Adding to the cyber voice

Consider this scenario: there is going to be protest for a certain cause at your university, and you desperately want to go and add your voice to it. But your parents forbid you to do so citing that you are too young to be involved in politics. They also feel that going to a demonstration may not be safe. You think it is highly unfair but you have to listen to your parents too. So what do you do next? Do you sit around and mope? Or do you take your protest to the cyberspace?

Yes, the cyberspace is increasingly serving as an alternative means to further one’s cause, be it political, social, economical or ideological. You can now add your voice of dissent to the real-life happenings, and of course, to build up public opinion. All such and more activities, irrespective of whether they are carried out by an individual or an organisation amount to the phenomenon known as cyber activism.

There are many different means used by cyber activists to air their opinion and to further their cause. The most popular means is of course online petitions. These petitions are carefully written with facts and analysis in place. The link of the petition is then sent out and people who agree with the conclusions of the petition add their name. After a certain number of signatures have been put, the petition is then sent to the concerned higher authority to inform them of the public opinion on the issue.

On the outset, petitions do seem to be an effective, yet harmless way of putting one’s viewpoint across. On the one hand, people, who otherwise do not want to read through news stories on a daily basis, get all the facts related to one issue as they are presented in the petition. Plus, there is no pressure of any sort. If you feel strongly about the issue, put your signature and forward the link to your friends, And if not, simply delete the forwarded email you have received.

Yet, petitions have been criticised as well. The major issue most people have with petitions is that they dupe all petitioners into a false sense of achievement. It is true that many cyber activists feel that now that they have put one signature on a piece of virtual document, their responsibility to come out and do something more to further a worthy cause is effectively over. There is also the issue of how far do these online petitions represent public opinion. After all, if a website does not have stringent checks on IP addresses of the petitioners, it is possible that one person signs the petition 10 times with 10 different email addresses, affecting the overall validity and, hence, effectiveness of the petition.

However, that is not to say that signing a petition is an exercise in futility. Petition Online http://www.petitiononline.com and Petition Spot http://www. petitionspot.com are two websites which host lots of petitions on worthy causes, some of which truly deserve to be read and signed. Of course, there are petitions on the most mundane and sometimes, obscene issues, but the best course of action is to ignore them and stick to one’s cause.

The most important thing is to make sure the petitions reach its intended recipient(s). The Petition Online’s website suggests that the writer/initiator of the petition must either email the URL of the petition to the intended recipient or print out all the signatures along with the text of the petition and snail mail it. The idea is that the decision makers at the highest level get to know what the people are thinking, and you, as a tech-savvy person, can make it possible through the internet.

Participating in online polls is also a common, yet highly controversial exercise in online activism. Almost every news and publications’ website carries a poll asking its viewers/readers to vote on a certain issue. While polls certainly give some measure of public opinion, the fact which casts the ultimate doubts on its credibility is the ability of the website itself to screen out multiple votes by the same version. This is precisely why certain websites have the disclaimer that these polls are not a scientific means to measure anything. At best, they probably give the publication some measure of what the public in general is thinking. Participating in polls is definitely a good option, but it must not be taken as the only option.

A more useful, yet convenient means to online activism is available in the form of blogs. Blogs can be cause-oriented, collecting news stories and feature articles on a single issue and providing an in-depth analysis and commentary by the blogger. Now blogs as a stand-alone entity may not amount to much, but if the link of the blog is added to various useful websites, it will definitely become a much-read webpage and will definitely ensure that people read and identify with the issue.

And this is where open encyclopedias like Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) come in. These encyclopedias can be edited by just about anyone as long as you have registered and are sticking to their rules. These encyclopedias can be a really very effective means of putting one’s point across. Not only can you write on issues which have not been covered yet, but you can also add another dimension to the ones that have been put up.

For instance, there is an extensive article on Wikipedia on the cartoon controversy. If you think that the article is heavily biased, you can always add a link or two to some of the more balanced articles. You can also add a few lines about how the issue has been taken up in your country and how are people reacting to it. The same goes for all the other issues.

Yet another effective means of cyber activism is to send letters to the editor of international newspapers. Every publication, whether national or international, likes to receive feedback and thanks to the internet, it is not really a difficult task to get one’s hands on the official websites of some of these international newspapers and magazines and send them a letter regarding an issue.

A new concept in online activism has also emerged with our local newspapers. There is now a section in most of the websites of our national newspapers dedicated to “Viewers’ Forum” or “Letters to the Net Editor.” Every week or month, a question is put to the people concerning a recent political issue and concerned persons can write a letter, mail it and get it published on the website. This is yet another easy, yet effective way of getting one’s point across.

In short, the opportunities are endless. Just because you are not allowed to participate in a demonstration does not mean that you spend the rest of your life simply whining about it. If you have an internet connection, and a spirit to add your voice to a worthy cause, you can take up any of the aforementioned routes and become a part of the global phenomenon known as cyber-activism.