Before social media existed, communication between people was incredibly centralised. This means the audience would rely solely on one main provider to access the media – aka the gatekeeper. But now, with the emergence of all these different platforms and freedom for users, the gatekeeper has been eliminated. We now have a decentralised communication method, and are able to curate and share content with no barriers – where we can express our thoughts and opinions.

Individuals are now able to post whatever they want online – for the whole world to see. Although it’s great that we are able to communicate openly, it does also comes with negatives. Graphic material, slandering posts, or offensive content may all be posted online without any restrictions. An example for this would be the Facebook livestream posted by the terrorist in the Christchurch shootings in March, that were streamed for the world to view.

Also, it’s extremely easy to fake a post, or twist the context of a situation to spark controversy, which is typically seen over the media. To demonstrate, I have edited Lady Gaga’s wikipedia page to say whatever I want it to. And it only took a couple of minutes…

It’s pretty obvious Lady Gaga didn’t actually attend UOW School of Memes, but seeing this may be believe to some impressionable people, which is why you must always be careful.