What is social media?
The Central Office of Information (www.coi.gov.uk) said
the following in its 2009 publication “Engaging through
Social Media”:
Social media is a term used to refer to online technologies and
practices that are used to share opinions and information,
promote discussion and build relationships.
Social media services and tools involve a combination of
technology, telecommunications and some kind of social
interaction. They can use a variety of different formats, for
example text, pictures, video and audio.
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What is social media?
Social media is much different than traditional forms of
communication such as through newspapers, television, and
film. As such, it has a strong influence on changing the social
dynamic in either a positive or negative way.
Potential advantages:
Cheap – anyone with access to the internet (for example through
public libraries)
Accessible – the tools are easy to use
Enabling – allows almost anyone to do things that previously were
only the preserve of well-resourced organisations
The use of the word “Social” implies a conversation. Social
media is definitely not about one-way communication to a large
audience from monolithic organizations. This is precisely why
change might occur.
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Megatrends 1 – the death of control
The old era
The age of
control
Big organisations and
companies had a monopoly on
mass communication and got
used to controlling the message
The new reality
The age of
influence
Anyone literate with an internet
connection can self-publish for
free
Hard to control, can only
influence
Megatrends 2 – Fewer gatekeepers
The old era
One to many
Manage the gatekeepers
One-way, broadcast model.
Managing reputation =
managing the media.
The new reality
Many to
many
Less reliance on media: people
get information direct from the
source, and from each other.
New-style comms must reach
beyond media to a complex
interactive model.
Megatrends 3 – Fragmentation
The old era
A few
centralised
channels
People got most information
from a handful of news media.
Organizations could efficiently
manage (or at least monitor).
The new reality
A huge
cloud of
interaction
Conversations are distributed
wherever people form opinions:
blogs, social networks, YouTube
Separate provider for the
content, and the platform for the
content
Megatrends 4 – New web landscape
Old (web) era
The new reality
Push
Pull
communications
communications
Web as distribution channel
Web as community
The Web was a channel for
pushing out information.
The Web was utilitarian. People
felt neutral about it.
Sites were static e-brochures.
Now, people spend most time
on interactive social media.
The social web is informal,
immersive and emotive.
Megatrends 5 – New journalism
This is likely the most important
emerging phenomena
The old era
Ordered
and
predictable
The world of press releases,
news conferences and interviews
was well ordered.
Journalists knew the rules of the
game and were predictable.
Balance, professionalism,
accountability
The new reality
Messy and
opinionated
Huge and distributed.
Everyone can report.
Each sets his/her own rules.
No obligation to be balanced.
Complicated recourse for
inaccuracy.
Opinion dominates content.
How big is social media in the UK?
10 million UK
accounts
> newspaper sales
30 million+ accounts
Almost half the UK
population
5% of users write 75%
of tweets
Visualization of how social
networks are formed
•Define your Interest Space (6 dimensions)
- Career
- Sport
- Academia (not likely)
- Politics
- Pop Culture
- Cats
Everyone within this network of
interest is connected to each
other based on one interest
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Initial growth of interest
network (epicenteric)
This gave a picture that looked something like this:
Represented by the large yellow circle, I have links
into a number of different virtual networks as
represented by the small yellow circles:
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Expanded Network of 6 interests
As people have multiple interests, some of those interests are
shared:
Accordingly, they may already have links to the same communities of
interests that I have – represented by the green lines
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More evolution – the central point (me)
begins to be obscured
Through the use of social networks, other people start linking up too denoted by the blue lines,
There now is a very complex virtual web of people linked by mutual interests. The
stronger each of those individual links is, the stronger the web is.
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Now we have a Web of Complexity
Having a virtual web such as this can serve three key purposes:
1)For “support” (i.e. your interests are not weird)
2)For the search for greater knowledge  unclear if ever used
in this way
3)To challenge those in authority (not happening yet)
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1) Support
If, for example an individual finds themselves being criticised in the
mainstream media, a “virtual network” of shared interests can respond
accordingly.
Think of the web below being like a trampoline. When pressure is put on the
individual at the centre (i.e. the big yellow circle in the middle), it is felt not just
by the individual, but also by others linked through the virtual network.
In order to return to the “steady state”, the trampoline responds accordingly –
bouncing back. The same is true with those who are linked by a common
interest to the individual who needs the support.
What is difficult to predict is how others will react to such an individual being
targeted.
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2) Search for greater knowledge
People – and now organisations are using their social media
networks to crowd source information.
Crowd sourcing is literally as defined – sourcing your information
from a crowd of people using social media.
Question: What sort of things could the following people use
‘crowd sourcing to find out?’
-An
office worker organising the staff Christmas party
-A journalist investigating a story
-An academic researcher
-A Member of Congress
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3) Challenging those in authority
Some examples
-A
journalist investigating a story
-An academic researcher
-A Member of Congress
More people from these backgrounds and beyond are now using their
social networks to challenge those in authority.
-Journalists
are widening their social networks, in particular on Twitter,
while at the same time receiving direct feedback on their articles
-Academics are now able to bring their work to much wider audiences –
but at the same time face greater public scrutiny on their work
-MPs are now able to crowd-source parliamentary questions, but face
scrutiny on how they vote in the Commons.
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