Some interesting facts and statistics for your viewing pleasure.
Malaysia
Population - 28 Million
KL Population - 1.6 Million
Internet Users - 17.5 Million
Facebook Users - 10 Million
Broadband Users - 5,000,000
3G Users - 10,000,000
On the 9th of July, 2011 history was made. Malaysia saw it's second peaceful protest for a cleaner elections, with no use of violence and dictatorship. The response was far more than anyone expected, with the cries of reformation plastered through every Malaysian's networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter & Youtube.
Statistics for Bersih 2.0 Rally on the 9th of July
22 hours KL City Lockdown
50, 000 Participants
191, 190 Twitter Users with 853, 373 Tweets and 1316 Photos
1,600 Videos Uploaded on YouTube
1,667 Arrested
Statistics for Bersih 2.0 Rally after the 9th of July
2,000+ videos on YouTube
120,000 facebook users changed their profile picture to include the Bersih Logo
169,000+fans of Bersih's Official Facebook Page
17,000+ followers of Bersih's Official Twitter Account
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube became the source of news, updates and revolution of Bersih 2.0 rally. Tweets were sent, photos were shared, people were gathered and the authorities were baffled.
Here are some roles of the social networks in relative success to the Bersih 2.0 uprisings.
They were first and foremost, the communicator to the masses. This was a great advantage - as there is a staggering 10 million facebook users in Malaysia. On top of that, we have be known to have the highest amount of friends, and slowly the news spread and everyone in Malaysia and in the world who logged on that day would have a slight inclination to the historic day. Besides that, news and updates from the scene were raw and unedited, and did not allow any sort of manipulation by the press the next day. These social networking sites also allowed a platform for users to share and tell their stories. One is likely to be inspired by news of your fellow man then official reports from the officials. But most importantly, they managed to bring together Malaysians like never before - whether in person or spirit for a cause. There was no separation of language, class, race or location, as all were considered as one and united.
Of course, the social network revolution that happened in Malaysia brought about a positive change. Imagine if some evil dictator managed to "brain wash" the people through online networking sites, the extend of trouble we would be in would be severe. It is a scary thought because we spend an average of 2 hours on facebook, twitter each day, and with 3G we are even more updated on the go. I feel if these revolutions were to happen, they must not breach the code of ethics, and must be for a good cause.
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Hi Su Juin! Nice point here! I like the example of the Bersih which happened recently. This really makes me realized the powerful of the social networking sites. People are gathered together in the social networking sites. They sent out the messages just through Facebook and Twitter but not with the traditional medium such as newspaper. Social networking sites really provides us the power to be gather together with those uncensored pictures and videos footage and moreover is the uncensored comments.
ReplyDeleteThank you Su Juin for the post! Nice post!