Racism in new media

In recent years, new media have provided people with a new platform not only for entertainment but as a means to express their views on issues such as racism. It used to be print and talk back radio which limited the number of people as only those who had the time would call in to the radio, and only those of leadership/powerful roles had a chance to get on the papers. However, the new anonymity that comes with new media allows people to say things that they would never usually say in real life or face to face. New media offers a broader framework for similar social movements. This opens up a whole world of space for racism to take advantage of.

A local example of this is the Maori personalised plate where people posted racist comments such as "Maybe donate half the money to a charity to help prevent Maoris throwing their babies onto walls?" The whole comment section was plagued with comments like these. An international example would be racist websites such as kkk.com or stormfront.com where so called "white nationalists" would gather and discuss white supremacy.

New media allows a free/cheap platform for people from all over the world with similar interests to gather. However, I definitely do not condone or agree with promoting racism on the web. That having said, I think that we live in a free world and we should be able to freely express our sentiments as long as it is not malicious or harmful to anybody in any way.