1549 Copyright © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 70 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8614-4.ch070 Re-Evaluation of Nepali Media, Social Networking Spaces, and Democratic Practices in Media ABSTRACT This chapter frst analyzes the Nepali mainstream media and social media’s efect upon its relationships with audiences or news-receivers. Then, it explores how social media is a virtual space for creating democratic forums in order to generate news, share among Networked Knowledge Communities (NKCs), and disseminate across the globe. It further examines how social media can embody a collective voice of indigenous and marginalized people, how it can better democratize mainstream media, and how it works as an alternative media. As a result of the impact of the Internet upon the Nepali society and the Nepali mainstream media, the traditional class stratifcations in Nepal have been changed, and the previ- ously marginalized and disadvantaged indigenous peoples have also begun to be empowered in the new ways brought about by digital technology. Social networking spaces engage the common people–those who are not in power, marginalized and disadvantaged, dominated, and excluded from opportunities, mainstream media, and state mechanisms–democratically in emic interactions in order to produce frst- hand news about themselves from their own perspectives. Moreover, Nepali journalists frequently visit social media as a reliable source of information. The majority of common people in Nepal use social networking sites as a forum to express their collective voice and also as a tool or medium to correct any misrepresentation in the mainstream media. Social media and the Nepali mainstream media converge on the greater issues of national interest, whereas the marginalized and/or indigenous peoples of Nepal use the former as a space that embodies their denial of discriminatory news in the latter. INTRODUCTION The putative assumption about media ethics is that media and journalists are always guided by the motivation of uplifting democratic norms and values, human rights like freedom of speech, as well as the basic right of access to information, and of disseminating true news and information. A government, and other professional and civic societies of a democratic nation, inherits a filial responsibility to assure a fearless environment in which journalists can work professionally. Dilli Bikram Edingo University of Guelph, Canada