In a technological world, news can now go around the globe in a matter of seconds. This change in how things work was highlighted after the Queens passing.
Tradition dictates that the King’s ascension is announced across the towns, cities and countries across the realm. Important people get out their special suits and headwear, give them a dust and head towards the town centre to proclaim the new King Charles III at the top of their voice. This was how news was communicated, in a time before telephones or cars existed, let alone the Internet.
This traditional all seems a bit strange in our modern age, when we all knew about the new King as soon as our mobile phones let out a small beepy sound. Which was abut three seconds after King Charles the third’s dodgy fountain pen splattered a smudged signature across the official document.
In a way, news is so accessible to us nowadays that we take it for granted. It provides us all with an in-depth knowledge of current affairs at a moments notice, which is a good thing. But it also gives everyone the chance to have an opinion and an opportunity to decide if something is right or wrong instantly – which sometimes is not such a good thing.
As the country mourned the Queen, a number of people online were getting angry. As they looked at their phones, they could see people being ejected out of crowds for shouting comments, they could see a people apparently jumping queues and they even saw a man being asked to move along for holding a piece of paper that said “He’s not my King!”. And literally everyone online had an opinion. Which they just had to share. And which did not always match with other peoples opinions.
All of a sudden, social media users got a little bit tense and fraught. Some people wanted the offenders stoned to death at dawn. Some thought the police should be thrown into the river. The rest just followed the majority for fear of having their timeline filled with a barrage of insults and condemnation.
It is very easy to get caught up in a media frenzy when you read something online. Let’s be honest, we have all done it at some point. Take a recent story which filled social media, of a young 24 year old man who was shot and killed by the police in Streatham. He was unarmed and driving down the street at the time of the shooting. The young man was about to be a father. His family are suffering an unimaginable loss. It all sounds awful and tragic, which it is, and with that knowledge you are probably feeling quite upset and possibly angry.
Now let’s add a few other facts to the same story. The car that the 24-year old man was driving was linked to a number of firearms incidents. The man had a history of carrying firearms and had been jailed for possessing an imitation firearm when he was a teenager. He was known to be violent.
The car did not belong to him but had been involved in an armed robbery recently. The driver failed to stop for police despite being asked to pull over twelve times and then commenced a high-speed car chase through residential streets. When finally boxed in, the driver rammed a police car, then attempted to drive towards the police officer, as the officer shouted at him to get out of the vehicle. He was then shot and killed by the police in Streatham. Although the outcome was the same, is your opinion still the same?
The man killed was called Chris Kaba. Feel free to do your own research. A policeman was suspended pending an investigation into the incident. The Met Police said in its statement that the firearms officer had been suspended due to the “significant impact on public confidence” – not because that is standard procedure after a firearms discharge.
MP for Streatham, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who was supporting the family, said “The Met have finally suspended the officer who fired the shot that killed Chris Kaba. It shouldn’t have taken public pressure to make this happen.”
Public pressure, which was largely driven by people on social media. When a police video of the incident was finally reviewed, it showed the man driving directly towards the policeman. The family, whilst still devastated, had to agree that ‘it did not look good’.
Real world events were influenced by the opinions of an online mob. A mob which was taking information posted online at face value. It is not that dissimilar to a mob that used to watch the town centre executioner at work. It makes you wonder if social media is such a useful tool after all?
