In The Age of Social Media, Is International Public Opinion Truly ‘International’?

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(20+ social media platforms your brand should use, Rebecca Sandeman, 2025)

 

 SNS networks (social network service) are currently the most commonly used network services that link people all over the world, and have become a means through which the public form opinions on international issues. Although it makes public issues public, could it reflect all of the perspectives of all nations? We especially have to pay attention to the phenomenon where only the voices of certain nations are amplified due to disparities in language and information accessibility. In this article, we aim to explore the limitations of international public opinion shaped by social media and to find the true meaning of internationalism.

 

 Through SNS, anyone can express public opinion on international issues and share their opinion whenever they want. We see this through hashtag campaigns on issues like war, human rights, and climate change, and this spreads international common ground. Social network services have positive effects with improved access to information and broader citizen participation.

 

 However, we also see a global imbalance in social media sentiment. Social media sentiment, due to language barriers and differences in media accessibility, is primarily formed around ‘English-speaking regions’. Information and influence also tend to concentrate on certain regions such as America and Europe; therefore, there are many cases in which the opinions of developing countries are silenced. For example, the war in Ukraine got significant attention on social media worldwide, while conflicts in non-Western regions like the Yemen civil war or the Congo conflict received almost no attention during the same period. In the end, it is not international public opinion, but merely the opinion of certain regions within global platforms.

 

 The true meaning of international public opinion is not just opinion shared all over the world, but must be a public forum where perspectives from diverse languages and cultures are equally reflected. To actualie this,actualize we have to respect language diversity and strengthen the multilingual information distribution system.

 

 To sum up, SNS opens up a new possibility to form international public opinion and expand its range of it; however, it has cannot not yet achieved true internationality, where it reflects all the perspectives of every country. Only voices from a few nations are carried through in an imbalance of language and information accessibility. The true international public opinion should be formed through an environment where diverse cultures and languages are equally respected. Therefore, the task for the future lies not in advancing technology but in establishing balanced communication and inclusivity across nations.

 

By Staff Reporter Son Gaeun (1-5)