Saturday, May 22, 2010

"Twitter’s role in Bangkok conflict unprecedented" - quotes from a news article

Some quotes from an article discussing the influence of social media (in this case, Twitter) during the crisis in Thailand. It's not all good -- the medium was used for propaganda as well as for useful information, but it appears that the truth did rise to the surface.

 http://updatednews.ca/?p=20734

...Some say Twitter – or rather its users – may have even saved lives as fighting consumed the streets of Bangkok

....With many websites censored and Thailand’s traditional media deeply divided into pro- and anti-government camps, it arguably became the only forum where you could get a clear picture of what was really going on

....“The propaganda is not good, but because of the speed, people can check and cross-check. If you put something out there that’s untrue, within 30 minutes the truth will come out because people will show evidence, photos and videos.”






And the above photo is my personal memory of Thai soldiers in 2008. Sad to think of what they might be doing now. I shot this picture in the old capitol (Ayutthaya) where, with the most generous family of a student we had as a homestay, we visited ancient temples, rode elephants and loved what was at that time a peaceful, beautiful, busy and diverse country.

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