{"id":116715,"date":"2021-08-02T17:11:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T00:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116715"},"modified":"2021-08-02T17:11:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T00:11:02","slug":"abuse-of-social-media-and-developing-common-controls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/02\/abuse-of-social-media-and-developing-common-controls\/","title":{"rendered":"ABUSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND DEVELOPING COMMON CONTROLS"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Social\nmedia, which has been originated in the last quarter of the 20th century, started\ngiving justice to ordinary people who were restrained to express his \/her views\nin major media (Print, Radio, and Television). The major media represented\nowners’ views and sometimes advertisers’ points of view regarding products and services\nand they excluded representation of the views of members of the community at\nthe cost of advertisers because the major media is depending on the earning\nfrom advertisements. Social media also may depend on the revenue earned from\nadvertisers. The major media cannot get away from independent views always but\nwere reluctant to disadvantage or create a negative impact on the advertisers\nand associated parties. If major media is depending on the revenue from\nadvertisers, it should go along with advertisers’ expectations and if it expresses\nviews creating negative impact for advertisers, it would be disastrous for the\nmedia. If social media also depends on the revenue generated from\nadvertisements. I have a question, did the embarkation of social media to the\nfield changed the media policy? It is a hard question because finding evidence\npro and against is formidable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nbeginning of electronic techniques for media has been rejuvenated the handling\nof information and has complicated the use of media for various purposes. Social\nmedia is subject to abuse, and it has the possibility of misuse is the major\nissue associated with social media. The critical reason for the abuse is social\nmedia gives the opportunity of posting information scrutinizing, the other\nconcern matter is the freedom to posting information without control. For\nexample, kids use social media to post information that is not essential or has\na higher probability to lead the community or individual to either conflict or\nmislead, or misinformation or many anti-social actions. The risk of misuse is\nincurred with the lack of control for the use of social media. As the control\nof electronic media is formidable, the development of a strict ethical code for\nusers would be useful the society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthis environment, social media has been originated as an instrument for the globe,\nmaintain controls has been a laborious task and the new ethical code should be\napplied in all countries. The technology of social media is based on electronics,\nwhich is complicated major media, and now social media has driven to the way\nthe major media has been unexpected by media owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nnewspapers and magazines publishers combined other major media such as radio\nand television and electronic media such as web pages to attract viewers and users\nof information in major media (print, radio, television, web, electronic,\nsocial media) use without acknowledging. This situation leads to cheating and\ncreating misinformation, fabrication, and manipulation. The development of an\nethical code for users of all media will be useful to prevent such misuse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nownership of major media in some countries is monopolistic while in other\ncountries it is an oligopoly with few competitors. In many countries, media\ncompanies are public or private companies, sometimes they may be under the sole\nproprietorship. The ownership style has developed in countries based on company\nlaw and regulations and the governments in many countries have freedom and\nopportunity to change the ownership style, which is related to the legal and\nregulatory environment of the ownership. Could this also be included in the\nethical code and convert all media trusted and honest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\npart of the total market of media ownership is associated with the government.\nIn such a situation, could media be independent? According to my experience in\nSri Lanka, since the beginning of major media, the handling of information has\nbeen a biased role toward the politics of governing political parties, and many\ntimes, I observed certain media firms were biased against selected political\nparties. It could be treated as an abuse of media freedom. The experience could\nhappen in other countries too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social\nmedia has become a competitive instrument, as many products of social media\narrived in the market for specific purposes. The new structure of social media\nhas informally classified under subject areas and it is useful for users.\nAnother visible issue is that the use of major media (print,  radio, and television) has been radically\ndeclined because of increasing the use of social media. For example, readers of\nnewspapers and magazines have been diminished by contributing two major\nreasons. One is information publish in print media appears in social media as\nwell, the second is to gain information from print media became costly. A trend\nof increasing prices of print media products during the past several decades\nexperienced and people feel that when social media provides free, the\npurchasing of print media products would be a waste of money that could be used\nfor other purposes. The cost of social media is comparatively lower than print\nmedia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe past decades, the authorities of social media got a genuine attempt to\ncontrols and listen to the voice of the public. It is an arduous task because\nsocial media associate with all places where online connections are available\nand social media handles information in many languages that users are familiar\nwith. The major issue is social media can publish views on various matters\nbefore verifying the accuracy of the information, and this nature of\ninformation handling in social media supports publishing adulterated\ninformation, insulting people, support political parties, and manipulating\npeople, etc. Many times, unknown persons used or breached the security of\naccount owners for various purposes and this opportunity has motivated many\npeople to get away from the use of social media. I read news in Sri Lanka that a\nperson living in London manipulated a lady in Sri Lanka and attempted to cheat\nher demanding money, threatening to publish her nude pictures. This type of\nincident could not happen in major media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\ncan change this situation is a major challenge for social media, and it is\ncostly. To reorganize social media with new rules might need applying charges\nfrom users and such a direct control may force to reduce the volume of users.\nSocial media are using various languages and nations and such controls are\ndifficult to implement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\ncountries monitor the abuse of social media and use it for criminal intent, and\nthe volume of abuse in social media is higher than in print media. Control would\nbe appropriate charging for posting the different information and the\nadministrators need to develop a schedule of charges that show the price for\nposting. However, publishing articles and using them for academic activities\nshould be free and the administrators of social media should broadly consider\nthis option.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis quite clear that administrators of social media expect self-control among\nusers and some people who used media for various purposes have created a\ncompetition and this situation has been used to beguile people through\nmisleading or manipulation, cheating, or any other way.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing\nto express views is greater freedom, however, allowing social media to insult\npeople, cheating, and disclose bogus information would be against expected\nmedia ethics and freedom, and Facebook, Messenger, YouTube, and many others are\nused to mislead people. Much information relating to this nature could consider\nthat they have immoral values How can control mistrust be the major issue, and\nfreedom should be launched with a console and the user of social media must\nsign an agreement with the owners of media stating that they will not abuse the\nopportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncurrent system of opening accounts needs to change of procedure. The electronic\ndelivery of education requires kids to engage in using online systems, and\nwhile engaging in online education, they have many opportunities to use social\nmedia. I noticed social media is carrying much educational information that is\nuseful for learners. In such a situation, social media cannot exclude from\neducation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nthink it needs a greater debate on how to productively use social media and\neducate the disciplines to use social media. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS Social media, which has been originated in the last quarter of the 20th century, started giving justice to ordinary people who were restrained to express his \/her views in major media (Print, Radio, and Television). The major media represented owners’ views and sometimes advertisers’ points of view regarding products and services and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}