Position Paper #2- Digital Acess in Mymar

  Looking at digital access in other countries is often enlightening. For us it's hard to imagine not being connected to some form of internet and all times via a smartphone or other device. The reality of it is that in some places such as Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) have never even used the internet. As strange as that seems, what is even stranger is that some parts of the country have had internet access since 2000. But until 2011 that access was heavily protected by the government who felt it was their place to use software to censor the content their citizens had access to.

 Myanmar Internet Access Slider 2000-2011

  The slider above shows the percentage of internet users in Myanmar over 11 years. Notice that it barely increases to 1% of the population. But jump to 2015 post censorship ban and a few international telecommunication companies later and 12.6% of the country had access to a reliable albeit slow (to us) 3G internet connection. This was actually much faster than their previous connections which allowed them to stretch their digital legs and explore a new less censored internet. In 2013 more telecommunication laws were established to protect the people's freedom so by this point they were allowed to access troves more information. By 2017 their was an estimated 25.1% of people in the country using some form of internet, much of this increase can be attributed to the use of smartphones.

Internet History In Myanmar


  Arguably the most popular use for the internet in Myanmar is Facebook. With 20 Million users in a population of 54 million, needless to say it's popular. This number has jumped up by leaps and bounds over the past few years but hasn't come without a few hiccups. For example, Facebook perpetuated a riot in 2014. For brevity sake i'll sum up the story, a man was accused of rape and because of someone with a large Facebook following and religious differences a riot was incited. The accusation was originally on a blog but blew up when it made it's way onto Facebook. This story shows that no matter where it is some angry misguided person will try to use the internet as their own hate-speech platform.  The full story is below:

Facebook Riot Myanmar

  Myanmar is obviously subject to the same growing pains numerous other countries have experienced when modernizing their digital access. None the less it has led to new economic growth due to better communication and new markets. The cellphone and internet service market is growing every day. It's just a matter of time before internet access is spread from corner to corner across the entire country. I like to be optimistic and think that with less censorship and restrictions that it will promote knowledge and growth among the population.

The Myanmar Times

#1- News and Information,

I wouldn't call myself an avid news reader unless it's television or movie related but when I seek out information it's generally something on a global scale. BBC news is a widely consumed and widely trusted source of global news. BBC, the British Broadcasting Company, was founded on the 18th of October in 1922 by "a group of leading broadcasters including Marconi". The BBC has long since evolved from radio broadcast boasting multiple TV Stations and websites as well. The main site being BBC.com. Personally I use BBC for a variety of research and reference purposes.

 This site is credited to be a fairly unbiased source of news and information. It was rated as Center (mostly unbiased) on allsides.com, a website that focuses on media bias. https://www.allsides.com/news-source/bbc-news-media-bias this link shows the breakdown on AllSides claim.

BBC news covers global hard and feature news stories. While the company was founded in London it has expanded far beyond the confines of England. In comparison to other online publications the BBC posts stories that aren't always related to their home country in comparison to many country centralized publications that also have a "world wide view". At a glance I saw stories from Arabia, Africa, the U.K., Japan, North Korea, the U.S., and Argentina. There are even tabs at the top of the website designated to "World", "US & Canada", and "UK" news. In the past I have used the BBC to get a less biased view on U.S. news stories. It was a nice way to shed Democratic and Republican leanings and gain an outside view.

Above is an example of what the BBC news homepage looks like. While this picture is slightly dated one thing to note about this homepage is the various headings consumers can use to filter their news by region or topic. This allows people like me to filter out anything remotely serious or depressing to gain unfettered access to news on Marvel movies, all joking aside these filters are helpful for research and narrowing down the information that you see.

BBC Current Global news sample- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49968126

The link above is a good representation of a current story involving the U.S. and China. It is a good representation of the quality of writing and depth that is to be expected even on foreign matters. One thing readers will notice are multiple subheadings and subsections to further elaborate on the initial information being reported. As a sample of the sites work I would rate it a 7/10 for thoroughness, 8/10 for the layout of the article, and 6/10 for context information.

One thing I enjoyed about his site where it's video news stories. The feature stories were particularly amusing to me so I figured why not include one for some feel good vibes.

9 Year Old Indian Skateboarding sensation- https://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/49963570/india-s-nine-year-old-skateboarding-sensation

All in all my final rating for the BBC as a U.K. news source is 7.5/10. It does a nice job of keeping citizens up to date on what is happening in their country from Brexit to local news. As a global news source I would rate the BBC a 8.5/10. It has a varied amount of news sources and topics from many countries. It also seems to cover them without unnecessary bias. To explain, I mean in situation where events of terrorism occur there is obvious bias against these organizations but that speaks for itself, whereas in political matter the BBC tries to stay middle ground.