The mass demonstrations in Egypt proved the never ending power of media. This is a great news for media professionals, who started to be worry how will be the media used in 21st century.
Main demonstrations in Egypt were organized through social networks as Facebook and Twitter, so the first reaction from Egyptian regime was to cut down internet. This was almost the first reaction; government didn’t decide to stop the radio, television or newspapers. Why would the politicians do that when they control them? On the contrary, they showed some nice and calm pictures on television, nothing was said about the real situation in the capitol. Many journalists were surprised while they were sent out of Kahira, that people in the villages hardly knew about demonstrations. Or their opinion about it was very loose (as “some intellectuals and students wanted better living conditions”).
But then all these people saw many actions on internet, their friends and relatives started calling them, explaining what was really happening in Kahira. And suddenly things started to change very fast. Firstly, the government cut down internet, in few hours stopped local mobile operators. Stop the information! Because in times of chaos information means even bigger power.
Fifty years ago, the most famous media professional Marshall McLuhan said, we lived in the global village. Thanks to media, world became so small – almost as one village. We know very fast, what is going on not only at our place, but very far away from us. Media gives us a big power to spread the information and we should be able to use it as much as possible. While demonstrations in Egypt started on Tuesday, we learnt about it from main media on Friday. But since the first day we could follow it all on Facebook and Twitter before it was cut down by the Egyptian regime. … Yes, media to the people, people to the media.