Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

 Web 2.0 (as defined by Tim O’Reilly in 2005) is essentially a medium that allows audiences to become producers of media texts. Anyone with a web connection can create and publish text (UGC) it has reduced the duty of gatekeeper, if not removed them completely. The internet has increased pluralism; it has provided the people with a platform to voice their opinions. Another advantage of new and digital media is that it “interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”(John Gilmore) therefore, it allows pluralism to flourish .The views and ideologies of political leaders and governments can now be challenged through the internet, by the internet. As Al Gore called the internet “Exciting and revolutionary” and went further to say it has had a “more profound impact than the printing press.”  Since 1991, from when the first website went online, ¼ of the world is now online and this number is expanding.  As Tim Bernes Lee said ‘let the people be free’ and this is exactly what the internet has provided, freedom. Many everyday things can now be done online for example banking (97% of bank transactions are done online in Estonia). New and digital media has provided the globe with a “New World Currency.” The web collapses distances.

However, with so much freedom there must be flaws.  New and digital media has created a digital divide, the digital haves and the digital have nots.  Lee Sigel, New York writer and cultural critic, called the internet a “double edged sword”.  The web has provoked Al Qaeda & Taliban to use shock tactics as a form of propaganda. 90%of the market is Microsoft who pressurised company's to have computers with windows software preinstalled. This has shown that the online world also has a hierarchy like the real world with websites such as Google and Face Book dominating the online market. The freedom given to the audience has decreased with sites like Wikipedia now having admins to restrict and police what users post up on Wikipedia. The accuracy of information online has also caused a concern; Andrew Keen compares the people posting information on the internet to “a million of monkeys on computers”.   It is difficult to take information off the internet, someone once said… "You can't take something off the Internet - it's like taking pee out of a pool." The growth of new media has caused piracy to increase in both the film and music industry with sites such as Napster playing a major role in the increase.