Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Is Text Messagings the new TV?
Hong, C. (2005, June 30). New political tool: text messaging. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from USA Today.
"I don't think the rally would have been big if we didn't have cell phones," says Im Soon-jae, one of the organizers. "We would not have been able to spread the information about this as quickly."
Hong talks about how text messaging is the new political tool to promote activist movements. He uses an example of how one student sent a text message the day before to her friends and through chain letter they were able to conform a rally of 400 students to protest the excruciating college entrance exams. The word was so easily and quickly spread because of the access to text messaging.
"I don't think the rally would have been big if we didn't have cell phones," says Im Soon-jae, one of the organizers. "We would not have been able to spread the information about this as quickly."I believe that text messaging is the new political tool to get the word out. It is fast, cheap and unmonitored. In suppressing countries like China they are allowed to get the word out without having to be censored. Rheingold states that in China text messaging is like the poor person's Internet. People can respond to the messaging easily and quickly and also forward the messages to others, making the word spread easier. Text massaging opens doors to people and activist who are constantly monitored by the government because it gives they a way to get their ideas out and a way to organize movements without having to be censored or dictated that they cannot do it.
