Five years ago, a tsunami swept through my life albeit of a different form. While most sane humans wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a tsunami, many would argue I was lucky to have witnessed the one that swept through the Arab world – the Arab Spring.

Historians might view this historical event as a revolution for democracy cooked with basic ingredients of unemployment, youth, corruption and inequality. I view it as one cooked with one principal ingredient – social media.

Social media provided the vehicle that united people in different parts of the Arab world under common aspirations. Crowds protested loudly acting as a magnet, gluing entire populations to TV and radio sets. I realized, however, that the media, most of the time, disseminates inaccurate information about the occurrences in our world. Sensationalist media outlets invade our television sets with news that they believe would sell. This categorically addresses people with what they perceive is the truth, formulating and reinforcing stereotypes that embed misunderstanding between populations that may be a lot more similar than they are allowed to know for themselves.

And although ignorance is dangerous, I believe the illusion of knowledge is far worse, because people assume that reading the news truly informs them of what they need to know about a certain people, culture or place. The power of the media is not only solid enough to control and influence us, but also to contour public opinion in immeasurable ways. This is why I found my passion in journalism.