We touched on the subjects of freedom of expression within media recently and how it exists and benefits the online community. Everyone has a say, for example through blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, YouTube, social network sites and so on, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, race constraints, or status, etc.
But there is also the digital divide. Western is the predominant culture, English is the dominant language and poor people have less if not no access to media.
When studying this section of my module a particular story came to my mind. We have all heard about what’s happening in Ukraine at some point whether we’ve scrolled over something about it online or seen something somebody shared but what have we heard about Venezuela? Nothing.
I myself had never heard or seen anything about it online and neither had my friends or family. It was only until a good friend of mine from Venezuela herself told me what was happening. I then took to the internet and started to look up things about it myself. Although there was much less online about it than there was on Ukraine some of the stuff was way worse and more shocking than what was happening in the European country.
The video above describes the basics of what is going on and does a good job of it but since published in February on Youtube even more has happened since then and I myself have still seen nothing about the anti-government protests in the South American country.
We have heard so much about Ukraine because it is a European country and this goes to show us that the Western world is the predominant culture. People want to know what’s happening closer to home rather than somewhere far away. Although what is happening in Ukraine is awful it is just as bad in Venezuela. Not only is there no coverage from the west but there own media is being censored. The president Nicolas Maduro is funding papers that are pro government and NTN24 a news channel that covered the protests was taken off air.
If you have the means and a government that allows you to express your views and opinions, than yes digital information does increase democracy but in other cases this is not so. In Venezuela’s case their media is controlled and limited to alter the views of the public and the way the government is portrayed.
Besides hearing from families by phone who live in the cities in Venezuela, Youtube seems to be another reliable source where you can watch videos from the actual protests themselves but be prepared to be shocked.
Write your views on the comments section below, did you experience the lack of coverage on Venezuela too? If not send me the link to the source you came across. And what are your views in regards to democracy and digital information?
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