The May 31 incident on a Turkish ship that caused 10 lives remained a dominant story on blog for that particular week. It generated a hot debate regarding the Palestine issue on the cyber space. This refers to the decade long debate on potential of Internet for changing our social, political and economic lives.
Like the coffee houses of 18th century where people discussed and debated issues of their common interest, Internet blogs today are providing the same space. Flotilla issue remained a top news story for the week May 31-June 06 on blogs. 32 percent of the news links on blogs were saying something about this issue. Some of these blogs were updated several times a day to cover the ongoing incident followed by protests world wide especially in the Muslim countries. These blogs also discussed how the incident was covered by mainstream media in various countries. Several American News Channels were censured along with BBC.
Mostly the blogs censured Israelis attack but still there was a vocal minority defending the Israelis stance. Whether the bloggers were pro Palestinian or Israel is something else but this whole process on blogs testifies the political potential of Internet. These blogs have really provided a new space where public discussed this issue and showed their sympathies or annoyance about any of the two parties involved. A computer with Internet connection provides you access to this sphere, so it’s a universal one and anyone can be part of it.
Whether it was really a rational critical debate is a difficult philosophical question, but did it really served any end should be pondered at this stage. This debate on blogs must have created more awareness about the Palestine issue and especially about the Gaza blockade episode that might lead to a serious loss of human lives.
Looking at the incident of Freedom Flotilla and blogosphere response to it, do you think that Internet has the potential to provide a new public forum for debate on modern issues of common interest? Does such a debate can really have political implication? Who do these blogs represent, public or individuals?
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