- By: Zarar Sheikh
The small gadget in almost everybody’s possession, the cellular phone, is impacting the whole world in ways that would have been difficult to envisage. Among the many already known areas which are being impacted, giving voice to literally every individual owner of a cell phone, and access to every other voice on network, is dealing a very heavy blow to the monopoly of the narrative of the mighty and powerful media power houses. And I might say, this is just the beginning.
In the not distant past, in fact probably no more than two decades or so ago, all the media was completely under the control of the mega media conglomerates, who decided what information, what news, was to be fed to the public, and what was to be kept from them. Thereafter, the ” spin doctors ” did the job of what has been most aptly described as “manufacturing consent” by Professor Naom Chomsky. But that was then. Today, most of the so called mainstream media, in all its formats, has lost credibility. In its place, the new “peoples media” is slowly but surely taking hold and creating a worldwide vibrant exchange of news/views, ideas, and challenging the “official media”. The narrative around the Israel-Palestine conflict, is a glaring example of that. The overwhelming majority of humanity have refused to accept the narrative of Israel and come out in support of the Palestinian people and their just cause. The way the people of the world have responded by coming out in their tens of thousands, must greatly worry Israel and their supporters. The paradigm shift in the thinking of people in favor of the Palestinian people, is bound to translate into political and other changes in coming days and months (and years). It is true Israel and its supporters are powerful today, and the people of Gaza are being killed indiscriminately and suffering terribly. But I firmly believe the tide is turning. I also believe the global network will have played an important role in bringing out the truth and being a factor in the whole process of leading to a just solution.