Since 2001, Thailand has faced many political protests against different terms of the Thai governments. The ongoing protest in Thailand can be traced back to the protest against the Thaksin Shinawatra’s government, which was overthrown by a military coup d’état. During Thaksin’s government and the following years, Thailand’s media were under the control of the government (McCargo). The information and facts about the protests or any controversial topics in the Thai society were withheld from Thai public news media due to the government’s pressure and oppression (McCargo). Before the rise of social media such as Facebook in Thailand, the information regarding the protests were expressed mainly through satellite TV, which have been used by the two opposing sides of the protestors to express the often bias news for its own benefit (Paireepairit, 18). In recent years, Facebook has become a space for information and facts that help Thai people along with people from other countries see both sides of the political protests.
Since the beginning of the country, Thailand had exercised an absolute monarchy, in which the King has absolute political power over the people. Thai absolute monarchy system was overthrown in the change of the government on December 10, 1932, when King Rama VII gave the constitution to the People’s Party, who demanded from the King a constitutional government (Rathamarit, 14). From then on, Thailand has the constitutional monarchy system, in which the country is ruled by the democratic parliament government system appointed by the people with the King as the head of the state. The King is under the constitution and has no political power over the government. The prime minister controls both Houses of the government....
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...as allowed people all over the world to see the points of view of both groups of political protesters, the Yellow Shirts and the Red Shirts. Facebook gives the opportunity to see the facts of the protests and allows people to judge these facts with their conscience and beliefs. Because it becomes more difficult for the government to censor the information that comes from the social media, Facebook provides the tool for mobilizing and organizing political protests. In someway, Facebook is the best solution as of now for the people to see facts and information, without the control of the government. Government’s influences and censorships become less and less powerful as the social media gains more users. The role of Facebook in Thailand will become bigger as the political pretests continue and it may become the best place for Thai people to say what they believe in.
In today’s world, there are several types of governments that control their countries. There are democracies, dictatorships, republics, monarchies etc. Absolute monarchy was a very common form of government centuries ago. Throughout this time period, many leaders, dictators, monarchs made mistakes that the government looks at today. The abuse and misuse of power by absolute monarchs inexorably led to the rise of modern democracy. This is shown through leaders abusing their powers as absolute monarchs, the unreliability of monarchy, and corrupt governments.
When the term “monarch” is used, the first thing that comes to mind is a bombastic king and queen with unlimited power. The reality is, this is not always true. The definition of a monarch is “someone who is the head of a state government, either in reality or symbolically” (Nederman 2). Such a government is known as a monarchy. A monarch usually either inherits sovereignty by birth or is elected. Either way, a monarch typically rules for life or until abdication. Depending on the type of government in place, the “monarch’s true power varies from one monarchy to another” (Nederman 2). They may be complete tyrants, known as an absolute monarchy. On the other hand, they may be ceremonial heads of state who exercise little or no power and are only a figure head which is known as a constitutional monarchy (Nederman 2). These different types of governments have all been around for about the same amount of time. However, some are more renowned than others.
The United States was unjustified in its involvement in the Vietnam War because, in my opinion, the U.S had little justification to sacrifice thousands of innocent youths for political ideals. It was the longest and most unpopular war in which the United States fought. Many Americans on the home front protested their government’s involvement in the war. Many young Americans felt that there was no reason to fight for a cause they did not believe in, especially in such a strange foreign country. The civil rights movement also strongly influenced many of the war protests. This was because such a large percentage of minority soldiers sent over to fight were being unfairly treated. The African American soldiers were being ordered to the frontlines more often than white soldiers were.
These tools are social media websites allowing individuals the quick spread of information with the literal touch of a button. There have been instances, such as the Twitter Revolution where activism spread via tweets. Although tweeting was prevalent in the United States, there has been much controversy over social media’s actual aid in activism in Iran (401). Gladwell brings in prominent blogger Golnaz Esfandiari to support his claim that the Twitter Revolution in actuality did not occur. Esfandiari writes, “’Through it all, no one seemed to wonder why people trying to coordinate protests in Iran would be writing in any language other than Farsi” (403). Majority of the tweets were in English and posted in the western hemisphere rather than Iran or southeast Asia. Gladwell emphasizes how social activism is occurring more often via social
In the current time, it seems like one cannot go a day without using at least one social media website. This might be especially true among groups of teenagers and young adults. Social media became a vital part of daily life that feeds people with several types of information constantly. Political news is a type of information that can reach the people through the means of social media. Since presidents are constantly seeking new strategies to increase their communication with the public in order to spread their political message, they utilize the different social media websites. Hence, social media became a platform to spread political message. It is not surprising that now the majority of political officials and candidates have social media accounts more than ever before, such as a Twitter account.
1.A monarchy is a system of government where there is one absolute ruler who inherits the crown from his/ her parents or close relatives. 2.There are three different kinds of monarchies, absolute- the kind of monarchy in the selection-, as well as limited and constitutional . 3.An absolute monarchy has a King (or a queen ) who fully controls the government. He is in charge of the military, appoints all officials and has a final say in everything. There are only a few absolute monarchies left in the world today. 4. A limited monarchy is a government that is ruled by a King or Queen who shares power with a parliament (Congress) who helps him/ her make decisions. 5. A Constitutional monarchy is where a King or Queen acts as the head of state in a government. They have to follow the constitution and the ability to make and pass legislation is the job of an elected parliament, not the King's. The Netherlands Sweden, and Great Britain are some constitutional monarchies still around today.
We can conclude that there are a huge deal of negative and positive aspects when we refer to the Internet as we already saw, however, what we should do is to take advantage of every progress in development offered by it, without forgetting that everything in excess is harmful for us. Using your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account won’t isolate you from the society, but using social networks as the only means of communication is not the healthiest choice you can make. Find the balanced life you need and deserve, including in it an active social life in the outside world too. As Queen Rania of Jodan once said, “Social media are a catalyst for the advancement of everyone 's rights. It is where we are reminded that we are all human and all equal. It is where people can find and fight for a cause, global or local, popular or specialized, even when there are hundreds of miles between
Over the past few years, social media has grown rapidly and gained the attention of individuals across the world. What exactly is social media? Basically, social media is a form of electronic communication that allows individuals to communicate with each other, create social profiles, and even share their perception on music and photos. Surprisingly, social media has caused some countries to produce boycotts and other types of rebellions. More than fifty percent of people learn about breaking news through social media. Recent statistics show ninety percent of adults in the United States own a cell phone (King 2015). Eighty-seven percent of those adults use the web, and sixty-eight percent of those adults connect to the web with their
For example, in Saleem Kassim views, “As a result of the many technological advancements and innovations that have revolutionized how individuals communicate, an abundance of information has become available to everyone.” Saleem Kassim’s point is that anyone and everybody can put out information that can be seen by everyone when you are an internet user. For example, the news can tell you that there’s nothing happening in a certain country; whereas, someone from that country can post on twitter and upload videos showing anyone that decides to see the truth of what is really happening in their country. Kassim also states, “Ultimately, public information supplied by social networking websites has played an important role during modern-day activism, specifically as it pertains to the Arab Spring.” In other words, Kassim believes that digital communication has brought people together to fight for something that is a good cause. To have people aware of the truth and to have someone do something about it. Indeed it is highly likely that we bring people together for a good cause but digital communication can also cause a downside through having no censorship on what you post. When more people are brought up of current events trending they decide to hope on board to see if there is anything they can do to help. Not to mention, Graff and Birkenstein view it the same way. Like I mentioned earlier, Graff and
Although that may have downsides, most people seem to prefer it simply because it is not filtered on what a particular company wants to produce and gives less power to the major media companies that tend to sway people in a particular direction. To come up with a solution to the downside of Facebook comes many great ideas like creating an algorithm to spot unreliable news articles, or creating a community that identifies misinformation for the benefit of everyone else, or creating a human team of journalists and policymakers that judges whether an article is factual.
Safranek, Rita. 2012. The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change. s.l. : Proquest, 2012.
Social media activism has no sense of organization or leadership. According to Gladwell, “Networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals (Gladwell).” Organizations find agreeing and establishing goals problematic. Not having the ability to set specific goals and complete them effectively leaves networks vulnerable. Using social media lacks the organization required to properly execute an aim for a group. It is quite obvious that since anyone can take part in social media sites and simply the vast number of people online; it would complicate anything that they were trying to achieve. Working even in small groups of people can create difficulty. Social media increases the number of people. So using social media as a platform for activism can prevent change from
On social media, each individual has the power to be influential and important. There is a freedom of expression on social media that we are allowed to express. A user on Facebook can post anything they want or anything they want for free.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Social media is becoming the most important and influential technological advancement in our country since the internet was created in the 1960s. For the longest time people were only limited to e-mails to make communication to one another and there were no large scale social media sites available. However, the internet started taking off in the early 2000s as new generations started bringing to the table new and more advanced ideas. Facebook was invented in 2004, where people were able to connect with whoever they wanted throughout the world to communicate and be able to share anything. On their
The last factor is that social media gives their users entertainment and suggest actions. Also on social media, people have freedom to suggest ideas or opinions about a certain issue in the society. As said, the Philippines was colonized by several countries for decades and Filipinos were deprived of freedom and rights. Social Media offers freedom that Filipinos were deprived of, decades ago.