The Power of New Media

New media is one of the most popular trends for the last few years and considered as part of everyone's life. It is used to describe content made available by using various forms of electronic communication through computer technology (Beal, 2018). There are different types of new media such as technology, internet and any form of communication. Form of communication includes social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Crowned the king of communication, there is no denying that social media is thriving worldwide (Lyon, 2017).

New media enables everyone to stay connected with people all around the world. It has been easier for people to communicate and share moment with others through social networking. People from anywhere can connect and interact with anyone by using technology such as tablets, smartphones or laptops. This has made the distance between people all over the world become shorter. Besides that, people can search information and the latest news anytime and almost anywhere. They can also update themselves from the latest happenings over the world. Another advantage that can add up to the new media is interactivity. The interactive features in the social media allow people to exchange ideas and share a wide variety of topics via the internet.

Let’s take Malaysia's Amazing Race: The Impossible GE14 Mission as an example. On 9 May, millions of Malaysians endured hours of queuing, sweating and pulsating nerves to exercise their right as citizens. However, some of the Malaysians abroad could not get their ballot papers back in time for polling day. Because of the power of social media, there was a Facebook group called 'GE14: Postal Voters Discussion' was set up to connect voters with runners who were flying home and runners with other volunteers on ground to submit the votes before polling ended (Chua, 2018). Thus, while the social media spread information through connection and conversation, it enables people around the world to share and discuss a certain topic. Moreover, a video of Malaysians uniting together in order to get their postal votes reach on time has posted by Astro Gempak and gone viral on social media (Reena, 2018). The video attracted the nation’s attention and get more than millions of engagements.

In conclusion, new media has made communication better between people all over the world. It has grown rapidly and brought a lot of advantages for the society. However, people should utilize the power of social media and use it wisely for the best impact.

References

Beal, V., 2018. new media. [Online] Available at: https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/new_media.html

[Accessed 25 November 2018].

Chua, J., 2018. The Amazing Race GE14 Edition: Malaysians Race Around The World To Hand-Carry Overseas Votes. [Online]

Available at: http://www.rojakdaily.com/news/article/4981/the-amazing-race-ge14-edition-malaysians-race-around-the-world-to-hand-carry-overseas-votes [Accessed 26 November 2018].

Lyon, J., 2017. Tapping Into The Power Of Social Media. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2017/06/19/tapping-into-the-power-of-social-media/#12bf6a895ac0

[Accessed 27 November 2018].

Reena, 2018. Astro Awani shines at GE 14. [Online] Available at: https://marketingmagazine.com.my/astro-awani-the-ge-14-race/ [Accessed 27 November 2018].