas in which a news outlet distributes. All 6 billion people with internet connections are intertwined and can broadcast their lives.
Not only is the internet changing the way people share information, but also changing how news outlets publish it. Print media is declining, as reading on your phone becomes increasingly intuitive. The hassle and inaccessibility of print media don’t exist when using your phone to consume news. Almost every news outlet has various social media pages and websites. This allows for ads to be completely personalized, stories to be published the very minute they’re finalized, and outreach to millions more people. According to the Pew Research Center, almost 90% of people now get their news online.
However, due to the incredible accessibility and how quickly the internet allows information to spread, fake, incredibly biased, or doctored information can circulate. This is becoming increasingly concerning due to the number of bots on the internet, as according to Thales, nearly half of all internet traffic was made up of bots in 2023. Fortunately, millions of people can also verify and fact-check the media. Additionally, companies are taking steps to fight misinformation; for example, “community notes” on X, which appear when readers add context to posts, fact-checking them or fighting off doubt in the comments. So while minor misinformation is prevalent, large events are difficult to produce and spread. For example, the Boston Massacre of 1770 was propaganda used by American revolutionaries to rally people against the British by painting a picture where innocent civilians were brutally mass-murdered in the streets. In actuality, only 5 people were killed. This style of propaganda would be much harder to sustain today, because within minutes, videos, live streams, and satellite imagery would surface on social media.
It’s unarguable that news and media as a whole are being impacted strongly by the internet. The internet allows for more people to connect, share their views, and learn about what is happening all over the world, as well as making large-scale propaganda difficult to spread. Unfortunately, with AI learning experientially and bots becoming cheaper to create, misinformation is becoming harder to detect and is rampant. In addition, media is becoming harder to preserve as very few physical copies of articles still exist. However, the positive effects of the internet on our media are too powerful to give up. As the world changes every day, we must change with it, facing the new problems that arise.
